Pilotwings Resort (3DS) Review

If you look at the recent Nintendo console launches you’ll notice a pattern Nintendo likes to do for their launch window releases. They will usually come out with a major existing franchise to give the system a must have title, a brand new Franchise to show what the system can do and an old franchise to bring in a lot of the older Nintendo gamers. For the Wii they had Zelda, Wii Sports and Excite Truck. For the Gamecube they had Smash Brothers, Pikmin and Wave Race. Now its time for the 3DS to repeat the formula with Nintendogs + Cats, Steel Diver and the game that will be the focus of this review, Pilotwings Resort.

Pilotwings Resort is the first entry in near 15 years for the Pilotwings franchise. The previous games were also launch titles for their various systems and the main purpose of them was to more or less show off what this new hardware was capable of. Something I should admit to is I’ve never played a Pilotwings game before, honestly they just never interested me, which is odd given how much of a flight sim fan I am, so I really had no idea what I was getting into with this game. All I knew going in was you flew in various aircraft around Wuhu Island (which was introduced in Wii Sports Resort) and in a nutshell that’s pretty much all you do in the game, however that’s not a bad thing at all. When you start the game you’ll be given a brief introduction into the 3 starting aircraft, a Plane, a Hang Glider and every kid’s dream mode of transportation, the Jet Pack. After introductions are out of the way you’re into the main game.

The game is divided up into 2 play modes, Mission and Free Flight. Mission sees you carrying out a variety of tasks start from simple tasks like landing your plane to progressively more complicated objectives like navigating your Mii in their Jet Pack around tight winding Cave Systems at near 100 miles an hour, going through rings and collecting balls. You have other missions like Target Practice which has you shooting targets from your plane and some other more wacky ones, however they pretty much all come back to travel through a series of rings and get from point A to point B. Once you’ve completed the mission you will be given a score which of course you can go back and try and better to your heart’s content. There are 40 missions in total and with each mission even after you finish it there is the challenge to go back and get a perfect score which is no easy feat for some of the later stages.

The other mode is Free Flight, which isn’t as free as the name would suggest. When you start you have a 2 minute time limit to fly around the island, collect balloons and go through rings or collect land mark tokens. As you collect more items you unlock more options or increase your time limit in Free Flight up to a maximum of 5 minutes. Each vehicle has its own items which it can collect in this mode and to unlock everything you will need to play through it with each vehicle and in each of the 3 different times of day. It can be quite fun and relaxing just flying around looking for hidden items, there’s no real pressure and you can keep playing through it as much as you like. I often found myself just gliding around in the hang glider admiring the surroundings.

Speaking of surroundings, Wuhu Island is well designed and looks more or less the same as it did in Wii Sports Resort. Graphically the game is quite impressive, looking just as good if slightly more crisp then the flight mode from the aforementioned Wii Sports Resort. The 3D effect is quite impressive, flying around you really do get a great sense of depth with the world and it can be a great help for judging distances. I did notice the 3D effect would play up a little when flying through caves but I’m not sure if this was just me having troubles with seeing the effect or something with the game. That said the 3D effect in the game can be a little intense at times so it may be worth keeping the slider on the lower end of the scale to save your eyes some fatigue.

It would be wrong if I didn’t mention the fantastic music in Pilotwings. Overall the game does keep the Wii Sports style, very neutral upbeat sounding music that matches the tone of the game very well. Each vehicle has its own theme and each theme really compliments the vehicle it was designed for. From the moment I first heard the Glider theme play I fell in love with it, the song just gives you that feeling of gliding around on the currents without a care in the world. Then you have something like the Jetpack theme which has this great little jazzy feel to it that for some reason just suits flying around in a Jetpack.

Now for the most important part, how the darn thing plays. Each one of your sky bound vehicles plays and controls and plays slightly differently. The plane is the easiest of the 3 to control; you’re able to perform simple manoeuvres in it such as doing barrel rolls and a few others. The Glider is next on the list and is an absolute blast to play around with. I’ve never flown in a Hang Glider before but I imagine it would be somewhat like this. You pick up speed by descending, the more steep your descent the faster you’ll go, pulling up will allow you to start gliding around; pulling up even more will slow you down. To gain more altitude you need to fly into these giant Wind vortexes scattered around the island which will propel your high into the sky. I actually found the Glider to be my favourite of the 3 vehicles, I don’t know why but I just found it so relaxing and fun to just glide around Wuhu and enjoy the sites, it was a very Zen-like feeling.

The last of the 3 vehicles is the Rocket Belt which I also found to be the hardest to control. You control the Rocket Belt by giving short burst of thrust from the rockets. Once you’re heading in a certain direction turning can prove to be quite difficult as you will need to try and counteract the momentum created. I found myself overshooting targets a lot and having some trouble in the more closed in areas, but after some practise you’ll be able to get the hang of it. There are also 3 other vehicles to unlock, however they are just souped up version of the 3 starters and more or less control the same barring a few minor details. Speaking of controls the Circle Pad is amazing in the game, you feel like you have just the right amount of control with the vehicles and it really makes flying around the stage a blast. It’s pretty much gotten me very excited for the future of flight sims on the 3DS. It pains me a little Factor 5 isn’t around anymore as after playing Pilotwings Resort I can just see a Star Wars Rogue Leader game working so well on the system.

I really enjoyed my time with Pilotwings Resort, it a tonne of fun and it really leave you craving more, which is perhaps the game’s greatest flaw. I can’t help but wonder what more they could have put some more content into the overall package. I would have loved to see another environment to fly around in. Maybe some online play in the form of dogfighting (keeping it family friendly and shooting each other with paint pellets of course) or simple races. As it is there is still a lot to do in the game, but once you’ve finished and acquired perfect on all the missions there’s not a lot of reason to come back. That said Pilotwings Resort is an amazing game and easily one of the must have titles for any early adopter of the 3DS.

Graphics 8.0

The game looks amazing, It is a great showcase for what the 3DS is capable of. The graphics are crisp and clean and the 3D effect is simply amazing. If this is what they can get the 3DS to do at the start of its life, I cant wait to see what itll achieve two-three years down the road.

Gameplay 9.0

The controls are tight, each of the vehicles feels distinctive and has its own way of playing. Some of the missions can be quite challenging and youll be glad the controls work so well when you keep trying to pull off a perfect landing. Each time I screwed up I never felt it to be the fault of the game, but myself.

Sound 8.0

The soundtrack isnt going to win any awards but it does the job and does it well. It never gets in the way or becomes distracting. There are some amazing soothing tracks really help set the mode.

Tilt 7.0

Would have been great had there been a few more environments to fly around in and some multiplayer to stretch it out, that said youre easily going to get 10 hours from the game and maybe even more if youre willing to put the time in.

Value 8.0

I went into this game having never played a Pilotwings game before, this game has made me a fan of the series and I will have to go play the others. Also as someone who is a fan of Flight Sims of this nature its gotten me very excited for the future of the genre on the 3DS.

Overall

Pilotwings Resort does a great job of showing off the 3DS hardware just like the previous entries in the series did for their consoles. Its a blast to play for all gamers from casual to hardcore. If youre fan of the Pilotwings games from the past or new to the franchise like me pick it up, its easily the must have Nintendo game for the 3DS. Lets just hope its not another 15 years before we see another entry in the series.