Hobbies And Interests
Wii Sports Resort
While not strictly a flight game, Wii Sports Resort does offer three flight-related mini-games. The air sports category consists of skydiving, island flyover and dogfight. Skydiving lets up to four players perform tricks as they plummet through the sky toward Wuhu Island. Island flyover is strictly a single-player offering. You hold the Wii Remote (with Wii MotionPlus attached) like a paper airplane to pilot your plane through the sky. Thrust forward to speed up, and twist and turn to perform tricks. It provides quite a bit of depth as you can try to find 80 information points scattered around the island and shoot at balloons. Dogfight is a two-player game. It has the same controls and setting as island flyover, but instead of just looking for information points, you'll be aiming to blast your opponent out of the sky.
The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces
The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces is based off a Japanese novel series and anime film of the same name. Although it features storytelling and plot development, you'll spend the bulk of your time in the cockpit. The game takes place in a world where war no longer exists, but mega-corporations hold dog-fighting competitions to make headlines and earn money since war sells. You control the action with motion controls by using the Nunchuk to steer your plane and the Wii Remote as the throttle. If this proves too challenging, you can also switch to more traditional controls using the analog stick and buttons. After each mission you'll be able to save and watch a replay of the action from multiple camera angles.
Star Fox 64 (Virtual Console)
Nintendo's famous, groundbreaking flight-simulator, Star Fox 64, makes a return via the Nintendo Wii Virtual Console. You can download the classic title from the Wii Shop Channel for the standard N64 game price of 1000 Wii points ($10 US). Most of the game is played as an on-rails shooter, where you'll automatically progress through the levels with only the ability to move left, right, up and down. Certain levels allow you to move freely, although this doesn't change the game play too much since Star Fox 64 thrives as an on-rails arcade-style shooter where the fun comes from blasting away at dozens of enemies and dodging fire.