It has been fifteen years since the Pilotwings series has seen a release. Surprisingly, even after fifteen years, Nintendo and Monster Games have done an amazing job of capturing the essence of the series. With a wide array of challenges, six unique vehicle types, and gameplay that begs for replay, Pilotwings Resort unquestionably hits the mark. Don’t let the Miis convince you otherwise – Pilotwings Resort is a challenging game, requiring precise control and perfection for the highest of scores.
Split in two, both a Mission Mode and a Free Flight Mode are available at the outset, with unlockable content available in both. As with past titles in the series, the Mission Mode holds the meat of the game, offering challenges for the three base vehicle types: Plane, Rocket Belt, and Hang Glider. Rigidly structured, each individual mission is made to use just a singular vehicle to complete the goal stated on the outset.
These goals have a nice variance, each requiring something different from the last. While players are ultimately always flying to some point on the map, Monster Games has done an excellent job in masking this by giving players different things to fly through, shoot, or even photograph. While most of what players are doing during flight has been done before (flying through rings, collecting orbs, shooting targets, and photographing landmarks), some new things have been added, like speed rings and point capsules. Speed rings in particular are of interest, as they require players to hit the ring in the center and at the proper speed in order to obtain the full 20 points they are worth.
While Pilotwings is a flight game, it never feels like a flight sim. The physics are definitely unrealistic and everything has an arcade feel to it, which makes the entire experience more approachable. While unrealistic, they are consistent and picking up on their attributes comes very naturally. Perhaps intentionally, the missions for each vehicle are organized from left to right as Plane, Rocket Belt, and then Hang Glider. This aligns well with the challenge level of each vehicle, with the Plane being the easiest to control and the Hang Glider being the toughest.
Don’t mistake this challenge for poor control or design. Pilotwings has always been about mastery of each vehicle to the highest degree. Each challenge in the game slowly becomes more demanding, pushing the limits of players’ skill. Herein lies the beauty of Pilotwings. Mastery of each vehicle and of the missions is no simple task and is where players will get their value. While many will critique the game for having a lack of content, it’s an experience that is far more focused on replayability than mission quantity.
Players can earn up to three stars on each mission based on how many points they score. Even after players complete a given mission with three stars, they can push for perfection and beyond. Every mission objective is assigned a certain number of points and depending on how well each is completed; players will earn a variable number of points. There are a few constants; mission completion time is factored into every mission and landing quality is featured in just about every mission in the game. Neither are “gimme” points, as they require precise navigation in order to earn the full amounts. Exceptionally poor navigation will result in crashing which will reduce points from the final score, an admittedly less harsh penalty from prior Pilotwings titles, which would result in complete failure.
While around four to five hours of gameplay will unlock all of the missions in the game, full completion will require many more hours. Starting in the gold tier of missions, obtaining three stars starts becoming an issue, and by platinum, completing a perfect run seems impossible. Mastery of each mission is the game’s bread and butter and what makes this a game worth your time.
Pushing for completion needs to be a personal goal though, as accomplishing the task and achieving high scores unfortunately doesn’t net anything of interest. Later missions in the game do pay homage to past Pilotwings titles by providing a few tasks that use alternate vehicles. Advanced plane missions enable the jet plane, which is extremely similar to the normal prop plane. The Rocket Belt offers up a flying squirrel suit, which is similar to the skydiving missions in the past, minus the whole parachuting part (lame, I know). Finally, the Hang Glider gives way to a pedal glider, the most utilized of the three extra vehicles. It offers the standard glider gameplay, but pushes players to pedal through certain spots in order to collect items, which proves extremely challenging because it forces a new level of mastery not required before.
The free flight portion of the game allows players to take all six vehicles around Wuhu Island to collect a variety of items that unlock game extras, like 3D dioramas. Players can go out for two minutes at a time to start, with balloons extending the experience over time. Overall, the time restriction takes away from some of the wonderment of exploration, as does the locking of certain collectibles depending on the time of day you decide to go out. The mode feels like a bit of a misnomer given the conditions set up before heading out. This was a bit of a letdown for me because I didn’t feel it enabled the free roaming it implied; however, the mode boils down to being an extended mission due to the collectibles which makes for a nice diversion from the standard mission mode.
Undoubtedly the game’s biggest fault is the absolutely bland presentation. The Miis feel overdone at this point, and while Wuhu Island is not the worst of places to set the game, it feels like something bigger, better, and zanier could’ve been done. Having followed up Pilotwings 64, Resort feels like a huge step back, removing all of the character that game had established. After seeing what Monster Games did with Excitebots, I would’ve loved to see what they could’ve created for this game had they not been restricted to using the Mii aesthetic.
Given that this is the premier 3DS launch title, it’s obligatory to make mention of the stereoscopic 3D graphics in the game. They look as great as you might imagine and the depth they provide help quite a bit in pinpointing exactly where to go next and are especially helping in both landing and piloting the Rocket Belt. It’s almost amazing how quickly the effect becomes second nature, which is really a testament to how great the technology is.
This is the 3DS launch game for me. It’s a glorious return for one of my favorite forgotten Nintendo series, as it provides the same degree of mastery and challenge necessary in the past. The 3D effect proves useful, and while the presentation and characters are bland, the gameplay is anything but. Though there are only about 40 short missions in the game, I plan to keep visiting Wuhu Island until I have mastered each and every one.
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