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 thana loose cigarette in a firework factoryand 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.
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.
