My Dad, who was a commercial airline pilot, on his first time ever touching an N64 game, got a perfect score on his first go of this game, waaay back in 1997. I remember at the time I took that as a nod of approval to Paradigm for making the physics so realistic that a professional pilot is not hindered by unconventional controls, and also, that my dad really must be a natural pilot! My love for this game has never wained.
That's an awesome story man. Your dad's the man. I grew up in this era too and I wish my dad and mom were able to pickup and genuinely give videogames a try like that. I'm jealous lol they just hated on gaming in general. Sort of like the old people who refuse to use computers and the internet to this day. Oh well.
@@darkl3ad3rI just got my parents to update to smartphones like, 3 years ago. My mom was just mastering youtube and Facebook before she died last year. Fuckin sucks that there was so much for them to enjoy that they just never really let themselves. My dad less so, since he hates music and movies and stuff. But I did get him hip to lots of good utility features and even some good youtube content creators. So I know how you feel haha
@@kermitthefragg yeah well in his defense, he liked the art aspect of it, he was just way ahead of his time and understood the way it all has come to be weaponized to subliminate the masses into being sad, anxious consumers haha personally, i agree wholeheartedly but consciously choose to separate the art from the artist, so to speak, because not thinking about it makes me less sad and angry lol
Having Mario 64, this and Waverace in the first couple of months was amazing. They absolutely nailed 3d gameplay in three completely different game styles.
I played my friend's copy back in 1997 and found myself doing the same thing, I bought my own copy shortly after it's one of those top tier titles on the system IMO
@@mrfujisawa I did the same thing. I spent hours upon hours just exploring the map in mini usa. The crazy amount of easter eggs on that map blew my mind
Younger people have no concept of how mind blowing this was in 1996. Kids could not sleep after seeing this and SM64, it was unthinkable that a home console could do this.
The impact that the transition from 2D to 3D had on gamers will never happen again. This was a unique moment in the history of video games. I still remember how amazed I was when I saw Mario 64. It was the first 3D game I ever saw.
@@AlexanderPR2I think the first thing I played on N64, which must have also been the first 3D game I played, was Shadows of the Empire. The first level is a flying level and flying in that game isn't great, plus the inverted joystick every game used then, and I thought every game was going to be really hard to control.
@devanov3103 Yeah fighting that thing underwater was creepy. In the last level with the star destroyer and big battle going on I used to ignore the mission and just fly around shooting tie fighters haha.
Back in 96 a truck emblazoned with the SGI Logo parked at my university. Inside, it had various demo stations showing SGI hardware and software. There were two demos that made a lasting impression on me: a spinning cube with live video texture mapped on the faces, and a flight sim by Paradigm. Back then I was playing Air Combat on the PS1, and the leap on gfx quality was mind-blowing!
Pilotwings 64 was truly a groundbreaking game for its time. Super Mario 64 certainly gets a ton of praise for very good reason, but Pilotwings 64 deserves a lot that it never got.
The PAL version of Pilotwings 64 runs at the same speed as the NTSC version. Nintendo did not care about optimising their software, but Paradigm sure did.
I think that's because this game was done by a company that was serious simulation, they likely already made their previous software run accurately on different systems
Wouldn't make much difference bandwidth latency product difference is small. Analog QA carrier signals remember . Not sure why this is such a thing 30*525 vs 25*625 difference is like 1% probably smarter to optimize where bigger gains to be made.
@@foobarf8766 I'm not sure he's really talking about anything that makes a difference in terms of resolution, but in terms of frame rate -- PAL is 50Hz interlaced video, NTSC is 60Hz. Consoles and computers tended only to use one of the interlaced frames, so PAL= 25Hz, NTSC = 30Hz. In the C64 days, this meant that a European game has more clock cycles available between frames than an American one, so lots of American games ended up being released in Europe, but not so many transferred the other way round. A US game could be guaranteed to just play slightly slower in Europe, but a European game might crash in America, because it might not have finished generating the frame by the time the graphics chip went to draw it. By the days of the SNES and MegaDrive, American consoles actually had slightly faster processors than European ones, and the software houses were creating games that would play in all consoles worldwide, so they presumably tested them on both PAL and NTSC. However.... Traditional 2D games were clocked at a speed relative to frame rate -- Sonic moved 20% faster in the US than the UK, because there were 20% more frames every second. Even now, retro emulator speed runs often specify whether they're emulating a PAL or NTSC console, because that has a substantial effect on the final speed and time recorded. I think what AfterBurnerTeirusu is referring to here is the fact that PilotWings was using the same clock time on PAL as on NTSC, rather than the same number-of-frames time. However, I think it's a little bit overgenerous to put that down to optimisation, because calculating based on actual time elapsed is pretty standard in 3D games. It wasn't at the time, though, so I think the company deserves some credit for actually knowing that linking game time to number or frames was a silly way of doing things, but it's not really "optimisation" -- it's just using the appropriate architecture and therefore not even needing to optimise it.
