AeroWings

Pros • Fabulous airplane models • An unusual game concept • Spectacular replays (when you get the aerobatics right) • Weird extras (like flying a dolphin) • Some beautiful and scenic flight areas	Cons • Some very poorly rendered flight areas • Moments of slowdown on the Dreamcast? • Not enough drills and demonstrations • Control stick is too small and too touchy • Lack of details in both briefing and debriefing • None of the 13 camera angles is wide enough • Great leaps in difficulty level
Bottom Line A creative and enjoyable game concept dragged down by control difficulties and skimping on the details There is a furious debate raging in Canada. In recent papers released by the Canadian Department of National Defence, the Federal Government plans to institute more funding cuts to DND which will include the Air Force. Announced cuts include potential grounding of The Canadian Forces 431 Air Demonstration Squadron, the Snowbirds, following the 2001 Airshow Season. They have called nonessential. Defenders of the Snowbirds claim that besides being a valuable training experience for Royal Canadian Air Force pilots, the military aerobatic team is a source of National Pride, akin to the RCMP Musical Ride, and do not want to see this symbol of Canada done away with. Crave Entertainment’s AeroWings is subject to the same debate. The game is arguably nonessential to your Dreamcast experience. It has moments of ennui, stretches of frustration, periods of confusion and instances of disappointment. On the other hand, there is a decided sense of personal pride and accomplishment to successfully completing a Vertical Cupid or other beautiful aerobatic display. The game concept is surprisingly enjoyable but some poor implementation results in personal apathy as to whether The Blue Impulse Team of AeroWings stays or is done away with.

I admit that the concept of creating a game out of flying in an aerobatic demonstration team struck me as weird, if not downright silly. Flight sims bore me with a capital B and flying around in formation, streaming coloured diesel smoke was not a game concept that leapt out at me. I suspect that the majority of gamers had similar reaction to AeroWings.

Surprisingly, it is not the game concept that is flawed. Watching the replay of a perfectly executed display via the multitude of camera angles is a proud moment for any living room jet jock. Working through the practice displays is enormously engaging and makes up for the lack of action with emphasis on precision. The actual game concept is excellent. It is in the details of implementation that AeroWings goes awry.

Deviation Number One: Control

A tiny and touchy little analogue thumbstick is no way to pilot an aircraft. It is perhaps unfair to lay this at the developers feet since, after all, they had nothing to do with the design of the Dreamcast controller. However, the airplanes are so responsive that the slightest (we are talking minute) imprecision throws your aircraft out of formation and calls down the verbal wrath of your flight leader. It is possible to set control response to "loose," which makes it a little easier to stay on course, but when your flight leader indicates that you ought to begin your roll, "Now," he means "Now" with normal control. If your control is set to loose, your aircraft reacts too slowly, blowing the demonstration. You can’t win.

Deviation Number Two: Details

Aspiring pilots are not given enough information to succeed in AeroWings. This is mainly apparent during pre flight briefing and post flight debriefing. The game plays out in a series of practice and then demonstration missions. Before each flight, the pilot is given a briefing of what gyrations the aircraft must be put through. They begin with simple take off and landing procedures, progress through loops and barrel rolls and into formation flights. On some of the individual flights, the pilot is given careful instrumental instructions to follow (i.e. to mount the pitch to 15 degrees, or to keep the G-forces between 2.5 and 3.5), but most of the flights do not give this sort of instruction, and because of the camera rigidity, must be played from a non-cockpit view so such instructions wouldn’t be that useful except that they would help gamers learn what exactly they are doing as they wiggle the flight stick around.

The debriefing is worse. The debriefing, as the briefing did, shows what the pilot was supposed to do and how many points were deducted for failing to do so, but what ought to be shown is what the pilot actually did. Often, at the end of a flight, because the briefing was inadequate and the pilot got confused, the gamer already knows that the flight went awry, but not where or how. Worse, none of the camera angles are wide enough to keep the formation in view once the gamer deviates the slightest bit from the perfect course and so, one is left frustrated and unsure what went wrong or even how badly one was out of formation during the flight or how to correct it. Sometimes you might even get credited with success without ever figuring out what, exactly, you did.

Neither are there enough training missions. The twenty missions, instead of smoothly progressing through difficulty, take sudden leaps and the gamer goes from enjoying some success to controller hurling frustration and confusion. I’m sure that flight sim veterans will experience less frustration, but most console gamers are new to the genre, and the game simply does not offer enough instruction to keep neophytes progressing.

Rent It

I do recommend renting AeroWings; the concept is novel enough to be worth playing until it frustrates you. Living rooms with a plentiful budget should pick it up and support a pride building air demonstration squadron. Living rooms that, like Canada, find their resources pinched will want to consider spending their budget on more essential Dreamcast experiences.

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