Pilotwings (SNES) Playthrough
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 12 ก.ย. 2024
- A playthrough of Nintendo's 1991 flight simulation game for the Super NES, Pilotwings.
Pilotwings was one of the SNES's launch titles released alongside Super Mario World and F-Zero, and between the three, it was clear just how deadly serious Nintendo was in maintaining its dominance over the market - they pulled no punches in showing off their new 16-bit machine's fanciest features.
Though it was the least popular game in the first-party launch line-up, Pilotwings was arguably the most impressive of the trio. Relying almost entirely on the SNES's "mode 7", a feature that allowed for full scaling and rotation effects to be applied to a bitmapped background layer, Pilotwings delivered an amazing 3D experience that was like nothing else we had ever seen before. I mean, sure, F-Zero delivered speed, but it all took place on the ground. Pilotwings removed the wheels (or whatever you'd call the equivalent part on a hover car), and in doing so provided an unprecedented sense of freedom that still holds up well today.
Pilotwings poses you as a student at an amateur flight school, and the game revolves around earning licenses by mastering increasingly difficult lessons. There are a good number of events on offer: In the light plane, you've got to fly through hoops and arches and safely land on the runway. In skydiving, you leap from a helicopter and pitch your body to fly through hoops before opening your parachute for a safe landing. Rocketbelt gives you a jetpack and tasks you with touching various targets, and finally, Hang Gliding has you riding thermal updrafts to hit a required altitude before navigating your way to the landing pad.
You also get a chance at a goofy special bonus round if you do particularly well, and these have you doing things like dive-bombing a pool as a penguin and bouncing on trampolines with wings strapped on your back.
The final stage of each round changes things up quite a bit - in an amusingly melodramatic turn of events, terrorists kidnap all of the flight school instructors. It's up to you, of course, to fly the combat helicopter over the island where they're being held, destroy the anti-air batteries, and rescue them.
Pilotwings is one of those games that appears simple on the surface, but there is a lot of depth and challenge to it - the later lessons can be extremely difficult. You have to consider approach angles, wind speed and heading, gravity, and your vehicle's handling quirks all at at once, and while it might feel a bit overwhelming at first, it doesn't take too long to get used to.
Once you have the mechanics down, the real joy in Pilotwings' gameplay comes from the steady improvements you'll make as you gradually master its nuances. The controls are silky smooth and responsive and rarely require the use of more than two or three buttons.
Finally, the presentation was clearly the game's big selling point, and the reasons are obvious. The stages are surprisingly dense with detail, the multiple camera options allow you to adjust the view for gauging depth, and the framerate is impossibly smooth. And that's the one thing that screenshots of Pilotwings unfortunately cannot convey - as nice as it looks in a photo, the feeling of full 3D freedom at 60fps cannot be understated.
In 1990, most 3D games' framerates maxxed out in the teens on high-end computers, so it's not difficult to imagine the impact Pilotwings had on people when it was new. And to think it was running on a $200 video game system, not a $3000+ 386 PC!
Pilotwings was an ambitious title that capitalized on all of Nintendo's strengths and talents to provide something special.
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
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Pilotwings would've impressed at any point in the SNES's life, but as a launch title? 🤯
I ❤ flying the hang-gliding mission's. I LIKED the whole 🎮 in General 👍🏼🛩🌅😅
And that OST. Chef's kiss
The game was manufactured using two different revisions of the DSP-1 chip. If your cartridge has a newer version, or your emulator implements the newer version, during the demos the plane will crash into the ground.
Never played it because I hated flight Sims as a kid. But I did think it was cool how it was the first 3d game I actually saw a demo for
Along with F-Zero and Super Mario World.
Pilotwings one of the highlights of my childhood. I often played all the way through to get to the helicopter mission at the end. Loved it.
I used to spend so much time popping all the white bubbles on the ground with the rocketbelt lol
I still love playing this game.
That game was a novelty back in the day, like F-Zero.
One of the best flight simulators I've ever played. Still plays extremely well.
The original Japanese names of the flight instructors were Fumiya Tanaka (Tony), Ran Shirashi (Shirley), Indy Scott (Lance), and Doubei Kuroda (Big Al).
Love how "Indy Scott" is the *_only_* Americanized name out of those 4.
Do you know if the Japanese version gives any more context to what’s going on with the final missions, or the ending? Given the uniforms and everything, I wouldn’t be surprised if this were actually some sort of endorsement for the JSDF…
@@JFJD your correct in your assumption
in the original japanese version during the credits theres a text crawl (ommited from the international release) saying the events of the game was actually a secret military test to find candidates for special forces
@@krystalfan interesting...it was actually odd that from one level to another you were a student, then a fighting pilot. The japanese version is more accurate about this.
One of my friends had this game. As a kid, we were never good at it.
We just got the password for the final level from another friend (who likey got it from Nintendo Power) and used that to play whatever level we wanted. Didn't matter if we sucked at it, we had fun.
This is one of the first games I've ever played. I freakin' love Pilotwings.