The worst thing is, games like PW64 are non-existent, the super tight flight gameplay is especially rare, there is Sky Odyssey on PS2 (a masterpiece of a game), and Pilot Academy on PSP, both are brilliant flight games, sad that Factor 5's incredible looking Pilot Wings sequel, WeFly, was completed to gold standard, but never made retail release, what a prototype that would be to leak.
F-Zero would be amazing. I used to have F-Zero, X, GX, Maximum Velocity, and GP Legend.... Now, I have F-Zero. I want them all back, I want an AX cab, and I. WANT. A. NEW. F-ZERO.
As a longtime PC flight sim fanatic going all the way back to the 80’s, I still enjoy those first two Pilotwings games to this day. Resort didn’t capture the same magic for me, but I would love to see a new game with the same energy and direction of that first game: a fantasy flight club with licenses and instructor evaluations. Pilotwings 64 took the series in a more silly direction but still had legitimately fun challenges, good music and just an overall vibe that helped define that period of gaming.
Who would've thought a defense military contractor could bring one of the most memorable games on the N64. I don't wanna even talk about the soundtrack of this game, which is pure bliss 🌸
The music in Pilotwings 64 is A-tier stuff. I used to have the squeaky sound effect from the menu as my texting tone on my phone, back when people did such things.
I was never much of a fan of the N64, But Pilotwings 64 is one of my most favorite games of all time. I used to pick the gyrocopter and drive it around the maps at low speed so I didn't take off. It was like an early open-world driving game.
I think I played it at a friend's house. I never had an N64, but I remember the game, especially missing the rings with the jet pack and having to turn around.
I didn't play Pilotwings 64 until it was on the Nintendo Switch Online service. I did play the original Pilotwings on the SNES and I loved it. Speaking of flight simulation games, I've always had a soft spot for the Microsoft Flight Simulator games. I had FS98 on the PC and I also downloaded the Flight Simulator game on PC Game Pass when I had the membership. Definitely a good game.
I was about 7 or 8 when I played this, as got a few years after it came out, I loved it. And seeing this, I now know exactly how far ahead this was for the time. Amazing video as per usual.
I really enjoyed this one, thanks MVG. Pilotwings 64 is one of those very rare games that when I started playing, I couldn’t put it down until it was completed, and kept playing afterwards. A true classic!
I remember in Kitty hawk North Carolina going to actually ride some hang gliders on the sand dunes. They had a "hang gliding simulator" it was basically a flat stationary bench seat with a hang glider handle suspended but connected to a N64 controller via some cables playing this game. Very simple but is was fun to play and a great way to get the idea of how the actual real controls work.
Flying around Little States at night with that soft jazzy soundtrack was such a euphoric experience as a kid. And this is coming from someone who wasn't even yet alive when it came out.
Great fun. The 3DS version is underrated, but when played on a New 3DS using Luma to run it at higher speeds, it's a great experience and you need some great skill to be able to 100% it.
11:12 - This is the first time I've heard anyone mention Aero Fighters Assault, so shoutout! I haven't played it in probably close to 25 years, but for some reason it still pops into my head on occasion (probably cause it has such a cool name), as I remember playing it a lot lol.
Man, I'll never forget getting Mario 64, Wave Race, and Pilotwings 64 between my birthday and Christmas of '96. I hadn't gotten a 3d console until the N64, and what a way to be thrown into it. I still go back to all 3 games periodically.
Flying around in Pilot Wings 64 and just exploring the islands was such a vibe. It wasn't until the Wii Sports Resort Island Flyover, and later the Pilot Wings 3DS game's free flight mode that we got something comparable. So good.
This was probably the game I rented most from my local rental store when I was a kid. Still don't know many people that have played or even heard of it. Snowboard Kids was another one.
Stoked when they announced pilot wings 64 for NSO I only rented it a few times back in the day, and for the birdman wing issue, which I did notice it was harder than I remember, back in the day I used a turbo controller and today I have a third party GameCube controller that had a turbo function I never used but comes in handy for the birdman stages on NSO
Love this game so much. Grabbed it on launch and 100%'d it several times. Never gets old and it's amazing how the sense of scale and freedom is still there today.
Although the N64 version was a technological leap, just like the SNES version was, let's not forget that at that time we've already had Air Combat (1995) and later Ace Combat 2 (1997) on the Playstation. Sure, Ace Combat series is a completely different game but as a child flying jet fighters and shooting stuff was just more enticing.
Oh I regret that I sold my cartridge, but I owned it when I was very young. After school we always played games in my home or my friends home and we challenged eachother for a better time and landing. Once I borrowed him my game he entirely completed it with the best times and I was not able to beat his times anymore, because I was playing too much shooter games at the time. Pilotwings 64 still is one of my most special games I played in my life, because there was nothing like that ever again. 11:20 I barley remember Aero Fighter Assault, this looks pretty interessting, I want to play that now.
Brilliant game, as a kid when this came out I spent hours getting gold medals on all the missions but even longer just flying around enjoying the islands, the sights and sounds. Great review which brought back a lot of memories.
