How Pilotwings 64 Helped Define 3D Gaming 

this game, and wave race 64 were insanely ahead of their time

My first N64 game I ever owned. I loved just cruising around the United States.

Nintendo started out absolutely snapping on the N64. They changed 3D forever. Pilotwings, Waverace, and Mario 64, all in 1996. Each game set a new bar for 3D entertainment.

I can speak to how this game felt in the mid-90s as a 13-year-old: it felt surreal. It was obviously a cartoony aesthetic, but seeing that everything looking solid and being thrown around at an incredible frame rate just looked like the future. It looks very basic now but at the time it was such a leap forward. Super Mario 64 was the same - it was just so much more fluid than anything else at the time.

Shoutout to Dan Hess for creating a real groovy soundtrack to this game.

I've always felt Pilotwings 64 was an underrated gem and a perfect blend of cutting-edge technology and Nintendo charm that hit in ways far surpassing its SNES predecessor. Yours is the first retrospective I've seen to appreciate that.

The funny things I discovered in this game still make me giggle... 1- If you are flying a fuel powered system (Jetpack or Autogyro) you can *actually* refuel if you land and slide close to the few fuel stations available on some maps. 2- You can ace the artistic Parachute event by opening the parachute literally millimeters before touching the ground. ;)

I used to land the gyrocopter on the roads and drive around, one of my favorite games

Pilotwings 64 is an amazing game, I really wish more people gave it a shot. It's really sad the franchise never really continued after this, there was Pilotwings Resort but it made the physics even more cartoony by importing the very unrealistic Wii Sports Resort plane physics into the game, so in essence it's more of an expanded Island Flyover than a Pilotwings 64 sequel

Pilotwings 64 was the most mind blowing game of the 5th gen to me. I spent hours and hours just exploring the worlds.

I bought this the second I finished Mario 64. The missions were pretty hard but screwing up always felt like a skill issue instead of a game issue. I loved flying around in birdman mode, landing in random locations to check out the cute little scenery they made.

A truly underrated game. It is painful to see how under appreciated Pilotwings 64 is, and it was a shocking and beautiful surprise when it was finally, FINALLY rereleased.

Yep, had this back in the day. It was always one of my favorite N64 games, and the first "chillout game" I ever got really into. I never did manage to beat all the tests, but once I unlocked free-flight modes for the maps, I spent most of my time just cruising around in the gyro. As an aside, the PC flight sim I'd most compare it to is Flight Unlimited from 1995. It also focused on smaller more-detailed maps, with an emphasis on teaching acrobatics via challenges. As I understand it, FU was the first consumer flight sim to have a genuine fluid atmospheric simulation, so it could handle highly acrobatic flying that the other sims couldn't.

Having played both SM64 and Pilotwings 64 on store demos, I loved them both (and wasn’t disappointed when I eventually got them) but it was Pilotwings 64 that made me decide I had to get an N64.

I can't wait for this to be recompiled for Windows (and hopefully Linux too), and then mods are made for it improving the graphics, adding new content, and maybe even multiplayer. What a time to be alive.

Glad I found this channel, I really like your style and it’s going to be fun following the journey through the N64 catalogue. Thank you.

This is the second video from you I’ve seen in the last few days, and honestly your stuff is super well made!

This was one of the games I would always rent over and over again back then. Me and some friends were a bit young and not capable of playing the game properly or its mechanics at all so never got to see much. We would make up for it and have an absolute blast crashing the characters at mach speeds into different places all over the map.

Glad that you chose to talk about this game. I hadn't played it until it was added to NSO. It's cool that I'm still finding great games for N64 even 28 years after the console's release.😃

loved to see quest 64 on the n64. Nice throwback.

Am I a silly fool for thinking the Islands in this game were probably an inspiration for the one in Wii Sports Resort? I feel like they've got similar little nooks and crannies, begging to be explored - on top of the player being given several game loops to explore it through.

Ow, I just found this series and I’m totally in for the whole journey.

Really enjoyed hearing about Pilotwings 64 in the context of flight sims! I hit a skill ceiling with the game a few years back but this makes me want to pick it up back up. Looking forward to your future videos, especially the N64 coverage!

Pilot wings 64 was awesome back in the 90s. My best friend had it and we played and unlocked everything together. It felt great, and the physics/3D space really blew my mind at the time. Such a good game

4:36 Back in the day I knew that this game was a masterpiece of its time when i landed next to the merry-go-round and heard a sound effect for it. :D

There's some flight sims that appeal more to the average gamer than MS Flight Sim. Particularly those that MicroProse put out. I got into aircraft because I was into videogames and playing 1990s combat flight sims like F-117A and Red Baron gave me the connection.

