Pilotwings 64 was released in 1996 along with the debut of the Nintendo 64 console. The game was co-developed by Nintendo and the American visual technology group Paradigm Simulation. It was one of three launch titles for the Nintendo 64 and was a follow-up to Pilotwings for the Super Nintendo (SNES). Pilotwings 64 originally served to demonstrate the graphical capabilities of the N64’s gaming hardware and though the flight simulator did not enjoy the same commercial success as its fellow launch game, Super Mario 64, Pilotwings 64 nonetheless went on to sell over one million copies worldwide.

Pros:

The game is built as a relaxing flight simulator type of pick up and play, game and does a great job of it. However easy it might be to play, it is quite hard to master, letting it still challenge any veteran player. The main game gives you various levels/challenges for an autogyro, a jet pack, and a hang glider. You can chose between 6 characters (no major stat differences, just their looks and voices) and navigate through some pretty creative environments, like the “mini-states”. Every challenge is quite different, from something as simple as a time try or flying through rings to using missiles to destroy a rampaging robot called Meca Hawk! (hell yeah) As you beat these various challenges you can unlock side missions like firing your characters through a cannon at various targets (always fun), skydiving and crazy jumping boots (…ok…). The music is quick great too! Some songs can get a bit repetitive, but I think this game might have one of the funkiest bass lines in for an intro in all of video game history (maybe). There are some fun hidden easter eggs that you can also get throughout the game too so some random exploration is rewarded.

Cons:

For the modern gamer, this can be considered a boring game, but I enjoyed its relaxing pace and ease. I did find it quite tedious though when I screwed up at the end of a level and I would be forced to go through the same “relaxing”, but now just annoyingly slow, course. I did find some of the levels crazy hard to master, but luckily that’s not a must to play and enjoy the game. some of the levels can be outright mean though and sometimes the game is very picky about your points, and sometimes not at all, so it hard to perfect a system. The only real issue I had with this game was the auto camera angle changes. If you get too close to a wall, the camera that was behind you is now in front of you and you get completely disoriented. In the middle of a difficult challenge this can suck, a lot.