Developer/Publisher: Torus Games/D3Publisher
Genre: Flight Simulator
Price: $19.99
Acquired: Review Copy Provided
Verdict: A family friendly flight sim that should amuse young aviators.
Pros: Diverse mini games make this aviators sandbox fun to play in.
Cons: Controls sometimes take a nose dive.
Nintendo is the console that has a reputation – more than any other – for being family friendly. Chances are, if you have kids, you have a Wii. So it should come as no surprise that you’d find a title like Kid Adventures Sky Captain coming home to roost in the house that Mario built.
Not to be confused with the Gwyneth Paltrow/Jude Law outing, this Sky Captain gives young pilots and their parents the chance to take to the wild blue yonder. Publisher D3 and Torus Games put young pilots right into the cockpit flying along the cartoon coastline of a seaside town.
But the question is, do we really need this game ? Isn’t Sky Captain simply a copycat ? Not too long ago, Nintendo unleashed its Wii Sports sequel, Wii Sports Resort. The game featured archery, brought back bowling, and – yes – gave would-be pilots the chance to take to the cartoon skies of a seaside town.
Boys and Girls are equally welcome in Sky Captain’s world and they can choose the appropriate pilot to represent them in game. After a quick tutorial on how to dive, climb, barrel roll, and brake you’re given license to explore this sandbox of the skies. There are sailboats to buzz, an airship to explore and plenty of terrestrial targets to fly by.
Kids will have a great time once they’ve mastered the plane’s controls. Wii Sports Resort has players treat their controller like a traditional joystick. Sky Captain, on the other hand, situates the Wiimote sideways, much as you might drive in Mario Kart. Tilt the controller back and you climb; forwards and your nose dips toward terra firma. You not only can steer left and right, but can barrel roll with the B button. Once these techniques have been learned you can duck under a bridge, fly through a train tunnel, or traverse the spokes of a spinning Ferris Wheel.
The real fun of this game has to do with floating rings scattered throughout the environment. To begin with, there are 100 rings scattered throughout the island that can be collected to unlock certain features of the game. There are also random ring with icons that trigger challenges.
One of the earliest tasks that I needed to complete was to pick up supplies in town and to deliver them to a hermit hovel high atop the mountainous island terrain. A timer was running, but I needed to be careful not to fly too recklessly. If I did, my cargo would be dumped and the mission would be a failure. The controls were pretty forgiving, though, so as not to frustrate aspiring aviators. That said, there were times in the game when the plane wasn’t nearly as responsive as I would have liked. This caused me to do an aerial faceplant into the nearest expanse of mountainside.
Earlier I had mentioned unlockable treasures. The key rewards, naturally, are better and more exotic airplanes. Early on, you’ll enjoy biplanes and seaplanes. Later in the game, you can even unlock a ride that will take you to the stars. Eat your heart out, Luke Skywalker.
In addition to single player action, Sky Captain serves up multiplayer thrills and chills for that next big playdate. The whole family can enjoy both co-op and multiplayer adventures. On the family Wii. And, for the record, I totally let my son win that water bomb battle that we engaged in during the review period. Just saying.
So what is the final verdict on Kid Adventures Sky Captain? Well, if you own Wii Sports Resort, it’s a judgement call. There seem to be a lot of similarities including the animated airship present in both games. That said, if your main goal is to have a fun airplane title that the whole family can play you could do a lot worse than Sky Captain. Plus, Resort costs fifty dollars and Sky Captain retails for twenty. And now, if you’ll please return your tray tables to the locked and upright position, the captain is ready to buzz the clock tower one more time.
GrE Grade: B
Popularity: unranked [?]