Playing as birdman on Little USA stage each afternoon was instrumental in calming and comforting me after being bullied all day in middleschool. That music is burned into my brain and still releases serotonin.

This game - the whole series really - temporarily got young me hooked on flight/combat sims of small aircrafts and made me look into the world of gyrocopters and old biplanes, for all of a week. I'd still lowkey wish compact flight tools exist.

Performance is improved in emulation, but I wonder about gameplay. I don't remember this being all that difficult, and generally, you can't get the kind of subtlety in N64 games on modern analog sticks that you could with the original controller. But I haven't played it since the 90's so I may be misremembering.

“Every game, in release order”. You just assured a subscriber for the next 24 years.

One of the first games I loaded on my retro handheld. Such a great pick up and play game. Even the 3ds version was lots of fun.

One of my first N64 games. I loved flying around little states and refuellinh my giro at the petrol stations.

Played this for hours in the late 90s. Relaxing and frustrating game. Looked amazing at the time

Pilotwings was a masterpiece, loved pretty much every aspect of that game! Glad the music’s been getting so much love recently - part of the joy of the birdman mode was absolutely the super chill music! And the rest of the music is so funky and good, definitely deserves praise

What a fun, cozy channel. Love it. Subbed. 👍

I played the 3DS version and loved it, this would have blown my mind back in the day.

I loved to explore the enviroments and see the city and the npc flyers. Who remembers the warp portals in the USA? You enter a building and warps to the other side of the country. It worked with the birdman and the jumping gear.

It was so much fun at the time! I had this on launch along with Mario 64...so many hours spent on it

this game scared me to death and probably cultivated my megalophobia. I got this game and mario 64 with my n64 for christmas and this game was such an enigma to my small child brain. i had no idea what it was asking me to do at the time.

I loved this game so much. I still have the cartridge. I think my brother and I almost cleared everything gold. Almost, because I remember that some segments were HARD.

i wish this game was talked about more often

I was one of the few people that also bought Pilotwings 64 on launch day. For having only two launch titles both Mario 64 and Pilotwings 64 were technical marvels with tons of gameplay and replayability. We deserve a new Pilotwings game. Other franchises Nintendo needs to bring back but won't because they are not profitable compared to Mario/Zelda/Smash Bros is F-Zero and Waverace.

I never played this game, but was dying to try it, i would see this running on stores vitrines every now and then, and was looking at my mom asking to buy that, but i couldn't, i did however get a N64 a year later, but was too distracted by Mario 64 and company to remember this gem, now looking back, it is really cool seeing this kind of content produced on this game, it always picked my curiosity in some ways. Thanks for this material mate, it is really cool to see these things and remember how things where at the back then, specially putting it in context, this game had a really big play space.

Another great vid on such an underappreciated game. Really excited to see what you have in store on the channel

I really enjoyed your video. Thanks a lot for it back in the days. My brother was really into fight sim games. So pilotwings what’s the main reason why we bought the Nintendo 64, he was really good playing the super Nes version. I do not remember how, but you could unlock a pair of wings and fly around the city. It was such a joy thanks again for your video and I am really looking forward to the next one.

Hmm, I'd disagree with your comment that there's no easter eggs in MSFS. For example, the playable area for the WWI game in FS2 stuck around until at least FS4 and could be visited even though the game was gone by then. There were also multiple copies of it in a grid (or at least a cross? I forget) in the cardinal directions so if you took off from the main game area, flew over the border mountains in a straight direction, you'd find another copy of it. I forget how many there were but there were a few. Another is that in early versions like FS2, a lot of landmarks were flat 2D things that looked like cardboard cutouts. One of the most notable was the Statue of Liberty, and if you flew around behind it you'd find it had a little prop sticking out of the back of it making it look like a cardboard standup. In more modern stuff there's a smiley face and Thank You balloon at the Asobo Studio headquarters, a frequent collaborator with Microsoft including FS.

Back then when i got my N64 this was another one of the first games that i rented for it.. Later bought it

I'm a huge fan of the SNES Pilot Wings, the end of that game is really something special if you haven't played through it. I haven't played 64 since it came out, but this video convinced me to give it another shot! Good stuff!

Its hard for kids today to understand how incredible it felt when the Shuttle launched as you flew by. Nobody was complaining about "blurry textures" or FPS back then.

gonna say it’s a bit criminal the ost isn’t the backdrop here

I got 100% on everything and I actually expected it to unlock the speed boats that you would see out at sea lol just as a fun extra. I'm not sure if anyone else knows but in the parachute level, you could aim yourself at the target and open your parachute just as you hit the target and it would give you a perfect landing.