I could never beat this game but it was just so addictive
You couldn't even beat an egg
@@ef1265you couldn't beat my mea-
Nvm
But clearly you READ silly text “speech”
I almost dislocated my neck when i saw this while scrolling lol. The original Pilot Wings on SNES was basically a tech demo...and even more so on the N64. And at 40 years old, id still happily lose MANY hours playing either right now
Agreed. This game and Wings2 aces high were pretty much the only games that stayed in my system for more than a weekend at a time.
Pilotwings games were always essentially tech demos but they were all fun!
No, they are games, prat
Come to a resort for a vacation, leave by getting conned into joining the military.
I still love the graphics and concept of this game to this day but I never managed to get good at it.
I never played Pilotwings on the SNES, but when we got a N64 my mom rented Pilotwings 64 for us and we had a blast with it. I remembered it so fondly that later on, I got Pilotwings Resort on the 3DS and it was a hoot, too. Thanks, Mom :D
I have a similar story, I never played Pilotwings either, but instead of getting it on the N64 my mother abandoned me on a doorstep and they had to rush me to the hospital. You might be my long lost brother.
The soundtrack to this game is a masterpiece.
who would've thought that the least popular launch title on the snes gained a cult following
Honestly its a game that can definitely be remade today but with modern elements
Theres a sequel on 3ds that has the miis dedication and progression thats how great sequels are made
I do know there was a sequel on the n64
Shut the h3ll up
I think what helps is it's easy to learn, hard to master. The point system is pretty fair and objective and challenges you to do better. The play control works really well and the levels get progressively harder but you don't have to be perfect. It's a very well made game.
Wow the memories! The look on the instructors faces when you got a perfect score. The attack helicopter mission was a favorite as well.
It´s crazy what that game means to me. In Brazil, year 1993, I´d "rent" this game same way we did with VHS tapes at blockbuster. We´d have it for the weekend and it was my very first flight simulator. I got my pilot´s license and till this day I have both MSFS and pilotwings running on my computer. Truly a life changing game! TKS Nintendo
Oh wow! This is where my love for aviation started. 8-10 yrs old playing this, already hit up blockbuster, and it's friday night with a pizza on the way and cinnamon toast crunch and Saturday morning cartoons when i wake up from my night in my living room fort. Life is good.
This and F-Zero were probably my two favorite non-fighting SNES games. Fond memories of this game!
I still don't get why this was left off the classic.
I’m still surprised at the final missions of the game, you suddenly get thrown into combat to rescue hostages from terrorists…
It gets pretty difficult after the first half. I can’t even begin to count how many times I had to redo the night missions.
@@tedpilledtonysoprano5512 The night mission has the terrorists add a lot more batteries and turrets to defend the base, I noticed, which is why it’s best to take them out before attempting to make a landing at the helipad.
Terrorists in a flight simulator?
Uhhhh... that didn't age well....
@@garfieldlazylasagna1234 What other flight simulator had it?
If I knew this, I probably would've spent more time with this game but I dismissed it as just a bunch of parachute tutorials.
I still remember how the game and system smelled when I got this for Christmas so many years ago. What an optimistic time that was for gaming and for what the future would bring. Would have never thought games could get worse and lose their fun but here we are watching games from 25 years ago bc the games now are only made to make a profit.
There's something calming about this game
"...and that kids is how learned to fight the Nazis" - my Grandpa
Rocketbelt was my go-to on this game. I saved my bacon with that bonus stage so many times after I outright failed other equipment
I'll never forget the day my friend showed me "human lawn darts". Parachuting without deploying the chute.
Man, this brought back some fond memories. I played the crap out of this game back in the day! Thanks for this!
This game was the absolute pinnacle of home console gaming.
Hours and hours of just chilling and flying around. Good old memories.
Thanks for the nostalgia hit. Like a lot of other people here, I played this all the time, but never got good at it.
Loved both this and Pilotwings 64. Spent so much time in 64 just flying the gyrocopter around in the little America map.
Great game. Maybe the first game I ever beat
They forget this game forever, it a pity😢
this hit me hard! healing my inner child experience. 2024 anyone? :)
i soooo love the OST of this game, the piano/jazz vibe is really calming and relaxing now! :D
Still holds up to this day.
Nailing that moving platform on skydiving, after opening at 70ft...
One of my favorite rentals back in those olden times. I will say it looks much better on a 4:3 27 inch CRT Television than my crisp monitor.
I remember me and my buddy used to play this game all the time.
Stopped by to watch the high impact action and stayed for the music!
Oh my god I forgot this game existed the music just took me back
I had a friend who was obsessed with Shirley. I swear he would throw games just to see her "disappointed" expression.
Solid babe, that Shirley
The SNES launch library wasn't playing around!
I picked up Pilotwings much later on (my first game for the SNES was Contra III) and was very impressed with the way it looks and feels. Then I discovered it was one of the SNES' launch titles!
0:19-0:46 I play this music on my phone every time I go to airports and wait for flights.
This was an amazing game with an even better sound track. Loved the shit out of this game.
I freaking loved this game!. I am now a commercial airline pilot and credit this game.
Not really but I did have dreams that were crushed by the never ending stream of negative consequences known as life.
