Pilotwings

In Pilotwings, the player attempts to earn pilot licenses through lessons in light plane flight, hang gliding, skydiving, and the use of a rocket belt. Bonus stages and levels involving an attack helicopter are also available. Each event offers unique controls and gameplay mechanics. To increase the realism of the game's flight simulation, the developers extensively utilized the SNES's Mode 7 capability, which mimics 3D graphics by rotating and scaling flat objects. The game was well-received upon its release, largely thanks to its graphical presentation. The game has since been re-released for the Wii and Wii U Virtual Console and the Nintendo Classics service in PAL regions, North America, and Japan, as well as New Nintendo 3DS in North America. A sequel, Pilotwings 64, was released for the Nintendo 64 in 1996. After many years of announcements and cancellations, Nintendo released a second sequel, Pilotwings Resort, in 2011 for the Nintendo 3DS.

• Title — Pilotwings • Developer — Nintendo EAD • Publisher — Nintendo • Director — Tadashi Sugiyama • Producer — Shigeru Miyamoto • Programmer — Shuhei Kato Hajime Yajima Takumi Kawagoe • Artist — Naoki Mori • Composer — Soyo Oka Koji Kondo • Platforms — Super Nintendo Entertainment System • Series — Pilotwings • Genre — Flight simulation • Modes — Single-player

Pilotwings takes place at a flight club which is divided into four distinct training areas. The player's objective is to pass each training area and earn licenses based on the difficulty of the courses. Each area features 2—4 events, which may be played in any order. In each event, the player controls one of four aerial vehicles and must complete a task (usually flying through floating markers) then land safely and accurately within a time limit. Upon completing an event, the player earns points and receives comments from the instructors. Points are awarded based on criteria such as the time taken to complete the event, the accuracy of the landing, and the completion of the stated objective. To pass a training area and move to the next one, the combined scores from the events must exceed a specific threshold. Each training area can be replayed if necessary, and passwords allow players to save their progress. • Illustration — The screenshot shows a pink hang glider in flight above an airstrip compound at sea. A dotted ring and a rising air thermal are visible in the background. The player's radar, altitude, and time are visible at the top of the image. The four events are: • Light plane: The player pilots a biplane through a course of orbs or rings, then lands and stops it on the runway. • Skydiving: The player jumps from a helicopter at a high altitude and maneuvers by leaning forward and back, and by rotating on a horizontal axis. The player must fall through rings of orbs in the sky before deploying the parachute, and must then attempt to land in a target area made up of concentric circles. • Jet pack: The player takes control of a rocket belt, which can be controlled with left and right yaw rotation, leaning forward and back to control speed. High and low levels of thrust allow high speed and finer control, respectively. The player must take off and fly through a series of rings, bars, or other objects before landing in a target area. • Hang gliding: The player guides the hang glider to a series of thermal currents to reach a specified altitude, and then land as close as possible to the center of a gray square target. Some events have bonus stages that add to a player's score, even if it has already reached the maximum number. In the skydiving, rocket belt, and hang glider modes, landing on moving platforms rewards players with a perfect score, and a bonus stage for extra points may be earned by falling into the water of a target area. These stages include maneuvering a diving penguin into a pool, bouncing a winged man across a series of trampolines, and flying another winged man as far as possible. After completing the certification courses for all four training zones, the player is informed that an agent has infiltrated an enemy base ("EVIL Syndicate") on the fictional Izanu Island and has freed the player's kidnapped instructors, who are waiting to be rescued. The player must fly an attack helicopter from an offshore aircraft carrier and retrieve the captives by landing on a helipad on the island. As the player flies over the island, they must successfully dodge anti-aircraft fire from ground-based turrets which are able to shoot down the helicopter and end the game with a single hit. The helicopter has forward, backward, left, and right pitch controls, rotor throttle controls for altitude, and left and right missile firing controls. After completing the mission, the player earns the "Pilot's Wings" certificate and replay the training areas with inclement weather conditions and higher score requirements, followed by another nighttime helicopter mission. Clearing the second helicopter mission awards the player with the golden "Pilot's Wings", and completion of the game.

Pilotwings was developed by Nintendo Entertainment Analysis and Development (EAD), a team consisting of members of the company's Research & Development divisions, under the leadership of producer Shigeru Miyamoto. Nintendo EAD completed Pilotwings and two other games (Super Mario World and F-Zero) within 15 months of the debut of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Pilotwings was released in Japan on December 21, 1990, one month after the system's launch, and was later released in North America in August 1991 as a launch title. The game's musical score was composed by Soyo Oka, while her superior Koji Kondo was responsible for the sound programming and the helicopter theme. Six tracks from the game, including a rearranged version of the skydiving theme, appeared on the Nintendo Super Famicom Game Music album, released in Japan on March 4, 1992. Six piano-arranged versions of songs from the game were included on the Nintendo Super Famicom Game Music: Fun Together with Beyer CD, which was released in Japan on November 30, 1993. A flight simulator game resembling Pilotwings called Dragonfly was shown during the official unveiling of the SNES to the Japanese press on November 21, 1988. The game was used to demonstrate the system's Mode 7 graphics system, which allows rotation, scaling, and other effects to be used on flat images to create a 3D effect. Because the game does not use the coprocessor chip Super FX, the true Super NES 3D technology, the buildings, runway, trees, and so on are all "painted" flat on the ground plane, and they appear to stick out of the ground when the player's viewpoint is far above.

N64 Pilotwings 64 (2018) — Internet Archive. N64 Pilotwings 64.covern (2018) — Internet Archive.