Ah, yes, I loved that game. Only did the absolutely necessary challenges to unlock stuff (was really hard indeed). But concerning how it felt in the 90s? I can tell you, because I lived that. It was incredible. I loved flying around with the jetpack, wings, or using the jumping boots to explore the places (boots were hard to control, but you couldn't "die". You could even jump in water, and they always worked). Flying around with the wings at night was my favorite part tho. It was like in one of those dreams where you canfly, you'd just fly and land wherever you like. There was also a lot to discover, actually, those islands weren't bland and boring. The feeling was not unlike walking around and exploring worlds like Skyrim, Witcher 3, Cyberpunk 77 or the Horizon games. I mean, you can go pretty much everywhere, and there's also stuff to find everywhere. Sure, these more modern open worlds are larger, more detailled, and there's way more stuff to see and do. However, unlike today, 3D and open world concepts were new, so it wasn't something you'd expect to see. Even the most well crafted open world environments today don't give me the same sense of freedom I felt with Pilotwings 64 back then. I guess I've grown too used to it. I probably spent hundreds of hours exploring every nook and cranny, tried to land everyhwere (on flag poles, on boats - the latter unfortunately just bounced you off, and so on).

How could you forget that there was a 3d pilotwings before this one

Funnily enough, developer wanted to add even more detail into islands but Nintendo said no. Pilotwings 64 was actually used for professionals to practice. Those kits have a real thing for flying, instead of N64 controller, on front of huge screen to experience world of Pilotwings 64.

What a lovely video and trip down memory lane!

Flight simulators were never a thing on 16-bit consoles, because it was nearly impossible to make such games on their tiled based 2D graphics hardware. Home computers on the other hand had way more RAM and graphics hardware based on frame buffer, so doing 3D graphics was easier than 2D tiles with parallax scrolling. This is why flight simulators were like in TOP 3 game genres everyone played in early 90's. Of course in countries where home computers dominated the gaming market. Everyone had at least one such game in their collection. Flight Sims and Racing Sims were competing at delivering most advanced graphics, way before DOOM was released. Market was so saturated that games were focusing on specific niches. Wing Commander was a space combat simulator. X-Wing and Tie Fighter were good games using Star Wars licence. Descent was about exploring asteroid tunnels in zero-g environment and full 6 degrees of freedom. Games were experimenting with new graphics techniques like Comanche from 1992 with its Voxel based engine. With games there were controllers. Tons of them. Each wanting to be the next big thing along with first generation of VR (that caused headaches after 5 minutes). There were combat simulations or just casual flight sims like Microsoft Flight Simulator or Flight Unlimited. There were games in historical settings, modern realistic combat sims or sci-fi ones. There was even a Magic Carpet game with flying on a carpet! With all of these Pilot Wings 64 did not get good reviews in our local press as far as I remember. In general PC countries had totally different gaming culture. For example Final Fantasy VII was highly criticized, because it had predefined character and was linear, while PC cRPGs already had open-world design with multiple endings and various ways to complete quests. So for N64 owners who upgraded from SNES, Pilot Wings 64 was mostly a great game with exciting new gameplay. For people who played on PC and had already a dozen of games on their HDD where you pilot something, PW64 wasn't interesting at all.

I'm pretty sure the framerate improvements in the NSO version break some of the gameplay controls. It's much harder to fly up when using birdman for example. I ran into the same issue using a pc emulator years ago, and you can fix the controls by returning to the original framerate. Disclaimer: it only affects some vehicles I think and they may have patched it idk, but worth keeping in mind. Having said that, I super love this game. Fun fact you can fill up your gas by landing near the gas station in little states

I love the soundtrack in this game. The gameplay not so much but I would be more than happy to watch someone else play if they were sitting on the same couch as me.

Nathan I want to say your channel has some extremely high quality content to be so new

every? Game?!! Woah! Ambitious! Really enjoyed the video! Keep it up!

Omg.......... my dad was a home theater dad. He was crazy about audio (well, so am I) and flight sims. But I mean, he was actually a fighter jet pilot.

This game blew me away. There is no comparison to today´s hardware upgrades. In a way, we were lucky to be alive back then. I spent hours at the electronic´s store (with other kids/teens) because our parents wouldn´t buy the expensive hardware (yet). I remember how my father tried to justify not buying an N64 by calling the low-poly graphics inferior when we watched the demo VHS tapes and compared them to the beautiful SNES graphics. I was still blown away at the store though. 🤣

Up to your usual high research and presentation standards but I would caution against talking about and visually comparing graphical quality (e.g. vs Microsoft Flight Simulator) while showing high-resolution video clearly not captured from a stock N64. Pilotwings 64 runs in the N64's lowest resolution of 256x224. You are absolutely right about the game, by the way. It's still brilliant to play, either casually or for 100%, and has a personality far beyond that of the dull Pilotwings Resort.