Happy labor day weekend 2024
My dad and I would play this for hours when I was a kid, this and Turn n' Burn: No Fly Zone
I'm glad that Nintendo put this and a practical HD remake of pilot Wings 64 on their network.😊
Oh man, this brings back memories!
The SFC/SNES had a ton of variety even during the "launch window" in 1990.
*Super Mario World* - _platform_
*F-Zero* - _racing_
*Bombuzal* - _puzzle_
*Populous* - _God game_
*ActRaiser* - _platform/God game_
*Final Fight* - _beat 'em up_
*Gradius 3* - _scrolling shooter_
*PilotWings* - _flight simulator_
*SD The Great Battle* - _shoot 'em up_
God damn it I played the shit out of this and it never got old.
The first game I rented wasn't good at all then played it again got the hang of it
the designer of the game definitely added an unfinished 'other game' as the final levels.
I love the logic of the end level. High altitude, lights on, and noisy. Lol!
Rocketbelt theme GOATed.
Great job on your gold license!
Now you must kill for my benefit
One of my favorites
My first game alongside SimCity. Good times.
Simcity was one of my favorites. My parents gave me it and F-Zero with my SNES for Xmas.
Only I among my friends managed to finish this cartridge..! Very fun.
*Flies full throttle in a descent to the threshold, touches down at 200MPH over the "never exceed" speed for the airplane*
The flight instructor's face is accurate at least 😅
Coolest SNES game ever
To this day, I still hum the rocketpack song when I'm walking around.
Got this at launch and I still love it to this day.
It was the first time ive seen these effects in a videogame.
I never played this game. The graphic are seriously impressive.
hours and hours i played this....i always wished nintendo would do a revisit of this,
Pilotwings was so freaking awesome
Never seen that ending. Couldn’t beat the helo level. Bravo
one of my first three games for the system, that , Fzero and ActRaiser. what a great christmas that was
one of favorite Super Nes games from the 90s.
talk about a classic
Men, good old memories, every evening after finishing HW, getting each gold medals plus de heli secret mission
All anyone wanted was the helicopter part. that is why we all played this game.
Pilotwings is a masterpiece, always fun.
Mode 7!
Top gun top game❤
I still love this game!
The flying missions in GTA San Andreas remind me a lot of this game.
I don't think any game made me so angry as this one. Yeah it was a skill issue. My cousin was inhumanly good at it though. Basically after not playing for 20 years, he's still basically pixel perfect 99% of the time.
THIS ONE! THE VERY FIRST PILOTWINGS IT WAS IMPOSSIBLE & DIFFICULT! FOR ME!! I GOT SO ANGRY ON THIS GAME!! & MARIO KART 64 CPU SPEED!!! TOOK FOREVER!!!! TO BEAT THEM I WAS STRUGGLING AND STRESSED OUT AND ANGRY AT THESE!!!!! (Note) The Upper Case Letters Are The Ones That Don't have "Note" Meaning I'm Not Kidding It Was So Difficult! For Me! And I Finally Beated These Two! I'M NOW STARTING TO LIKE MARIO KART ANYMORE!!! INCLUDING SUPER SMASH BROS ULTIMATE AND MARIO KART 8 DELUXE THEY ARE BROKEN!!!
People don’t realize how revolutionary this game was…
It was this game that made me get a snes back in 1992 (think it was ) alongside Mario kart and street fighter…great times..
1990 in Japan and South Korea, 1991 in North America, 1992 in Europe and 1993 in South America.
must have been 92 then I thought i was 19 when I got my snes..but 22 them according to you..
You did so well you get play a Strike game for a level.
Need some 16xAA for real. Never played this game. Tecmo Bowl was my go-to!
Very clever early 3d game using Mode7 scaling instead of polys.
This is classic that I remember being really difficult.
Yet another old game that was too difficult for me. Thanks, TH-cam!
This must have been a revolutionary game.
I was basically in diapers when I was playing this game!
*and now I'm an young adult*
I just came here for the reaction on the first two instructors faces.
What an amazing game to come out at that time, when i was a kid I saw it in the shop and thought it looked bad.
I didn't understand it was mode 7, I had never really seen anything quite like it on a console.
This is the first time since i was a kid playing this game on the SNES i found there's a bonus level 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
37:43 - MAN, you sure cut that one close....
What a gem this is
Those helicopter missions were very risky on the original software!
Just one hit and you have to start from the beginning again.
But thanks to 'Restore Points' on the Nintendo Switch or 'Rewind Ability' on the SNES mini, you can now correct your false moves as many times!
8:00 WTF lol
1:57 ahh, my first video game jumpscare
((furious blinking intensifies))
I used to pretend I was a spy on a secret mission during the skydiving as a kid.
nintendo should make a new pilotwings and take full advantage of the movement sensors on the switch
Daddy Tony! haha 😍
Pilotwings plays more like a tech demo showcasing what the Super Nintendo could do instead of being a full fledged game. In a later era of video gaming this would be a pack-in title akin to Wii Sports and Astro's Playroom.
First rule about Flight Club...
What a game…!