Hype was throught the roof, i had played killer instinct 1 and 2 in the arcades to such a extreme level....and at the detriment of college lol, was disapointed the n64 was not at the arcade level but still when i saw super mario 64 and pilotwings i was hyped.....i do know the texture cache was a pain point so i did always wonder how a bigger texture cache would have improved the look.
I used to spend hours pouring over every single map, looking for all the hidden details and easter eggs. My favorites were Holiday Island and Crescent Island. I loved the whales on Crescent Island.
Pilotwings 64 was mind blowing in 1996. I played alot of Flight Simulator on my PC in 1995/96... Then I saw and played Pilotwings 64 - my mind was blown with the fully 3D texture mapped terrain and objects along with a massive draw distance and incredibly deep yet fun physics and gameplay... Insane stuff for that era.
Personally to me since I was watching in awe as a kid of psp homebrew community and now that I'm an adult every console I get I mod. Mvg is a legend and and I'm always pumped for his breakdowns
I loved running around Little States in the gyro copter, driving on the streets and shooting Mount Mario for that little easter egg. If you knew where the gas stations were you could mess around for quite some time without worrying about fuel
Pilot wings was comfort gaming for me back in the 90s. I was 13 when the n64, and I actually wanted this over Mario 64(the only other choice at the time if I remember correctly)
I’ve loved Pilotwings 64 since I got it on launch in 1996. One of the chillest soundtracks, too! Recently replayed on NSO and it felt even better with the improved frame-rate and had an easier time getting all the Gold medals.
Thanks for giving some love and respect to this great title. I could never get into the SNES version, but this one was so much fun. I still pull it out from time to time and see how long I can fly around the Little States in the gyrocopter without crashing or failing to reach the petrol stand!
You didn't name Paradigm's "Beetle adventure racing"(or HSV for aussies) on the N64, it´s arguably the best looking game on the console and even fun to play.
during the US Launch of N64 there was only 2 games available, Pilotwings 64 and Mario 64, I chose Pilotwings to purchase with my console and still have and play it today.
I find your unique perspectives on the development backgrounds of niche titles to be what your channel does best. Release titles are often forgotten or undervalued as not having had long enough to cook before release, but apparently I need to give Pilotwings 64 a fresh look. Amazing work as usual.
I don't think kids today can ever understand how amazed and awed I was on Christmas morning 1996 getting the N64 and playing both Mario 64 and Pilotwings 64. Besides Star Fox in 1993, they were the first truly 3D games I'd ever played, and they felt so futuristic, like anything was possible in them.
I flew around in that bird man suit, listening to that calming music for hours and hours on end. Just exploring and enjoying the scenery. I couldn’t believe that you could fly so far in any direction. The feeling of flight was second to none and the gameplay was just fun, especially for Side-by-side multiplayer. My friend and I played this game for dozens of hours at a time. Trying to best each other and beat different stages. I always wished paradigm would have made a true flight combat game for the N64. What a great company and masters of the hardware from the very start. The game looked so incredible. As somebody else said, with this… Mario and Wave Race… gamers were in heaven. I know I was. What an incredible system. I’ll never forget the feeling of playing it.
I’m getting this one off the shelf tonight and show it some love! I rented this one back in the day at Blockbuster, and it blew me away! Thanks for the great content MVG
I remember as a kid being blown away by the explosion effect when you shot a missile at the water 7:47 . At blockbuster video's kiosk, I would just fly around and shoot the water the entire time and enjoy the splash.
The feeling of flight really was something else, very good physics, a classic game for sure. Not many people talk about it though, i remember it was super tough to get all the gold medals!
I didn't understand why my Dad liked the game so much back then. But that first level with the dark cloudy skies, and the music, it was the first game I've ever just chillaxed
I had so much fun with it as a kid and still do when I hook up my old N64! I hope Nintendo makes a new Pilotwings for the new Switch that is supposed to be coming out.
I recently got to introduce this game to some friends for their first time when i brought out my N64. Thought it would hold interest for a stage or two before we moved on. We ended up playing for over an hour before we made ourselves stop. Fantastic game that still holds up.
This game blew me away as a kid back when it came out. I have fond memories, my neighbor got a Nintendo 64 around launch and playing around with the glider is the first time I ever played the console.
What a CLASSIC game, and MAN those tunes! You can't tell me that Birdman isn't an all-time classic. Pilotwings holds up remarkably well on emulators that can bump it up to 60 fps with increased viewdistance. It just feels good to play and is bright, colorful, and fun.
Месяц назад
Fun fact: way back in the mid 90s, I was already a 3d afficionado. I remember seeing in magazines screenshots of a real time demo for a Silicon Graphics powerhouse, maybe the Onix workstation. If I remember correctly, it was a 1st person POV flying through green mountains and rivers. The graphics reminded a lot what you'd later see in N64 games, specially in Pilotwings 64. Let that sink in: N64 indeed had almost SGI workstation level of graphics, for the affordable pricetag of 250 USD. Long live the N64!