Made it to the first thousand views! Absolutely wild that Boeing and Nintendo have one degree of separation.

Fond memories. Thx for doing this

These days it sounds ridiculous, but in the 90s a new console meant graphics and performance which contemporary PCs could not dream of. The robust and immersive 3D of the N64 was like nothing else anyone had ever seen. We really were stepping into the future with these games.

Dont let your dreams be memes. Make the 90's gradient filled patterns your heart desires!

Pilotwings 64 is one of the three physical N64 games I own, and so I've spent a lot of time with it. I'm just about done getting my Pilot's License, and then I'll need to finish unlocking the rest of the minigames, as well as the two Birdman locations I have yet to unlock. At this point I'm kind of obsessed with the game. I wish Pilotwings became a consistent franchise, because I would've loved a version on the Gamecube/Wii, WiiU, and Switch to show off the hardware. At least we got Pilotwings Resort on the 3DS though (and the original on the SNES). I'd love to see the N64 ROMhacking community work on the game as well. You could squeeze out quite a bit more on original hardware with the larger cartridge sizes and the expansion pack that came about later in the console's lifespan.

i really look forward to this!! the N64 is still my favorite console of all time.

I started playing a micsrosoft flight sim demo because it was free and I liked gaming

Pilotwings should be a much bigger franchise than it is.

this game got me into flight simulation games

9:01 - just FYI, “IEEE” is pronounced “eye-triple-ee”

10:38 God that f zero campaign track I must’ve played 30 times. It’s like 30 seconds long but you basically need to learn the exact times when to boost and where to be at every point in the track to avoid the boulders and get an optimal racing line. I know there are speedrunning tricks to make your ship go faster but I would prefer not using exploits to get through a game 😭

Awesome vid!

Man you got a voice for this kind of thing

5:58 Someone ought to hack an N64 emulator into MSFS so you can play Pilotwings 64 in that cockpit

I would love a remake

This is a very goodly video. In all seriousness, you are incredibly professional and make excellent videos.

Pilotwing were more akin to Flight Unlimited (Origin 1995) than to MS Flight Sim

Good video, you should out a CRT shader on when recording 1990’s game footage. NOTE: Sky Odyssey on PS2 is somewhat like a “Sony Pilotwings.” Anyway save yourself trouble and only do the INTERESTING games in your N64 series!

I never understood why Hawk was the villain.

What about Nester the Nintendo power magazine comic strip character that is playable in PW64. That's my favorite Nintendo Easter Egg

I really wish this game was put on the virtual console, I never played it on official hardware until earlier this year and it really is a fun time

I'm watching the Rocket-Belt game-play and wondering why no one pressed "Z" to perform the instant rocket-stop / hover-mode, dude was all over the place. 🤔

Check out Aerofighters Assault - same devs but even more realistic flight sim

if you compare the finished game with the first work in progress images ... well, graphically not what was promised

Any idea why this game wasn’t on Wii or Wii U virtual console? I thought it might have something to do with the real-world buildings in the Little States area, but perhaps it was something else.

Appreciate the warm welcome to holiday mountain ⛰️🥰

Maybe it's because I was a little younger (relative) and didn't get my N64 until '98, but I literally don't know anybody who's ever played Pilot Wings. I was a Blockbuster kid too, I played Chameleon Twist, I played Blast Corps, Mischief Makers, Body Harvest, Buck Bumble! Never even saw the box art for Pilotwings, and I was such a sucker for any game where you could fly that I literally bought Superman 64, fully knowing it was the worst game of all time.

10/10 content

Great video

I may try and pick this game up at some point. The only pilot wings game I own is Pilot Wings Resort. I really enjoy that game so I may enjoy this one. Jesus loves you!

Much as it has a legacy, it's kinda telling that PW64 doesn't have nearly as much ROM hacking scene as Mario 64. Maybe it was more difficult to study its levels but I don't know, I'd certainly love to see it grow into a community of custom maps to fly through, preferrably freely

amazing

sega dreamcast level graphics

yessss pilot wingzsz!

Cool video, I'd really recommend checking out this old episode of the show Computer Chronicles from 1983 about Simulator Software if you've never seen it ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ZVZiureyV-s.html. About halfway through they have a pre-rendered video of where they imagine military simulators will be in the future in terms of fidelity and the simple texture mapping and billboard sprites remind me a lot of how Pilotwings 64 ended up looking.

Subbed. ❤

never played it never could get into the snes one so didnt bother with this one