While I’ve played the Mario 64 to all 120 stars some four or five times now, until now I’d never so much as owned, let alone played, Pilotwings 64, the other launch title for the N64. After finding it at Book Off for 100 yen a few days back (and myself having a 100 yen off coupon), I felt it was high time to correct that gap in my play experience. It took me about 7 or 8 hours in total to get gold badges on all of the normal stages sans the last rocket belt one, and I also got silver (and sometimes gold) on all of the extra games as well to unlock all of the content. I did it on the Japanese version of the game, and I played it all on real hardware.

There really isn’t any narrative to speak of in Pilotwings 64. Perhaps there’s some in the manual or something, but there’s certainly none in the game at the very least. Regardless, the premise is perfectly clear without it. You’re here to get your flying certification! Well, certainly not a pilot’s license, as you never actually fly any planes, but something similar no doubt with all of the time in the air you’re doing XD.

You have your choice of six characters (who are only cosmetically different save for some very small exceptions) to go through all four tiers (Beginner, A Class, B Class, and P Class) of three activities: Hangliding, rocket belt-ing, and gyrocoptering (which is like a plane a bit, I suppose). Each class of activity has one to three tasks you need to complete, and each task has a score of 0 to 100 for you to go for, and depending on your total score, you’ll get a badge rank at the end (average of 70 is bronze, 80 is silver, 90 is gold, and all 100’s will get you a perfect score badge). Additionally, getting silver or better in all three activities of a rank will unlock a respective Extra Game activity to try out (which are cannonball, skydiving, and Jumble Hopper). Getting a silver or average in each of the three ranks of a respective activity will even unlock you a free flight mode for one of the game’s four different maps, so you can do victory laps to your heart’s content~ (quite literally).

It’s a very simple game, to be sure, but it’s good fun! Being a launch title, it’s not hard to see that Pilotwings 64 was a game explicitly made to carry on the legacy of the original Pilotwings on the Super Famicom. The N64 version is here to show off not just the console’s 3D capabilities for vast, open spaces, but it’s also here to showcase just what precision you can pull off in a vehicle using the N64’s snazzy new joystick tech. If you’re just here to see the credits, all that takes is getting bronze or better in each class of the main 3 activities. But if you’re like me and really wanted gold ranks, it’s going to take you a fair bit longer, and it’s also likely going to be a fair bit more frustrating to boot XD

The gyrocopter controlled the most intuitively to me, as it’s basically a plane in how it has acceleration and tilt and such. This isn’t anywhere as sim-like as an Ace Combat game, but it’s certainly closer to a flight sim than something like Star Fox 64 is. Hangliding was what I found consistently the hardest, as relying on only thermals to blow you upwards and having no other method of acceleration makes not only the flying challenges difficult, but it also makes landing very difficult to, as you only have one shot to get that approach correctly. Rocket belt missions usually weren’t too hard, but they easily have the hardest final challenges in the P Class rank. Landing will usually be your biggest challenge, as taking off is the easy part, but rejoining with the ground is harder. Landing, after all, isn’t just an important part of flying, but it’s also usually 30 to 40% of your score (both the accuracy of your landing on the bullseye or runway as well as how smooth a landing you did). I wasn’t nearly out of my mind enough to go for perfect scores, but I’m sure someone dedicated enough out there is going to have a whale of a time trying to get Pilotwings 64 completely perfected.

The Extra Game activities very much feel like the extra content that they are. They’re neat ideas using the existing physics and locations in interesting ways, sure, but they’re also pretty much one-trick ponies compared to the main three flying activities. The very oddly named Jumble Hopper is a pair of super jump boots you need to use to jump to the designated space as quickly as you can, but landing in water loses you points, and landing on too hard a slope or hitting an obstacle will send you flying and also lose you a TON of time. Skydiving has you trying to align yourself with your fellow divers five times before making a hangliding-like landing on a target. Cannonball is easily the worst of them for my money, as it has you trying to use angles and an NES Golf-like power meter to hit a distant target. It’s just trial and error, and it’s both the most easily mastered of the activities in this game while also easily being the most frustrating and least fun. Like I said before, they’re a neat distraction, but they’re definitely not worth of main activity status.

The game overall runs just about as well as it needs to. You don’t need to have very well adjusted eyes to see that the framerate is struggling REALLY bad a lot of the time, but the game is thankfully tuned well enough that this shouldn’t usually be a problem. The only place I’d say it’s possibly a problem is in the hit detection, as there were quite a few points where I effectively went through (literally) target rings instead of actually passing through them in a way the game recognized. It is my hypothesis that the really bad framerate was very likely either causing that collision issue, or at the very least it made it harder to judge than it should’ve been where the target I was aiming for actually was. It’s not the worst thing in the world, but it’s just one more frustrating part of an already often frustrating game, and the fact that tasks lack a quick-retry button just makes it all the more of a pain to retry when you mess up (particularly for the four minute+ missions later on in the game).

The presentation is pretty darn good for what it is. The music has a lot of fun tracks that fit the air of chill flying very nicely. It also has some of what I can really only call Banjo Kazooie-style weird tracks that add some strange if not unwelcome levity to their respective missions. The graphics are quite simple of course, as you’d expect for a launch title of this era, but they’re stylized enough that I think they hold up just fine.

Verdict: Recommended. While it’s not an all-timer like Mario 64, that’s some really stiff competition as far as launch titles go. On its own merits, while it may not be the most content-rich game in the world (for those of us who aren’t score attack maniacs), Pilotwings 64 is still a really fun little game. For framerate and ease of access reasons, it may be more appealing to play a more modern port of this game (such as on the N64 Switch Online service), but the N64 version is still plenty fun. Even for someone not super into flying games like me, I had a quite good time with it, and I reckon you probably will too~.