It was the first game we bought for Nintendo64 along with the console. I remember standing in line at the supermarket, my brother looking at the back of the console and me at the back of Pilotwings64. We enjoyed it immensely, played late into the night, explored every nook and cranny. I remember screaming for my brother when I found out that the gyrocopter could be refueled at the Little States gas station. It is a great unknown of the Nintendo64 catalog, a game that even many who had the console had not heard of it.
I forgot about Magic Edge! My wife and I went there for her birthday. It wasn't cheap, but it was definitely one of those places you wanted to visit at least once. Definitely an experience of a lifetime.
I play MSFS 2020 a lot and i just saw Pilotwings 64 for the first time in DECADES... and it still holds up. Forgot how amazing it was when it came out.
Other games have come out since then that allow flying through more realistic cities and landscapes but for me few games have ever captured the sheer wonder of 3D movement the way this game does
Pilot Wings was one of my all time favourite N64 games. Along with Wave Race 64. Two titles Nintendo hasn't felt the need to do much with since which is a real crime. Pilot Wing's on 3DS was pretty good, especially with the stereoscopic 3D, but being limited to a single island kept it from being great imo.
This was one of the few games I owned for the N64 and played the heck out of it. This is a good reminder that I still need to pick it up for my current classic games setup.
Terrific game, a proper sequel would be fantastic. I'm not surprised the emulation on NSO is imperfect, I can't find a way to run the game flawlessly on any emulator, there are always issues.
One of Nintendo's most underrated games. Nothing has since captured the feeling of flight like this. I was in my teens when it came out and was blown away by the draw distance and how it simulated air. I honestly thought it would inspire many other games but it still, by far, outclasses anything that came after it. I hope Nintendo gives it a proper sequel beyond the limited 3DS title. Only Ultra Wings, Namco's Gyrocopter game, and Flight Sim kind of capture the fun of Pilot Wings but it remains one of the best and unique arcade flight sims on the market and I'd love to see more developers give the formula a go. It needs more coverage and this vid really does it justice.
Use Proton Mail to DE-GOOGLE YOUR LIFE: go.getproton.me/SH1Ah
Aqui no Brasil temos que usar Proton VPN vivemos uma ditadura da toga 😢 perseguição política. Ministros lixos!
I've been using Proton Mail for the last few years, and I love it. GET OFF OF GMAIL!!!
na stick with Hotmail 😊
Not in a million years.
Maybe not
My Dad, who was a commercial airline pilot, on his first time ever touching an N64 game, got a perfect score on his first go of this game, waaay back in 1997. I remember at the time I took that as a nod of approval to Paradigm for making the physics so realistic that a professional pilot is not hindered by unconventional controls, and also, that my dad really must be a natural pilot! My love for this game has never wained.
That's an awesome story man. Your dad's the man. I grew up in this era too and I wish my dad and mom were able to pickup and genuinely give videogames a try like that. I'm jealous lol they just hated on gaming in general. Sort of like the old people who refuse to use computers and the internet to this day. Oh well.
@@darkl3ad3rI just got my parents to update to smartphones like, 3 years ago. My mom was just mastering youtube and Facebook before she died last year. Fuckin sucks that there was so much for them to enjoy that they just never really let themselves. My dad less so, since he hates music and movies and stuff. But I did get him hip to lots of good utility features and even some good youtube content creators. So I know how you feel haha
@@nintendbro3275hated music and movies and stuff!? Wut....
@@kermitthefragg yeah well in his defense, he liked the art aspect of it, he was just way ahead of his time and understood the way it all has come to be weaponized to subliminate the masses into being sad, anxious consumers haha personally, i agree wholeheartedly but consciously choose to separate the art from the artist, so to speak, because not thinking about it makes me less sad and angry lol
Having Mario 64, this and Waverace in the first couple of months was amazing. They absolutely nailed 3d gameplay in three completely different game styles.
Dont forget Turok1 those 4 games were so bad ass
wave race made this game look like shit
@@rymc420 Waverace 64 was absolutely bonkers!!! The water effects alone were very impressive.
These three games defined my Childhood
Yes, and even more amazing to realize they accomplished it with 1 joystick.
The N64/PS1/Saturn era is still my favorite gaming period. Every machine was unique & there was so much innovative software.
Yep. The golden age.
Now theyre just plastc x86 machines or ARM portables.
I would say the PS2 gen was the best for all the same reasons
@@alexnelson8 the games aged like shit
My favorite PC era as well!
I remember being so impressed with this game. I would fly around the mini usa in birdman and just be in awe. the music was so well suited too.
I played my friend's copy back in 1997 and found myself doing the same thing, I bought my own copy shortly after it's one of those top tier titles on the system IMO
Me too, I would land as close as I could on the ground as birdman and just explore all of the inside buildings.
@@mrfujisawa I did the same thing. I spent hours upon hours just exploring the map in mini usa. The crazy amount of easter eggs on that map blew my mind
My lil nephew does that too. That and the cannonball minigame
On PS1 it would've been DooM and Final Doom, as well as Medal of Honor and Medal of Honor: Underground, as my favorites.
Younger people have no concept of how mind blowing this was in 1996. Kids could not sleep after seeing this and SM64, it was unthinkable that a home console could do this.
