The first pilotwings on the SNES showed off the mode 7 capabilities of the SNES. Then came the Nintendo 64 around 5 years later. It had 3D polygon graphics like no other system. As a launch title for the system. Like the previous game. It shows off the N64's graphical capabilities. Instead of flat landing areas you have 3D islands that have great scenery and they look smooth and clean. Believe it or not this game is actually similar to the previous title. 

GAMEPLAY C+: Pilotwings 64 has decent gameplay. I'll concentrate on the good things first. Nintendo did a good job making a simulator actually fun to play. However only about one half of the game is fun to play. The gyrocopter stages are fun. You control a little helicopter and usually you have to go through rings and land on the land strip correctly. However in some missions you have to shoot targets with missiles. The hang glider stages are okay, like the gyrocopter missions you have to go through rings in most of the missions. The bad part about some of the hang glider missions is that in some of them you have to take pictures of things. The scoring system is harsh in these missions!! If you are not perfect, you get very few freaking points!! The rocket belt stages are the worst. There is bad controls for the rocket belt. You can only make it go forward backward left and right. You can't go diagonally. So to move diagonally you have to switch between forward and up at a fast rate. 

GRAPHICS A- The graphics are quite impressive. The islands are just pure eye candy and the scenery is amazing. Islands each have their own look and feel. The bad part about the graphics is the how terribly blocky the characters are. In Mario 64 which was another launch title. The characters look great. So for something as graphically demanding as a flight simulator you would expect something as basic as the characters to look decent. 

SOUND C-: The music is a mixed bag. The voice samples are extremely annoying. They are so high pitched that if you hear them you will get very, very ticked off.

ADDICTIVENESS B+: It depends on what mission your doing. You will want the rocket belt missions to end soon, but you would want to keep doing the gyrocopter missions.

DEPTH B: This game is not giant, but there is still plenty of missions and some bonus games. You can choose from 8 characters and they each have an effect on how a vehicle functions.

DIFFICULTY MEDIUM HARD: Once you start the game. The missions are easy to play and fun. Then as you progress the game the missions get harder and harder. Soon you will be retrying the same mission over and over again several times.

OVERALL RATING B

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