Wing Island review

The only time you'll see a flying chicken

GamesRadar+ Verdict

Pros

  • +

    Controls are incredibly simple

  • +

    Arcadey feel

  • +

    Watching your squadmates drown

Cons

  • -

    Boring gameplay

  • -

    Over-the-top music

  • -

    Graphics could be hotter

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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.

More info

GenreFlight
DescriptionThe 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 are made even more redundant.
Platform"Wii"
US censor rating"Everyone"
UK censor rating"7+"
Release date1 January 1970 (US), 1 January 1970 (UK)
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