Review: Pilotwings Resort

Return to Wuhu Island.


Launch titles are important. They can raise the profile of a new video game system or doom it to obscurity. Pilotwings Resort, one of three first-party launch titles for the Nintendo 3DS, is not a “killer app” like Halo: Combat Evolved – which helped sell Microsoft’s Xbox – but it is a well-designed and well-presented game for players of all ages. If only it was a little bit longer.

The setting for Pilotwings Resort is Wuhu Island, an archipelago made famous in Wii Sports Resort for the Nintendo Wii. Although the graphics are nothing special – Monster Games simply recycled old Wii Sports designs and templates – Wuhu Island is capable of some truly breathtaking vistas, especially during sunset and especially with the 3D effect turned on.



Speaking of the 3D effect, in Pilotwings it enhances form and function. The 3D looks great: aircraft move believably around buildings, mountain peaks, and waterfalls, all of which are appropriately shallow or deep, depending on distance. During my first Wuhu mountain flyover, I actually inhaled nervously as my plane came dangerously close to a section of the mountain projecting upward and outward – it’s that realistic. But the extra depth that 3D technology brings is also practical. It is far easier to maneuver and land your aircraft (especially the rocket belt) with the 3D turned up.

Pilotwings Resort contains two modes of play: mission flight mode, in which players complete challenges with specific aircraft; and free flight mode, in which players can explore the exterior and interior of Wuhu Island using any type of aircraft. Mission flight mode is made up of roughly three dozen missions, which increase in difficulty as players move through higher levels, e.g., Bronze, Silver, and Gold. The learning curve in Pilotwings is exemplary; shorter, easier missions are gradually replaced with longer, trickier, and more demanding challenges. Aircraft used include a plane, hang glider, and rocket belt (think jet pack). At the end of each mission, players receive a score from one to three stars depending on a number of factors: completion time, accuracy, impact, checkpoints cleared, etc. Three-star scores are required to progress to the next mission tier.


Free flight mode, conversely, is a more leisurely experience. All of Wuhu Island is open for exploration via plane, glider, and rocket belt (along with a few hidden aircraft). Depending on the type of aircraft, certain icons, tokens, and trophies appear throughout the island. All can be collected and used to unlock 3D dioramas in the main menu. Free flight mode is particularly beneficial because mission flight mode is so short. In fact, the main game can be beaten in less than three hours. Sure, players can return to completed missions to achieve perfect scores, but most of Pilotwings’ replay value is in its free flight mode.

Pilotwings represents an interesting synthesis of old-school Nintendo magic and new-school Nintendo accessibility. On one hand, it features Mii characters and graphics similar to those in Wii Sports Resort; on the other hand, it embraces that old-fashioned “easy to learn, impossible to master” game mentality. The final product is a solid launch title for the newest Nintendo handheld.

Score: 7.5

A Banner Year for Resident Evil

Good news for Resident Evil fans: Capcom will release three brand new Resident Evil (RE) games in 2012, and they all look great. It’s been more than two years since the last new Resident Evil game (sorry Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D), and Capcom is more than making up for lost time.

Resident Evil Revelations, the first RE game to be released in 2012, will be exclusive to Nintendo’s newest handheld system, the 3DS. Set between the events of Resident Evil 4 and 5, Revelations follows series mainstay Jill Valentine and her new partner as they search for Chris Redfield on a derelict cruise ship. Revelations will feature several new gadgets, including “Genesis” scanning equipment that analyzes enemy weaknesses and uncovers hidden items. More importantly, the game will (thankfully) return to the series’ roots: survival-horror. Capcom has promised a scarier, more claustrophobic experience – something that resembles the first installments of Resident Evil, not the more recent titles. In fact, for the first time ever in a Resident Evil game, players can explore underwater areas, no doubt teeming with terrifying creatures.



For those who care less about inventory management and ammo conservation and more about non-stop action and cooperative play, look no further than Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City (ORC), one of the most ambitious and original RE games yet. ORC takes place in September 1998, during the events of Resident Evil 2 and 3. However, the similarities end there. In ORC, players control one of six unique members of Umbrella Security Services, the Special Forces unit ordered to destroy evidence of the T-Virus outbreak and kill all survivors, including one of the two heroes of Resident Evil 2, Leon S. Kennedy. In Operation Raccoon City, you are the bad guy.

Unlike earlier titles, ORC is a team-based shooter; players work as a team to accomplish goals and earn experience. The campaign mode features both single-player and four-player cooperative play.



