Collection essentials #237: Pilotwings (SNES)

Pilotwings was one of the few launch titles for the SNES, and it was specifically designed to showcase its capabilities. Specifically, it makes extensive use of the SNES’s “Mode 7” graphical capabilities, which allow the system to rotate and scale backgrounds in a certain way that other consoles at the time could not. 


This is a flight sim game that offers a few different methods of flying (or, as Buzz Lightyear would say, “falling with style”), such as a plane, jet pack and hang glider. There are a series of small challenges that test the player’s piloting skills, such as flying through a series of rings. Once the game’s challenges are complete, the player must use a helicopter to fight actual bad guys while trying to rescue some folks.


I have to confess, I haven’t played much Pilotwings in my life at all. I never had it when I was a kid and was maybe only vaguely aware of it (if at all) for a long time. But it’s in the iconic lineup of launch titles for my favorite old system, and therefore it has to be on this list. Someday, I swear, I will actually play the darn game and make some adult memories with it.

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