The impact that the transition from 2D to 3D had on gamers will never happen again.
This was a unique moment in the history of video games. I still remember how amazed I was when I saw Mario 64. It was the first 3D game I ever saw.
@@AlexanderPR2I think the first thing I played on N64, which must have also been the first 3D game I played, was Shadows of the Empire. The first level is a flying level and flying in that game isn't great, plus the inverted joystick every game used then, and I thought every game was going to be really hard to control.
@devanov3103 Yeah fighting that thing underwater was creepy. In the last level with the star destroyer and big battle going on I used to ignore the mission and just fly around shooting tie fighters haha.
Heck I wouldn't even "play" the game, I'd just fly around aimlessly, enjoying the soundtrack!
I still remember controlling Mario for the first time in 3D and being blown away
Man, this was THE N64 game for me. This was the game I saw at a friend's house and had to have the console for.
This game did insane things with LOD that I'd never seen before. Felt like I was playing a military grade simulation (and for good reason).
Back in 96 a truck emblazoned with the SGI Logo parked at my university. Inside, it had various demo stations showing SGI hardware and software.
There were two demos that made a lasting impression on me: a spinning cube with live video texture mapped on the faces, and a flight sim by Paradigm.
Back then I was playing Air Combat on the PS1, and the leap on gfx quality was mind-blowing!
The feelings of the tech/gameplay experience leap with the N64 was never equaled again
Both the most relaxing and anxiety-inducing game I've ever played. I'd love this series to come back properly.
So true! Same with the SNES version, and especially those moving platform landings! 😮
Shoutout to Dan Hess for making a fantastic soundtrack to this game.
Absolutely!
I played the hell out of this game and Mario 64 when the 64 launched... Best Christmas ever 😊
Pilotwings 64 was truly a groundbreaking game for its time. Super Mario 64 certainly gets a ton of praise for very good reason, but Pilotwings 64 deserves a lot that it never got.
My sister and I must have put 100 hours into this back in the day. Most of my friends thought it was boring but those of us who got truly GOT it.
The PAL version of Pilotwings 64 runs at the same speed as the NTSC version. Nintendo did not care about optimising their software, but Paradigm sure did.
I think that's because this game was done by a company that was serious simulation, they likely already made their previous software run accurately on different systems
Wouldn't make much difference bandwidth latency product difference is small. Analog QA carrier signals remember . Not sure why this is such a thing 30*525 vs 25*625 difference is like 1% probably smarter to optimize where bigger gains to be made.
@@foobarf8766 I'm not sure he's really talking about anything that makes a difference in terms of resolution, but in terms of frame rate -- PAL is 50Hz interlaced video, NTSC is 60Hz. Consoles and computers tended only to use one of the interlaced frames, so PAL= 25Hz, NTSC = 30Hz.
In the C64 days, this meant that a European game has more clock cycles available between frames than an American one, so lots of American games ended up being released in Europe, but not so many transferred the other way round. A US game could be guaranteed to just play slightly slower in Europe, but a European game might crash in America, because it might not have finished generating the frame by the time the graphics chip went to draw it.
By the days of the SNES and MegaDrive, American consoles actually had slightly faster processors than European ones, and the software houses were creating games that would play in all consoles worldwide, so they presumably tested them on both PAL and NTSC.
However....
Traditional 2D games were clocked at a speed relative to frame rate -- Sonic moved 20% faster in the US than the UK, because there were 20% more frames every second. Even now, retro emulator speed runs often specify whether they're emulating a PAL or NTSC console, because that has a substantial effect on the final speed and time recorded.
I think what AfterBurnerTeirusu is referring to here is the fact that PilotWings was using the same clock time on PAL as on NTSC, rather than the same number-of-frames time.
However, I think it's a little bit overgenerous to put that down to optimisation, because calculating based on actual time elapsed is pretty standard in 3D games. It wasn't at the time, though, so I think the company deserves some credit for actually knowing that linking game time to number or frames was a silly way of doing things, but it's not really "optimisation" -- it's just using the appropriate architecture and therefore not even needing to optimise it.
@@foobarf8766more like 14% in difference. 50/60
Nintendo cares about optimization, just not for every game
Pilotwimgs and F-Zero are the two games I want to see a next gen sequel for the most.
Fzero especially for the I think it could be absolutely awesome if done right. G
F-Zero GX on Gamecube will always feel "next gen" to me.
The worst thing is, games like PW64 are non-existent, the super tight flight gameplay is especially rare, there is Sky Odyssey on PS2 (a masterpiece of a game), and Pilot Academy on PSP, both are brilliant flight games, sad that Factor 5's incredible looking Pilot Wings sequel, WeFly, was completed to gold standard, but never made retail release, what a prototype that would be to leak.
F-Zero and Wave Race for me!
F-Zero would be amazing. I used to have F-Zero, X, GX, Maximum Velocity, and GP Legend.... Now, I have F-Zero. I want them all back, I want an AX cab, and I. WANT. A. NEW. F-ZERO.
