Wednesday, April 13, 2011

PilotWings 64

 

This is another game where they captured the feel just right.  Along with that, PilotWings 64 had, for me, one of the best carrot-stick relationships of any game at the time.  I kept wanting to open up one more level or bonus stage regardless of how difficult the current level was.  And make no mistake some of those levels were very difficult.  Sure, you could pass most levels pretty easily but getting the top score was usually a worthy challenge.

One of the best aspects of PilotWings 64 were the different vehicles.  Controlling the gyro-copter was fairly standard arcade flight simulator but the hang glider was something entirely new.  Aiming for thermals and trying to give yourself just enough height for the perfect landing was fun and difficult.  The jetpack brought back memories of playing Moon Landing or Scramble, using physics to fit your character through tight spaces.

And the mini-game bonus stages were perhaps the best part.  Along with Monkey Ball and Mario Party, these were great group games.  I still have fond memories of a house full of people attempting to fire a gangly character at the side of a mountain.

Good news - PilotWings 64 emulates nearly perfectly.  Either using Project64 and 1964 and a comfortable gamepad controller and you can have a wonderful PilotWings 64 experience on just about any modern desktop computer.  Of course, you will need to download the rom somewhere but I can not help you with that here.

MobyGames
Wikipedia 

14 comments:

  1. This game and the 3DS in general give me a headache. I played it in my local Best Buy

    ReplyDelete
  2. This was one of the first games my parent got me when i had a 64. I was slightly disappointed, i wanted mario cart.

    ReplyDelete
  3. oh boy, i remember playing this. i was surprised to hear about the sequel on the 3ds, i kinda wana play it.

    ReplyDelete
  4. What a coincidence, I was just playing this on my n64 emulator. haha nice post. :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. It looks like a fun game

    ReplyDelete
  6. I was obsessed with the SNES one back in the day. My friend had it, I'd go to his place all the time to play it.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Its nice, but the music makes my head hurt.

    ReplyDelete
  8. N64 and PS2 = best consoles ever made.

    ReplyDelete