Pilotwings 64 is a title I’ve heard about for a long time, but I only played a demo of the 3DS sequel and didn’t like it much. Now that I’ve gotten over my fear of flying, I became curious about flight simulators. While this one is an exaggerated simulator, it’s definitely more of a flight sim than a traditional plane game. I played it through the Nintendo Switch Online catalog of N64 games.

You have a few methods of flight. The first is the hang glider, which is fun at first, but the big downside is not having any means to power the flight on its own. I don’t think I’d be brave enough to try one in real life.

The next is the jetpack, which didn’t really exist back in the day, but it controls about how you’d imagine.

Then there’s the helicopter, which strangely flies like a plane for some reason. It seriously needs a runway to take off and land, which isn’t how they work in real life. It also shoots missiles for target practice.

There are various challenges for each of these. The first ones are fairly easy, but they get really hard on the next level and even more so after that.

I only spent maybe an hour with the game before calling it quits. It was probably better back in the 90s, but if this is flying high, consider my feet firmly on the ground. I can see why this has never been a AAA success for Nintendo, but rather a niche title for a select few.