As a longtime PC flight sim fanatic going all the way back to the 80’s, I still enjoy those first two Pilotwings games to this day. Resort didn’t capture the same magic for me, but I would love to see a new game with the same energy and direction of that first game: a fantasy flight club with licenses and instructor evaluations. Pilotwings 64 took the series in a more silly direction but still had legitimately fun challenges, good music and just an overall vibe that helped define that period of gaming.
Who would've thought a defense military contractor could bring one of the most memorable games on the N64. I don't wanna even talk about the soundtrack of this game, which is pure bliss 🌸
The music in Pilotwings 64 is A-tier stuff.
I used to have the squeaky sound effect from the menu as my texting tone on my phone, back when people did such things.
I have some remastered versions of Pilotwings on my channel if you're interested.
Great video, I played both SNES and N64 versions with my Dad. Great memories of a time when things were much more simple.
I was never much of a fan of the N64, But Pilotwings 64 is one of my most favorite games of all time. I used to pick the gyrocopter and drive it around the maps at low speed so I didn't take off. It was like an early open-world driving game.
I remember getting this game for Christmas and i was so happy and impressed. Good times ❤
I think I played it at a friend's house. I never had an N64, but I remember the game, especially missing the rings with the jet pack and having to turn around.
I didn't play Pilotwings 64 until it was on the Nintendo Switch Online service. I did play the original Pilotwings on the SNES and I loved it. Speaking of flight simulation games, I've always had a soft spot for the Microsoft Flight Simulator games. I had FS98 on the PC and I also downloaded the Flight Simulator game on PC Game Pass when I had the membership. Definitely a good game.
I believe we had mfs98 as well... we bought a damn joystick with a throttle and all that, that was some real fun for back in them days haha
@@mathprodigymost definitely, you would not have had to try very hard to get me to come over and play it with you 😂
I logged thousands of hours on FS98 and Jane's Fighters Anthology over the course of about 4 years. Good times.
I was about 7 or 8 when I played this, as got a few years after it came out, I loved it. And seeing this, I now know exactly how far ahead this was for the time. Amazing video as per usual.
Getting a perfect file in Pilotwings 64 is still my video game achievement that I'm the most proud of.
I really enjoyed this one, thanks MVG.
Pilotwings 64 is one of those very rare games that when I started playing, I couldn’t put it down until it was completed, and kept playing afterwards. A true classic!
I remember in Kitty hawk North Carolina going to actually ride some hang gliders on the sand dunes. They had a "hang gliding simulator" it was basically a flat stationary bench seat with a hang glider handle suspended but connected to a N64 controller via some cables playing this game. Very simple but is was fun to play and a great way to get the idea of how the actual real controls work.
SNES Pilot wings is my favorite game on that system. I'm glad you did your take on the 64 version.
Little States might still be my favourite video game level ever.
Here's hoping that the series will be revived on the next Switch.
Such a great soundtrack too
Flying around Little States at night with that soft jazzy soundtrack was such a euphoric experience as a kid. And this is coming from someone who wasn't even yet alive when it came out.
I'd like to see a comparison between Little States and, say, the GTA3 map
@@dash_r_media I think I remember reading that the Little States map is 50 square kilometres.
Great fun. The 3DS version is underrated, but when played on a New 3DS using Luma to run it at higher speeds, it's a great experience and you need some great skill to be able to 100% it.
Played this game when it came out. Loved it. Thanks for the nostalgia!
Was such a great game. I hope for Switch 2 they bring back PilotWings, WaveRace, F-Zero and StarFox.
11:12 - This is the first time I've heard anyone mention Aero Fighters Assault, so shoutout! I haven't played it in probably close to 25 years, but for some reason it still pops into my head on occasion (probably cause it has such a cool name), as I remember playing it a lot lol.
The only game I regretted not having when I sold my N64.
Why couldn't we have a sequel to this and F-Zero on the Switch?
Loved the calm, the music, the precision required
Man, I'll never forget getting Mario 64, Wave Race, and Pilotwings 64 between my birthday and Christmas of '96. I hadn't gotten a 3d console until the N64, and what a way to be thrown into it. I still go back to all 3 games periodically.
I'd love a new Pilotwings game. One of my all time favourites
If you have VR, Ultrawings is a solid recommendation
Flying around in Pilot Wings 64 and just exploring the islands was such a vibe. It wasn't until the Wii Sports Resort Island Flyover, and later the Pilot Wings 3DS game's free flight mode that we got something comparable. So good.
You should take a look at a Grand Theft Auto III running on the Sega Dreamcast
He probably will when V1 comes out. The Devs said they are trying to keep a low profile now until V1.0 comes out to avoid a Take-Two cease and desist
This was probably the game I rented most from my local rental store when I was a kid. Still don't know many people that have played or even heard of it. Snowboard Kids was another one.
Stoked when they announced pilot wings 64 for NSO I only rented it a few times back in the day, and for the birdman wing issue, which I did notice it was harder than I remember, back in the day I used a turbo controller and today I have a third party GameCube controller that had a turbo function I never used but comes in handy for the birdman stages on NSO
Love this game so much. Grabbed it on launch and 100%'d it several times. Never gets old and it's amazing how the sense of scale and freedom is still there today.
