Pilotwings (SNES) review "Pilot Wings was released shortly after the introduction of the Super Nintendo, becoming one of the first great titles for the 16-bit system. It didn’t have much violence, there weren’t mature storylines (if any storyline at all!) and basically, the game was as kid friendly as one could hope for. But it was extremely challenging and pure fun to play for children and adults."

One of the criticisms levied against Nintendo is that the company consistently appears to put out games meant for kids that alienate older gamers who favor blood and gore, mature themes and dark storylines. While I don’t completely disagree with this accusation, I do feel that while Nintendo definitely shies away certain titles, the company more than makes up for it with simply great and addicting games.

Pilot Wings was released shortly after the introduction of the Super Nintendo, becoming one of the first great titles for the 16-bit system. It didn’t have much violence, there weren’t mature storylines (if any storyline at all!) and basically, the game was as kid friendly as one could hope for. But it was extremely challenging and pure fun to play for children and adults.

This title looks good and was one of the first games to take advantage of the SuperNes’ ability to do that rotating, zoom in pixel thing, found in games like Actraiser. Hearing the game now, Pilot Wings doesn’t sound all that great, but still, it’s pretty good for a cartridge based game.

The game is quite simply: You complete several aerial tasks so that you can earn the right to move on to other rounds. Each round is comprised of skilled events such as flying, skydiving, hang-gliding, and riding around with a jet-pack on your back. Much of the time, each event involves flying through hoops, completing a course, going through time trials, and making skilled landings. If you manage to complete each event, points are awarded for finesse, time remaining and so forth. Finish the events, earn enough points and you get the right to move on to the next round of challenges and also get the all important password to save your game.

Pilot Wings is an extremely challenging game as it requires precise controller movement and player skill. However, each round of events teaches you a skill that will be used in future rounds so that you are constantly getting better. For example, you start off simply having to land a plane but in the next round you take-off and then land. After that, you take off, follow a path in the time allowed, and then land. At times, Pilot Wings can be frustratingly hard to play and you might question whether such a challenge is even worth doing. But, like other games that are this fun to play, you get addicted and if you’re like me, can’t put the controller down for more than a few minutes.

At certain points in the game, you take control of a helicopter and are sent on assault missions to destroy enemies. This sequence is the only bad part of the game as it seems out of place and unnecessary, contributing nothing but a confusing anomaly in game play.

Still, Pilot Wings is an excellent game and if you’ve played it before, consider trying it out again. If you’ve never played, try to find the cartridge or the ROM (although you need a SuperNes-like pad instead of a keyboard) and enjoy one of the best challenges Nintendo has to offer. And remember: Pilot Wings, like other Nintendo games, is based purely on skill and all that blood, sex and violence found on other systems is rendered unnecessary.

Community review by jfrink26 (Date unavailable) A bio for this contributor is currently unavailable, but check back soon to see if that changes. If you are the author of this review, you can update your bio from the Settings page.