Pilotwings (SNES) Playthrough

A playthrough of Nintendo's 1991 flight simulation game for the Super NES, Pilotwings.
Pilotwings was one of the SNES's launch titles released alongside Super Mario World and F-Zero, and between the three, it was clear just how deadly serious Nintendo was in maintaining its dominance over the market - they pulled no punches in showing off their new 16-bit machine's fanciest features.
Though it was the least popular game in the first-party launch line-up, Pilotwings was arguably the most impressive of the trio. Relying almost entirely on the SNES's "mode 7", a feature that allowed for full scaling and rotation effects to be applied to a bitmapped background layer, Pilotwings delivered an amazing 3D experience that was like nothing else we had ever seen before. I mean, sure, F-Zero delivered speed, but it all took place on the ground. Pilotwings removed the wheels (or whatever you'd call the equivalent part on a hover car), and in doing so provided an unprecedented sense of freedom that still holds up well today.
Pilotwings poses you as a student at an amateur flight school, and the game revolves around earning licenses by mastering increasingly difficult lessons. There are a good number of events on offer: In the light plane, you've got to fly through hoops and arches and safely land on the runway. In skydiving, you leap from a helicopter and pitch your body to fly through hoops before opening your parachute for a safe landing. Rocketbelt gives you a jetpack and tasks you with touching various targets, and finally, Hang Gliding has you riding thermal updrafts to hit a required altitude before navigating your way to the landing pad.
You also get a chance at a goofy special bonus round if you do particularly well, and these have you doing things like dive-bombing a pool as a penguin and bouncing on trampolines with wings strapped on your back.
The final stage of each round changes things up quite a bit - in an amusingly melodramatic turn of events, terrorists kidnap all of the flight school instructors. It's up to you, of course, to fly the combat helicopter over the island where they're being held, destroy the anti-air batteries, and rescue them.
Pilotwings is one of those games that appears simple on the surface, but there is a lot of depth and challenge to it - the later lessons can be extremely difficult. You have to consider approach angles, wind speed and heading, gravity, and your vehicle's handling quirks all at at once, and while it might feel a bit overwhelming at first, it doesn't take too long to get used to.
Once you have the mechanics down, the real joy in Pilotwings' gameplay comes from the steady improvements you'll make as you gradually master its nuances. The controls are silky smooth and responsive and rarely require the use of more than two or three buttons.
Finally, the presentation was clearly the game's big selling point, and the reasons are obvious. The stages are surprisingly dense with detail, the multiple camera options allow you to adjust the view for gauging depth, and the framerate is impossibly smooth. And that's the one thing that screenshots of Pilotwings unfortunately cannot convey - as nice as it looks in a photo, the feeling of full 3D freedom at 60fps cannot be understated.
In 1990, most 3D games' framerates maxxed out in the teens on high-end computers, so it's not difficult to imagine the impact Pilotwings had on people when it was new. And to think it was running on a $200 video game system, not a $3000+ 386 PC!
Pilotwings was an ambitious title that capitalized on all of Nintendo's strengths and talents to provide something special.
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
NintendoComplete (www.nintendocomplete.com/) punches you in the face with in-depth reviews, screenshot archives, and music from classic 8-bit NES games!

[@NintendoComplete]

Pilotwings would've impressed at any point in the SNES's life, but as a launch title? 🤯

[@Marvel-Rogue]

I ❤ flying the hang-gliding mission's. I LIKED the whole 🎮 in General 👍🏼🛩🌅😅

[@knuclear200x]

And that OST. Chef's kiss

[@soundspark]

The game was manufactured using two different revisions of the DSP-1 chip. If your cartridge has a newer version, or your emulator implements the newer version, during the demos the plane will crash into the ground.

[@TheBathrobeWizard]

Never played it because I hated flight Sims as a kid. But I did think it was cool how it was the first 3d game I actually saw a demo for

[@jamesnelson5618]

Along with F-Zero and Super Mario World.

[@CSXIV]

One of my friends had this game. As a kid, we were never good at it. We just got the password for the final level from another friend (who likey got it from Nintendo Power) and used that to play whatever level we wanted. Didn't matter if we sucked at it, we had fun.

[@LITTLE1994]

That game was a novelty back in the day, like F-Zero.

