These range from flying a gyrocopter through a series of rings and taking high-quality photos while flying a hang glider to firing your poor pilot out of a cannon at large targets. Making the most of the huge environments on offer - something which, for all its beauty, the SNES version couldn’t do - players are given a set of challenges to complete with a variety of different flying vehicles. Pilotwings 64 earns its classification as an amateur flight simulator because underneath all the pretty visuals and technical wizardry, there’s actually a game (it’s also worth noting that the controls are nowhere near as complex as other flight sims). Even though it is now tremendously outdated compared to modern titles, you still feel a sense of wonder when exploring the huge islands that the game has to offer.
Much like how its predecessor Pilotwings had successfully demonstrated the SNES’ impressive Mode 7 feature, the game utilised the N64’s power to render detailed, large-scale environments in real-time. Co-developed by Paradigm Simulation and Nintendo, it was proof of the N64’s graphical prowess and innovative design. Nevertheless, Pilotwings 64 actually served a similar purpose to Super Mario 64 and it deserves far better than being forever upstaged by The Best Launch Game Ever™. While the portly plumber delivered a much-needed killer app to Nintendo’s advanced system, its amateur flight simulator counterpart was considered little more than a glorified tech demo by many observers at the time. Simply put, Mario’s first 64-bit adventure was a masterpiece and proved that Nintendo could recreate its flagship franchise for the next generation of gaming. Releasing alongside Super Mario 64 when the Nintendo 64 launched back in 1996 (1997 if you’re European), it was somewhat inevitable that Pilotwings 64 was never going to see the same commercial or critical success. This review originally went live in 2013, and we’re updating and republishing it to mark the game’s arrival in Switch’s N64 library via the Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack.
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