Although the N64 version was a technological leap, just like the SNES version was, let's not forget that at that time we've already had Air Combat (1995) and later Ace Combat 2 (1997) on the Playstation. Sure, Ace Combat series is a completely different game but as a child flying jet fighters and shooting stuff was just more enticing.
First video game that caused me to have motion sickness. I liked it so much that I got meds from my doctor.
Oh I regret that I sold my cartridge, but I owned it when I was very young. After school we always played games in my home or my friends home and we challenged eachother for a better time and landing. Once I borrowed him my game he entirely completed it with the best times and I was not able to beat his times anymore, because I was playing too much shooter games at the time. Pilotwings 64 still is one of my most special games I played in my life, because there was nothing like that ever again. 11:20 I barley remember Aero Fighter Assault, this looks pretty interessting, I want to play that now.
I spent way too many hours just flying around the USA map. Playing as birdman was fun as you could really explore the buildings and ground areas.
i played this game a TON. i nearly completed it as a teenager. one of my favorites.
Nice quality of game stream, it's almost CRT like, minus scanlines.
Yay a video about Pilotwings 64! I played the hell out of this when it came out.
Brilliant game, as a kid when this came out I spent hours getting gold medals on all the missions but even longer just flying around enjoying the islands, the sights and sounds. Great review which brought back a lot of memories.
Fun to see Pilotwings get some love! They were my favorites as a kid, and fostered my (rather expensive) hobby of flight simming today. 😎
Hype was throught the roof, i had played killer instinct 1 and 2 in the arcades to such a extreme level....and at the detriment of college lol, was disapointed the n64 was not at the arcade level but still when i saw super mario 64 and pilotwings i was hyped.....i do know the texture cache was a pain point so i did always wonder how a bigger texture cache would have improved the look.
I used to spend hours pouring over every single map, looking for all the hidden details and easter eggs. My favorites were Holiday Island and Crescent Island. I loved the whales on Crescent Island.
Pilotwings 64 was mind blowing in 1996. I played alot of Flight Simulator on my PC in 1995/96... Then I saw and played Pilotwings 64 - my mind was blown with the fully 3D texture mapped terrain and objects along with a massive draw distance and incredibly deep yet fun physics and gameplay... Insane stuff for that era.
Personally to me since I was watching in awe as a kid of psp homebrew community and now that I'm an adult every console I get I mod. Mvg is a legend and and I'm always pumped for his breakdowns
I remember play in snes, never had a 64 back in the days, but now i have and it's one of My favorites. Thanks for that piece of history.
The C island Easter egg, the memories
I loved running around Little States in the gyro copter, driving on the streets and shooting Mount Mario for that little easter egg. If you knew where the gas stations were you could mess around for quite some time without worrying about fuel
Pilot wings was comfort gaming for me back in the 90s. I was 13 when the n64, and I actually wanted this over Mario 64(the only other choice at the time if I remember correctly)
I have so many fond memories of playing this at a friends house as a child. It felt so immersive for it's time.
I’ve loved Pilotwings 64 since I got it on launch in 1996. One of the chillest soundtracks, too! Recently replayed on NSO and it felt even better with the improved frame-rate and had an easier time getting all the Gold medals.
When I was a kid I remember exploring the levels for hours. To me it felt like GTA in my mind before that open-world feeling existed.
Seriously, it's one of my favorite N64 games. I don't know what happened to my original copy. I had to buy it again.
Thanks for giving some love and respect to this great title. I could never get into the SNES version, but this one was so much fun. I still pull it out from time to time and see how long I can fly around the Little States in the gyrocopter without crashing or failing to reach the petrol stand!
You didn't name Paradigm's "Beetle adventure racing"(or HSV for aussies) on the N64, it´s arguably the best looking game on the console and even fun to play.
during the US Launch of N64 there was only 2 games available, Pilotwings 64 and Mario 64, I chose Pilotwings to purchase with my console and still have and play it today.
both Pilotwings 64 and Aerofighters Assault have amazing soundtracks, makes sense that the same team worked on them.
This is one that I've discovered way later and been really impressed with how fun and playable it is even today
I find your unique perspectives on the development backgrounds of niche titles to be what your channel does best. Release titles are often forgotten or undervalued as not having had long enough to cook before release, but apparently I need to give Pilotwings 64 a fresh look. Amazing work as usual.
The snes and n64 Pilotwings was always a nice comfort game. The music I always hummed and is on Spotify lol
I don't think kids today can ever understand how amazed and awed I was on Christmas morning 1996 getting the N64 and playing both Mario 64 and Pilotwings 64. Besides Star Fox in 1993, they were the first truly 3D games I'd ever played, and they felt so futuristic, like anything was possible in them.
Damn. The number of hours I spent playing this game. It was amazing
1:05 omg that sky diving scene just unlocked so many childhood memories!
I flew around in that bird man suit, listening to that calming music for hours and hours on end. Just exploring and enjoying the scenery. I couldn’t believe that you could fly so far in any direction. The feeling of flight was second to none and the gameplay was just fun, especially for Side-by-side multiplayer. My friend and I played this game for dozens of hours at a time. Trying to best each other and beat different stages.