[@VahanNisanian]

One of the best flight simulators I've ever played. Still plays extremely well. The original Japanese names of the flight instructors were Fumiya Tanaka (Tony), Ran Shirashi (Shirley), Indy Scott (Lance), and Doubei Kuroda (Big Al).

[@Dorian_Scott]

Love how "Indy Scott" is the *_only_* Americanized name out of those 4.

[@JFJD]

Do you know if the Japanese version gives any more context to what’s going on with the final missions, or the ending? Given the uniforms and everything, I wouldn’t be surprised if this were actually some sort of endorsement for the JSDF…

[@krystalfan]

@@JFJD your correct in your assumption in the original japanese version during the credits theres a text crawl (ommited from the international release) saying the events of the game was actually a secret military test to find candidates for special forces

[@FKCENSORSHIP]

I used to spend so much time popping all the white bubbles on the ground with the rocketbelt lol I still love playing this game.

[@unsaltedskies]

Pilotwings one of the highlights of my childhood. I often played all the way through to get to the helicopter mission at the end. Loved it.

[@kulrigalestout]

I never played Pilotwings on the SNES, but when we got a N64 my mom rented Pilotwings 64 for us and we had a blast with it. I remembered it so fondly that later on, I got Pilotwings Resort on the 3DS and it was a hoot, too. Thanks, Mom :D

[@gamet2004]

This is one of the first games I've ever played. I freakin' love Pilotwings.

[@SolCresta3405]

I’m still surprised at the final missions of the game, you suddenly get thrown into combat to rescue hostages from terrorists…

[@tedpilledtonysoprano5512]

It gets pretty difficult after the first half. I can’t even begin to count how many times I had to redo the night missions.

[@SolCresta3405]

@@tedpilledtonysoprano5512 The night mission has the terrorists add a lot more batteries and turrets to defend the base, I noticed, which is why it’s best to take them out before attempting to make a landing at the helipad.

[@garfieldlazylasagna1234]

Terrorists in a flight simulator? Uhhhh... that didn't age well....

[@SolCresta3405]

@@garfieldlazylasagna1234 What other flight simulator had it?

[@Des_Zee]

If I knew this, I probably would've spent more time with this game but I dismissed it as just a bunch of parachute tutorials.

[@maybeitsneato]

I still love the graphics and concept of this game to this day but I never managed to get good at it.

[@MatthiaGryffine]

I could never beat this game but it was just so addictive

[@ef1265]

You couldn't even beat an egg

[@Acanofalconpunch]

​@@ef1265you couldn't beat my mea- Nvm

[@ef1265]

@@Acanofalconpunch i don't speak silly text speech

[@spoonshiro]

Pilotwings games were always essentially tech demos but they were all fun!

[@ef1265]

No, they are games, prat

[@onemadkat]

Rocketbelt was my go-to on this game. I saved my bacon with that bonus stage so many times after I outright failed other equipment

[@fhistleb]

Come to a resort for a vacation, leave by getting conned into joining the military.

[@jamesborlan2850]

who would've thought that the least popular launch title on the snes gained a cult following Honestly its a game that can definitely be remade today but with modern elements Theres a sequel on 3ds that has the miis dedication and progression thats how great sequels are made I do know there was a sequel on the n64

[@Two2Hands]

Great game. Maybe the first game I ever beat

[@mnemonichotpocket]

"...and that kids is how learned to fight the Nazis" - my Grandpa

[@Neptune-Ringgs]

There's something calming about this game

[@dannyunger1547]

The soundtrack to this game is a masterpiece.

[@Marxiton]

They forget this game forever, it a pity😢

[@Dorian_Scott]

Still holds up to this day.

[@bass-tones]

Thanks for the nostalgia hit. Like a lot of other people here, I played this all the time, but never got good at it. Loved both this and Pilotwings 64. Spent so much time in 64 just flying the gyrocopter around in the little America map.

[@rcblazer]

I picked up Pilotwings much later on (my first game for the SNES was Contra III) and was very impressed with the way it looks and feels. Then I discovered it was one of the SNES' launch titles!

[@merlinthegray]

This was an amazing game with an even better sound track. Loved the shit out of this game.

[@michaellyons9555]

I remember me and my buddy used to play this game all the time.

[@john.infinite78]

I'm glad that Nintendo put this and a practical HD remake of pilot Wings 64 on their network.😊

[@SomeOrangeCat]

The SNES launch library wasn't playing around!

