POSTED 22/4/11


PILOTWINGS RESORT

Nintendo
3DS

It’s always the quiet, unassuming ones you’ve gotta watch out for...

Pilotwings makes a long overdue return – save for a nod in Wii Sports Resort. Yay! We last saw it on N64, but it’s shed some IQ points since then – or a heftyesque chunk of content at least.

What’s left is a flight-based game that lets you loose with a light plane, a hang glider or the geek’s choice, a ‘rocket belt’ (think jetpack – na-hey!).

Action takes place at Homer Simpson’s fave resort, Wuhu Island – and we probably should win something cheesy for being approximately the 1,000th to try that pissy gag on. Sorry. Yep, it’s the venue of that aforementioned Wii Sports Resort, and if you’ve played that to death you’ll know every micron of the joint. But it has a new ace up its sleeve – assuming that an island can actually don a shirt - 3D.

If you’re looking for something to show off your exxy new kit then bingo. But whilst it’s ace demo material, old school Pilotwings fans may be a bit nose-out-of-jointy at the content. Yeah, there are only three flying machines, however there are five levels each packed with varying challenges, the ramping difficulty of which is well-measured. You’ll start just having to not stack, and progress to hitting targets, emulating aerobatic feats, shooting stuff both with bullets and a camera and heaps more.

There’s actually depth that’s not necessarily super-obvious – plus mastering that fucking hang glider. Sure, you can bumble through each challenge and nab a star or two, but honing skills to get three stars – then extra bonus points if you manage perfection - is gonna take time and skills. But we already mentioned skills.

It may look modest, but Pilotwings Resort is kinda the gaming equivalent of Dexter Morgan...

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