Video games offer all sorts of experiences, some exciting, others intriguing. For whatever reason, the titles that focus on dogfighting tend to have their own brand of thrill – either due to immersion or the feel of blasting others out of the sky. The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces delivers this for the Wii, with a fun twist – the controls kind of emulate those of a fighter plane!
In The Sky Crawlers, the world is at peace. Sort of. In order to keep it at peace, the faceless corporations continually fight with live ordinance. I haven’t seen the movie this game is based off of, but I’m guessing the whole idea behind the concept is that all the aggressive folks go fight and die in meaningless battles so everyone else can live in peace. You play a young pilot in the Cougar squadron, fighting for the Rostock Corporation. Initially, things seem pretty simple – enemies enter your airspace, you kill them. But things start feeling a bit strange as a stream of young prodigies find a place in Cougar Squad, the slimy and evil-looking Mozume begins issuing orders instead of your trusted commading officer, and rumors of ‘Kildren’ begin floating around….
1. Graphics [Good] The game play graphics are clear and nice to look at. The character portraits and the animated sequences are of impressive quality. Cities and other ground-based details are simplistic and very flat, but you won’t spend too much time flying that close.
Many missions will have you fighting over cities.
2. Game Play [Good] The way this game controls is pretty interesting. You hold the Wii-mote in your left hand, and the Nunchuk in your right. The Wii-mote is your throttle; the default position is pointing directly at the screen, and the more ‘upward’ you point it, the faster you go. The Nunchuk acts as your joystick, used to maneuver the plane and fire the guns. This feels kinda wierd initially, but it makes for a fun experience, and a godsend for Wii gamers looking to do something other than shaking, twisting, and swinging their controllers.
The flow of the game consists of a mission briefing, a brief cut-scene involving the pilots flying to the combat theater, the actual mission, and then maybe an animated sequence furthering the story, followed by the next mission. Although there’s a lot of time devoted to story, you’ll definitely be spending more time playing than watching.
There are a number of planes to choose from (with more unlocking the further you go in the story), but each one comes equipped with a machine gun and one other secondary weapon of your choice. Most of these secondary weapons are pretty easy to figure out and can be damned effective. In fact, the further into the story mode you go (and maybe the better you play), more options become unlocked. These include new paint jobs for each plane and mechanical upgrades.
Some missions have you doing some interesting things, like flying over enemy bases and taking pictures.
One of the more interesting features of Innocent Aces are the Combat Maneuvers. When you get near an enemy fighter, a gauge will begin filling, starting at Level 0 and maxing out at Level 3. Once it hits at least Level 1, you can press the ‘A’ button on the Wii-mote to have your plane automatically guided to behind the enemy in a perfect kill position. As I’m writing this I’m still unsure how I feel about this, as it makes for an easy kill; on the other hand, it speeds the game up a notch or three.
3. Grab-Factor [Great] Although the story is a bit incomprehensible (Kildren? Wha?), the animated sequences you get sporadically though the game are fantastic. Furthering the plot is itself an incentive to play through the entire game. The unique control scheme also draws you into the action more than the game otherwise would.
4. Soundtrack [Great] The voice acting in this game is exceptional. Many games in this genre fall into the trap of having repetitive dialogue, but Innocent Aces does an impressive job keeping the wingmen from driving you nuts. The music ranges from jangly bouncy (such as the title screen theme) to the intense, always keeping to the mood of what’s going on. None of it is exactly memorable, but it still makes for a serviceable backdrop.
This is Orishina, a girl who loves to fly just a little too much...
5. Replay Value [Good] There are a few different difficulty settings, with advanced controls opening up for the expert players out there. Also of interest is the built-in ability to save your performance in any stage, so you can watch footage of you being particularly sweet at a later date.
Overall Game Rating: 3.0 [Good]
Genre: Flight / Action By: XSeed Games System: Nintendo Wii
Special thanks to XSeed Games for providing the review material!
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