[@MoltoRubato88]

0:19-0:46 I play this music on my phone every time I go to airports and wait for flights.

[@PlayRecordGaming]

This is classic that I remember being really difficult.

[@optimusrhymz2226]

Pilotwings, a loaded bowl😊, and a ice cold drink , takes me back

[@jdtroup198683]

The first game I rented wasn't good at all then played it again got the hang of it

[@deathwingelitegantz5264]

Nailing that moving platform on skydiving, after opening at 70ft...

[@PapaWolfGTG]

To this day, I still hum the rocketpack song when I'm walking around. Got this at launch and I still love it to this day.

[@dundundata7603]

talk about a classic

[@arnoldbliss6238]

Mode 7!

[@user-io5lu9ks4g]

What a gem this is

[@philipbilisoly4858]

THIS ONE! THE VERY FIRST PILOTWINGS IT WAS IMPOSSIBLE & DIFFICULT! FOR ME!! I GOT SO ANGRY ON THIS GAME!! & MARIO KART 64 CPU SPEED!!! TOOK FOREVER!!!! TO BEAT THEM I WAS STRUGGLING AND STRESSED OUT AND ANGRY AT THESE!!!!! (Note) The Upper Case Letters Are The Ones That Don't have "Note" Meaning I'm Not Kidding It Was So Difficult! For Me! And I Finally Beated These Two! I'M NOW STARTING TO LIKE MARIO KART ANYMORE!!! INCLUDING SUPER SMASH BROS ULTIMATE AND MARIO KART 8 DELUXE THEY ARE BROKEN!!!

[@Bigbacon]

All anyone wanted was the helicopter part. that is why we all played this game.

[@Peter_1986]

The SFC/SNES had a ton of variety even during the "launch window" in 1990. *Super Mario World* - _platform_ *F-Zero* - _racing_ *Bombuzal* - _puzzle_ *Populous* - _God game_ *ActRaiser* - _platform/God game_ *Final Fight* - _beat 'em up_ *Gradius 3* - _scrolling shooter_ *PilotWings* - _flight simulator_ *SD The Great Battle* - _shoot 'em up_

[@JerBuster77]

My first game alongside SimCity. Good times.

[@NintendoComplete]

Simcity was one of my favorites. My parents gave me it and F-Zero with my SNES for Xmas.

[@seamushadron]

This is the first time since i was a kid playing this game on the SNES i found there's a bonus level 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

[@Mobius1_]

Rocketbelt theme GOATed.

[@user-rs1990]

Those helicopter missions were very risky on the original software! Just one hit and you have to start from the beginning again. But thanks to 'Restore Points' on the Nintendo Switch or 'Rewind Ability' on the SNES mini, you can now correct your false moves as many times!

[@JediPhoenix1976]

37:43 - MAN, you sure cut that one close....

[@elvisramone8950]

Top gun top game❤

[@knuclear200x]

1:57 ahh, my first video game jumpscare

[@kz1000ps]

((furious blinking intensifies))

[@bluetooth2677]

I never played this game. The graphic are seriously impressive.

[@Aaron-by3ke]

Pilotwings plays more like a tech demo showcasing what the Super Nintendo could do instead of being a full fledged game. In a later era of video gaming this would be a pack-in title akin to Wii Sports and Astro's Playroom.

[@rodrigosilva-gl9ns]

The flying missions in GTA San Andreas remind me a lot of this game.

[@jaysonwoodson9508]

I was basically in diapers when I was playing this game! *and now I'm an young adult*

[@8ullfrog]

I still don't get why this was left off the classic.

[@andrewdyke5561]

Ive never knew there was a bonus level in stage 2

[@c4ncerino]

Daddy Tony! haha 😍

[@nintendokenakasuperyoshi1518]

Will you be doing a playthrough of Axelay?

[@EminencePhront]

8:00 WTF lol

[@Sammydx1]

I dont think i ever got certified :(

[@crustman5982]

Great job on your gold license! Now you must kill for my benefit

[@user-dn5jp8ey6g]

well this is plotwinged

[@karinamunoziparraguirre21]

What happens in the end?

[@andrewdyke5561]

I cant ever get to flight stage 4 the airplane one in 3 kills me

[@ericbrynelson9725]

Splat ^^

[@joshuaizzo8893]

I suck at this game

[@KirkLee1983]

I hated this game