I always wished paradigm would have made a true flight combat game for the N64. What a great company and masters of the hardware from the very start. The game looked so incredible. As somebody else said, with this… Mario and Wave Race… gamers were in heaven. I know I was. What an incredible system. I’ll never forget the feeling of playing it.
I rented this long ago. And thankfully the renter before me had unlocked all the chill flappy bird levels. Thank you person. Wherever you are
I’m getting this one off the shelf tonight and show it some love! I rented this one back in the day at Blockbuster, and it blew me away! Thanks for the great content MVG
This was the first game I played on N64 and absolutely amazed me the first time I saw it. One of my favorites to this day.
Pilotwings are by far still my favorite flight sim games. I even enjoyed the 3DS one a lot. I hope it returns on Switch 2.
I remember as a kid being blown away by the explosion effect when you shot a missile at the water 7:47 . At blockbuster video's kiosk, I would just fly around and shoot the water the entire time and enjoy the splash.
Never heared of the game before and I am in love. Grabbing a cartridge if I find one!
Hey man, never realized the music you used was of your own creation! Great stuff!
The feeling of flight really was something else, very good physics, a classic game for sure. Not many people talk about it though, i remember it was super tough to get all the gold medals!
I didn't understand why my Dad liked the game so much back then. But that first level with the dark cloudy skies, and the music, it was the first game I've ever just chillaxed
I had so much fun with it as a kid and still do when I hook up my old N64! I hope Nintendo makes a new Pilotwings for the new Switch that is supposed to be coming out.
I recently got to introduce this game to some friends for their first time when i brought out my N64. Thought it would hold interest for a stage or two before we moved on. We ended up playing for over an hour before we made ourselves stop. Fantastic game that still holds up.
Loved this game, and still do. Would be awesome to see another entry for the launch of the Switch 2 or whatever they’ll call it.
Such a good game, I lost a lot of time in my teens playing this
This game blew me away as a kid back when it came out. I have fond memories, my neighbor got a Nintendo 64 around launch and playing around with the glider is the first time I ever played the console.
What a CLASSIC game, and MAN those tunes! You can't tell me that Birdman isn't an all-time classic. Pilotwings holds up remarkably well on emulators that can bump it up to 60 fps with increased viewdistance. It just feels good to play and is bright, colorful, and fun.
Fun fact: way back in the mid 90s, I was already a 3d afficionado. I remember seeing in magazines screenshots of a real time demo for a Silicon Graphics powerhouse, maybe the Onix workstation. If I remember correctly, it was a 1st person POV flying through green mountains and rivers. The graphics reminded a lot what you'd later see in N64 games, specially in Pilotwings 64. Let that sink in: N64 indeed had almost SGI workstation level of graphics, for the affordable pricetag of 250 USD. Long live the N64!
It was the first game we bought for Nintendo64 along with the console.
I remember standing in line at the supermarket, my brother looking at the back of the console and me at the back of Pilotwings64.
We enjoyed it immensely, played late into the night, explored every nook and cranny.
I remember screaming for my brother when I found out that the gyrocopter could be refueled at the Little States gas station.
It is a great unknown of the Nintendo64 catalog, a game that even many who had the console had not heard of it.
I don't know about "unheard of" but overlooked, yes
I forgot about Magic Edge! My wife and I went there for her birthday. It wasn't cheap, but it was definitely one of those places you wanted to visit at least once. Definitely an experience of a lifetime.
I play MSFS 2020 a lot and i just saw Pilotwings 64 for the first time in DECADES... and it still holds up. Forgot how amazing it was when it came out.
Other games have come out since then that allow flying through more realistic cities and landscapes but for me few games have ever captured the sheer wonder of 3D movement the way this game does
Pilot Wings was one of my all time favourite N64 games. Along with Wave Race 64. Two titles Nintendo hasn't felt the need to do much with since which is a real crime. Pilot Wing's on 3DS was pretty good, especially with the stereoscopic 3D, but being limited to a single island kept it from being great imo.
This was one of the few games I owned for the N64 and played the heck out of it. This is a good reminder that I still need to pick it up for my current classic games setup.
Terrific game, a proper sequel would be fantastic. I'm not surprised the emulation on NSO is imperfect, I can't find a way to run the game flawlessly on any emulator, there are always issues.
One of Nintendo's most underrated games. Nothing has since captured the feeling of flight like this. I was in my teens when it came out and was blown away by the draw distance and how it simulated air. I honestly thought it would inspire many other games but it still, by far, outclasses anything that came after it. I hope Nintendo gives it a proper sequel beyond the limited 3DS title. Only Ultra Wings, Namco's Gyrocopter game, and Flight Sim kind of capture the fun of Pilot Wings but it remains one of the best and unique arcade flight sims on the market and I'd love to see more developers give the formula a go. It needs more coverage and this vid really does it justice.
6:04 Hey I used to go to Magic Edge. I still have some VHS recording of my flights there.