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Available on: Wii

Wing Island

The only time you'll see a flying chicken

Words: on March 20, 2007

Carrying out acts of daring missions through the bright sunny skies is an attractively heroic concept, played out to a glorious fanfare reminiscent of Studio Ghibli’s superb flying pig movie Porco Rosso. Alas, in reality it has all the flying finesse of holding a plastic spoon full of baby food and faking plane noises to pilot it into a baby’s mouth.

The Wii remote handles like a miniplane in your hand; you dip the it, the plane dips instantaneously; you twist it, the plane twists instantaneously. Simple? Yes. Completely lacking any sense of aeronautical physics? You betcha. Compared to Pilotwings 64, where individual control-tweaking wouldn’t manifest as visible on-screen movements until your vehicle had physically adjusted itself within the air flow, this feels paper-thin.



The challenge in most flight-based games is the unfriendliness of controls. By making the controls such a non-chore, Wing Island’s already overly-simplistic missions - fetch a crate, some wood - are made even more redundant.

Sometimes you’ll find yourself coasting over endless seas to deliver a box, while the soundtrack explodes in orchestral magnificence. The only threat of ocean/ground plummet-age is that you may doze off mid-flight and let the remote slip from your hand - but even then, as long as it hits the floor on its back the plane will carry on going in a perfect straight line.

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Games:

Wing Island

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Platforms:

Wii

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Decent
YOU'LL LOVE
  • Controls are incredibly simple
  • Arcadey feel
  • Watching your squadmates drown
YOU'LL HATE
  • Boring gameplay
  • Over-the-top music
  • Graphics could be hotter
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More Info

Release date: US
Mar 20 2007 (Wii)
UK
Apr 13 2007 (Wii)
Available Platforms: Wii
Genre: Flight
Published by: Hudson Soft
Developed by: Hudson Entertainment, Hudson Soft
ESRB Rating:
Everyone: Cartoon Violence
PEGI Rating:
7+
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