PixlBit

PilotWings is back!

I've been a massive fan of the PilotWings series since its inception on the SNES. As you'd expect, I've been pining for a new entry in the series for quite a while now. Well, Nintendo has delivered in spades by bringing it back on the 3DS.

The demo available at Nintendo's booth was quite simple and it involved only two exercises to complete: Rocket Pack and Airplane.

As a huge fan of the older Rocket Pack challenges, I started there. In the single exercise, I needed to pop a total of only five balloons amongst many scattered about Wuhu Island. The 3D effects of the 3DS truly made the experience something special. In past PilotWings titles, I've always had a hard time with depth perception, especially in the Rocket Pack challenges. Obviously, the 3DS completely eliminates that issue, making it very easy to spatially identify where a balloon is amongst the environment.

Controlling the rocket pack felt extremely easy and smooth when using the Analog Slider. Both new pieces of technology prove to be a hit out the gate in this mode.

The plane challenge is a similar story, though this mode features a total of 16 rings to navigate through. Players will undoubtedly be able to identify depth to the next ring, making it much easier to pass through the rings without losing to poor depth perception. Again, the analog slider truly made these experiences as smooth as they were.

Though I only had about five minutes of hands-on time with the game I was extremely excited by the possibilities of the full-fledged game. Since players seemed to pilot the vehicles with a Mii, it will be interesting to see if Nintendo brings the oh-so-popular Mii onto the 3DS platform.