Then there's Resident Evil 6, announced just last week. Details are scarce, but it appears that both Chris Redfield and Leon Kennedy will be playable characters, a series first. From the trailer, Leon's trials look to be more in line with the gameplay in Revelations – spooky, suspenseful, nerve-shredding – while Chris' adventures in China more closely resemble scenes from Gears of War or Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. Hiroyuki Kobayashi, head of the development team behind RE6, stated in a Capcom press release:

"From the outset the team’s intention was to create an experience that delivers a gripping storyline, tense single-player and co-op action all set against a constant theme of horror. We are calling this fusion dramatic horror and are confident it will resonate with both existing fans of the series as well as newcomers.”

Fans of Resident Evil might as well get used to "dramatic horror" because this seems to be where Capcom wants the series to go.



Release schedule:

Resident Evil: Revelations
Nintendo 3DS
February 7, 2012

Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City
Xbox 360/PS3
March 20, 2012

Resident Evil 6
Xbox 360/PS3
November 20, 2012

Amazon.com Gold Box Sale

Those looking for price cuts on video game products might be interested in the Gold Box event featured on Amazon.com starting tomorrow, January 24. The sale begins at midnight Pacific time, and will feature video game products all day.

SOPA and the Video Game Industry

After yesterday's internet blackout, the largest of its kind since Al Gore and the reanimated head of Walt Disney invented the internet, it appears that SOPA and its ugly cousin PIPA are dead in the water. In the past 36 hours, 18 senators, including seven former co-sponsors, have dropped their support for PIPA.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with SOPA and PIPA, here's a short summary. The "Stop Online Piracy Act" (H.R 3261), and the Protect IP Act (S.968) are two separate but highly similar pieces of legislation aimed at giving greater legal leverage to companies and individuals to seek penalties against foreign and domestic website owners who post copyrighted content online. Under both pieces of legislation, the party seeking damages could request an injunction against the alleged perpetrating website, or more easily start litigation against the website owners. The legislation has been widely supported by Hollywood and the music industry to protect them against the ever-increasing amount of copyrighted content that makes its way onto the internet. The controversy of SOPA and PIPA stem from the fact that both pieces of legislation give broad authorization to the office of the Attorney General to block or prosecute the alleged offenders. Because the criminal penalties assigned under the legislation for violation of the new regulations are so steep, the fear is that any website owner accused of piracy would likely have to shut down, or be blocked by search engines and content providers. In short, the concern is that these pieces of legislation will limit free speech.

How have video game companies, large and small, reacted to SOPA and PIPA? Well, that's a difficult question to ask because there has been an abundance of misleading articles about this issue. In late December, several stories broke online that video game giants Nintendo, Sony Electronics, and Electronic Arts had quietly dropped support for SOPA and PIPA. The problem? Nintendo, Sony, and EA never officially supported the controversial legislation, and thus could not withdraw support that never existed. The three companies did sign onto a letter from the US Chamber of Commerce that urged Congress to support something like SOPA, before SOPA had ever been introduced.

That's not the end of the story, however. One of the approximately 120 organizations who currently support SOPA is the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), the video game industry's trade association in the United States. Members of the ESA include Nintendo, Sony, and EA, along with familiar names like Microsoft, Atari, Capcom, Sega, Konami, and Ubisoft, among others. A full list of members can be found here.

ESA released this statement on January 3, 2012:

"As an industry of innovators and creators, we understand the importance of both technological innovation and content protection, and do not believe the two are mutually exclusive. Rogue websites – those singularly devoted to profiting from their blatant illegal piracy – restrict demand for legitimate video game products and services, thereby costing jobs. Our industry needs effective remedies to address this specific problem, and we support the House and Senate proposals to achieve this objective. We are mindful of concerns raised about a negative impact on innovation. We look forward to working with the House and Senate, and all interested parties, to find the right balance and define useful remedies to combat willful wrongdoers that do not impede lawful product and business model innovation."

What this means is that all of the video game companies listed on the ESA website tacitly approve of SOPA, even if there are no official press releases from those companies to that effect. Yet the huge backlash against SOPA and PIPA seems to be taking its toll. Yesterday, Microsoft released this statement:

“We oppose the passage of the SOPA bill as currently drafted. We think the White House statement points in a constructive way to problems with the current legislation, the need to fix them, and the opportunity for people on all sides to talk together about a better path forward.”

What is especially troubling about the ESA endorsement of SOPA, which if abused could easily curtail free speech rights, is that ESA fought and won a landmark Supreme Court case that granted video games First Amendment protection.

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Additional reporting by Elizabeth Frazier