Hey, you!

Do you like watching people ricochet off of sheer cliff faces like ping pong balls? Do you mourn that you’ll never get the opportunity to launch missiles at the World Trade Center? Have you ever wanted to fire a buxom woman out of a cannon? If your answer to any of the above questions was “yes”, then I have two things to tell you. First: Seek therapy. Secondly and more importantly, however, you’re really doing yourself a disservice by not playing Pilotwings 64.

I’m given to understand that the original Pilotwings is something of a classic, being very technically impressive for the Super Nintendo and having a rather distinct aesthetic to it. Nintendo themselves seem to have a soft spot for it, referencing it in a handful of their other titles. I haven’t had an opportunity to take a crack at it myself, sadly, but I did happen to spot its sequel at my local game shop this past weekend. Pilotwings 64… A name I was aware of, but not one that I ever paid much mind to.

While the Nintendo 64 might very well be my favorite game system of all time, I’ve come to realize recently that I’m astonishingly ignorant of its relatively small catalog. I have a bad habit of hyperfixating on the “big ones”, brushing aside more mediocre or niche experiences across the gaming landscape in favor of titles with more fame (or even infamy) to their names. I have started to realize that I’ve deprived myself of a lot by doing so – even the most underwhelming games tend to have aspects that were decidedly inspired or born from love. Giving them a chance can force me to reevaluate or recontextualize my affinities and opinions. Worst case scenario, I’ll be able to answer people when they ask me questions about that one game nobody ever seems to talk about. Best case, I’ll have an experience that leaves a lasting impression long after I play it. I’m happy to report that Pilotwings 64 is decidedly in the latter camp.

The game almost immediately defied my expectations upon powering up my N64. Super Mario 64, Nintendo’s other launch offering, hits you with a big and colorful logo before presenting you with a massive disembodied plumber head, practically screaming “look how cool and advanced our fancy new system is!” Pilotwings 64 slaps you in the face with a funky bassline and an intro that looks like it was ripped from an educational VHS tape straight out of my elementary school days. I wouldn’t have called it especially impressive by comparison, but it sets the table neatly and is intensely evocative of its era. Needless to say, I was smitten.

All of your playable characters are named after birds. Their designs and renders are deliciously 90’s – just take a look for yourself. You may be noticing one of them seems uncannily familiar. Lark is probably a different character than Nintendo Power’s old mascot Nester… Although their writers did apparently suggest Lark is just a pseudonym (sadly, I haven’t been able to find the preview in question). His counterpart, Kiwi, is adorable. Goose and Ibis are the epitome of cool. Hawk is just an absolute unit and I want to give him a big hug. At any rate, I’m a fan. Their differences are more than superficial, too, as is helpfully outlined in the game’s manual. I presume Robin shares the heavy class with Hawk due to being weighed down by her preposterously prodigious polygons.

The tone of the game is broadly lighthearted, optimistic, and chilled out, though it seems to have a hilariously mean streak at times. Whether it’s because of the occasionally cruel challenges leveled at you or the over-the-top shrieks of your pilot as they plunge into a river, it’s admittedly a little too hard to stay mad at the game when it keeps making me laugh. Of course, the OST is big contributor in this, being at times quirky, but for the most part very mellow and smooth. Tied together with the twiggy player models and “I put this together in ten minutes using WordArt” style of the UI, I felt instantly transported to another place and time.

As to gameplay – at first blush Pilotwings 64 would seem to be nothing more than a simple mission-based flight sim experience, and if you play it as straight as possible that may still be your takeaway in the end. The controls across the hang glider, the rocket belt and the gyrocopter are intuitive but still demand enough fine adjustment on your part that they feel challenging to master. If you’re intent on getting those perfect scores, you’re likely to sink a good few hours into your attempts. Likewise, each of the three main vehicle types have enough variety in gameplay between them that each section feels distinct. You can also unlock a few additional minigames that provide some fun diversions from the core experience. However, there’s more to the game than just going for gold. Many maps have at least one secret tucked away someplace, and in most cases you can simply ignore your given objective and explore. If you’re the kind of person who likes to nose about in every weird little nook and cranny when you play games, don’t worry: Pilotwings 64 understands.

It’s worth making special mention of the maps here, as they’re quite visually impressive for this being one of the first N64 titles. They’re wide open with interesting designs and a valiant draw distance to support them. One particular standout is Little States, a miniaturized version of the contiguous 48 US of A with many of the expected landmarks. Not only is it shockingly expansive and filled with plenty of little easter eggs, but it also dreams of a utopian timeline where South Carolina doesn’t exist. There’s an unlockable “Birdman” mode that lets you lazily soar through the various locales at your own pace and explore every inch without needing to worry about performance. It’s an almost zen experience flitting from one end to the next, taking in the sights while basking in the mellow mood. You really get the feeling that the devs were proud of what they put together and wanted to share all of it with the player.

Overall, there isn’t a ton of content to speak of in Pilotwings 64 and not a ton of reason to come back once you’ve aced every available challenge. What’s more, the choppy framerate did make the more impressive aspects of the game a little harder to appreciate, though I can likewise acknowledge that I’ve perhaps become a bit spoiled by smoother experiences as the years have gone by. While I’m uncertain as to whether or not I would have fallen in love with this game as a kid, as an adult I’m very happy to have picked it up. It feels like a solid little title to come back to between bigger games – something to slot in when I just want to enjoy the powerful vibes for an hour or two.

Anyways, the moral of the story is: If you see a game that looks interesting, just try it. You never know what you’ll find.

P.S. I had read at some point that the increased framerate on Nintendo Switch Online’s version of the game can apparently make Birdman hard to control. Not sure if this has been smoothed out since its initial release, but it’s definitely worth considering when choosing a way to play.