Genre: Action
Developer: Paradigm Entertainment Inc.
Publisher: Nintendo

This game's visuals are what one would get crossing the Nintendo 64 with "Microsoft Flight Simulator": there is that incredibly charming, trademark low-resolution texture, major LOD pop-in "N64 aesthetic", but wedded to the ability to fly airborne over islands made up of such imagery-- it's really cool. The falling snow effect in the winter map is especially amazing. The character portraits exude Western-style 90's 'tude, which makes sense since this is in fact a Western-developed game! The menus are a nice series of pre-rendered backgrounds and colorized text.

A fellow named Dan Hess supplies the MIDI-esque soundtrack, and large amounts of it is almost "Toejam & Earl" levels of funk, with kickin' bass lines. Other songs are slower and more moody, lending themselves well to the notion of sailing through the skies. The game's sound effects are superb and oftentimes hilarious, such as the screams the characters make when crashing, or the sound the giant mech enemy makes when being shot with a missile. But most impressive is the wind noise, which picks up and backs off as the player gains and loses speed respectively-- it's extremely convincing.

Like the original game, Pilotwings 64 involves doing aerial-related challenges by controlling vehicles such as jetpacks and hang gliders. The most fun apparatus in this title is the gyrocopter, which flies like an airplane and lends a more pure flight simulation vibe to the gameplay. There are a handful of maps, each of which is an island. The coolest one is a miniturized version of the United States. The objective is to earn points in each challenge-- enough points earns increasingly prestigious licenses for each vehicle, unlocking the next tier of challenges.

The original Pilotwings was innovative for sure, but the idea didn't feel fully realized until married to the Nintendo 64's real 3D capabilities. The concept really soars into its own, and flying over polygonal terrain through hoops, taking photographs of a launching space shuttle, and all sorts of other shenanigans is a lot of fun. The end credits don't take too long to reach, but getting gold medals across-the-board would require a lot of practice. Overall, Pilotwings 64 is a really solid N64 launch title with a spunky attitude and a penchant for showing off the hardware's capabilities.