Game needing a sequel: Pilotwings

Original game format: SNES/N64

Why it needs a sequel: Just why has Pilotwings been forgotten by Nintendo? Both versions of the game were more fun than a loose cigarette in a firework factory and were fantastic ways to show off the capabilities of their respective machines. The original Pilotwings nearly made us violently sick (but in a nice way) with its smoother-than-a-creosote-icicle Mode 7 scaling, and the fully 3D, polygoned-up Pilotwings 64 blew minds on a volcanic scale when it was debuted. It was all the statement of intent the N64 needed when it stepped onto the next gen battlefield. We haven’t had a new Pilotwings for two generations now, and the Wii is begging for one. Listen closely. You can hear it. How sad.

What we want from a sequel: Wii controls. That is all. No convoluted plot. No pointless cut scenes. No tacked-on multiplayer. Just let us fly with the Wii remote.

Pilotwings has always been as much about the experience as the mission objectives. Like Nintendo’s Endless Ocean, it’s a game to just drop into and mellow out with, and also like Endless Ocean, it’s a game that has fluid control at the heart of the experience. The N64’s analogue stick was a big step up from the SNES d-pad, but on the Wii we would have a truly definitive flight game.

Flying a plane? Just hold the remote upright and you’ve got an instant, two-button flight stick. Hang-gliding? Flip it on its side, Excite Truck style, and you’ve got the perfect steering bar. We want to twist and turn the nunchuk and remote to steer a parachute descent. We want to aim the jet-pack engines with a turn of the wrist and fire them up with the B trigger. And if we can gently flap the controller to manipulate the Birdman suit, we’ll be lobbying for a change in the law to allow us to marry a videogame.