The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces (Wii) Review
Posted by Mark Salmela on 02.09.2010
Does this game soar into this sky or fail to get off the ground? Click and find out.
Title: The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces
Publisher: Xseed Games
Developer: Project Aces
Genre: Flight
Players: 1
Rated: T for Teen
The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces is a video game based off an anime film, which is in turn based off a Japanese novel series. The story stays in tune with the film, and lifts cut scenes right out of the anime film. You don’t need to know anything about the series beforehand, because in all honesty it’s not important in the grand scheme of things. It’s a flight combat game; story takes a back seat to gameplay. If you are curious about the story the gist of the situation is that wars are being fought by private militaries, and it’s up to Solid Snake to stop them. Ok sorry, it was just too easy to through in the Metal Gear joke. You take control of Lynx, rookie pilot in the Sky Crawlers squadron. Why someone would name their flight squad “Crawlers” is beyond me. Onto the review.
Graphics
This field is done son!
There are two main art styles in the Sky Crawlers. The first is of the cut scenes, where the game is presented as a Japanese anime. How much enjoyment you’ll get out of the cut scenes depends on how big of a fan you are of anime. If it’s your thing, or you’re already a big fan of the Sky Crawlers, you’ll love it. But if you aren’t a fan of anime, the Sky Crawlers will do nothing to win you over. The world is well detailed in the cut scenes although I feel that the characters themselves are a little bland. Certain characters are also borderline generic.
When you hop into the actual game the art style changed to realistic. Well, as realistic as the Wii can get. The planes themselves are well detailed and look surprisingly fantastic for a Wii game, but the same cannot be said about the environment. I don’t understand why every flight simulator, no matter what console it’s on, has to have a terrible looking environment. Most of the city landscapes are a flat texture that looks embarrassing when you’re flying above it. I understand that you’re not supposed to be flying right above ground level but that doesn’t change the fact that the graphics are laughably bad up close. The sky looks good, the clouds are well detailed, the planes look great, and the water is acceptable, but the textures on the landscape look terrible. It’s a problem that every flight game has, but it won’t stop me from docking the graphics department in the final score.
Gameplay
The dam has gone rogue, take it out!
The Innocent Aces is probably the best flight game on the Wii in terms of controls. Some people don’t like them but I love the idea of mimicking a real flight stick instead of tilting the Wii Remote around like a steering wheel. To start off you’re supposed to hold the Wii Remote in your left hand and the nun chuck in your right hand, regardless of whether or not you’re right or left handed. Tilting the nun chuck controls the actual movement of the plane. The nun chuck acts as an actual flight stick where you pull back to go up and forward to go down. The Wii Remote is used for thrusting and breaking. Pull the controller up and you accelerate, hold it down to break for aerial dives. There are alternate control schemes for people who want to switch to something more classical such as the analog sticks, but for once I actually prefer using the motion controls on the Wii. Good job Project Aces.
While controlling the planes is a blast, shooting down enemies is a bit more of a challenge. The game does allow for a certain amount of aim assist but it is still really hard to get your sites on an enemy long enough for aim assist to take over. The enemy flies way too fast and the game requires you to be way too accurate with your aiming if you want to do it yourself. The Sky Crawlers does have a neat little technique called the Tactical Maneuver Commands system to help alleviate this problem. Get in range of an enemy for long enough and your TMC bar will fill up allowing you to activate what’s basically an in-game cut scene where your plane starts maneuvering around in the sky until you’re conveniently right behind an enemy with your crosshairs locked onto the enemy perfectly. It’s fun for the first few times you perform it but eventually it just starts to feel cheap. And sadly it becomes a necessity by the last few missions where the difficulty ramps up quickly.
The Sky Crawlers does allow players to manually assign aerial combat moves such as barrel roles and intricate loops to the analog stick or d-pad, which is a nice touch. Some of the more complicated moves such as the Chandelles and Kulbit turns would be near impossible to pull off without these assisted commands.
When it comes to the campaign the Sky Crawlers is fairly straight forward. Go through lots of tutorial missions which can thankfully be skipped, then go from mission to mission completing a set of objectives that usually involves you killing every enemy on the screen. There are a couple of escort missions although they’re nothing terrible. Missing from your arsenal are the lock-on missiles that have become the norm in the Ace Combat games. You have bombs and different types of machine guns, that’s it. You’ll have a small assortment of planes to choose from, although you’ll get one of the fastest planes in the game relatively early on and most likely won’t use any of the other planes ever again.
Sound
Do a barrel role!
While the graphics department leaves something to be desired in the Sky Crawlers, the sound design is surprisingly great. Despite being a Japanese anime film the voice acting is top notch. It won’t win any awards in sound design or performance, but you’ll be surprised at just how good of a job the voice actors do. Also surprising is the soundtrack to the game, which has a very compelling and epic feel to it. I doubt you’ll be running to iTunes to try and find an official soundtrack, but the soundtrack does make each mission feel way more epic than it actually is. The sound effects are all appropriate, with sounds of propellers spinning and gunshots being fired accompanying the soundtrack. There are no jet planes to be found in this game.
Lasting Appeal
And then they came for the cows...
The Sky Crawlers isn’t a very long game; you’ll probably complete your first play through in about 5 hours. But if you’re a completionist there is a lot of stuff to unlock, including a handful of stuff that can’t be unlocked until your second play through. If you want to breeze through the Sky Crawlers you can do so in about 5 hours, but those who become invested in the game will easily spend 2 to 3 times that amount finding, seeing, and doing everything the game offers.
One thing that is unfortunately missing from this game is multiplayer. While there would probably have to be some tweaks due to the TMC system being cheap in single player it is unfortunate that there is no multiplayer, either local or online. Depending on the number of players a variety of gameplay modes could have been easily implemented in a multiplayer mode ranging from team death match to escort missions. I would have been more compelled to continue playing the Sky Crawlers if I could shoot down some of my friends in a good old fashioned dog fight.
Fun Factor
NOT THE COWS!
How much fun you’re going to get out of the Sky Crawlers depends on two things. How much do you enjoy flight simulators and how much do you enjoy the Sky Crawlers series. Even if you don’t know anything about the Sky Crawlers legacy the game is still rather enjoyable if you’re a fan of flight combat games. The Wii already has a handful of arcade style flight games ranging from terrible to mediocre, so the Sky Crawlers rises to the top of a mediocre field on the Wii. You’ll rarely become frustrated by the controls as long as you’re willing to accept the TMC system, and the controls become very enjoyable once you get the hang of them. It’s just too bad there’s no way to share the fun with more than one person.
The 411
We will avenge the cows!
The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces is a fun little game for the Wii. It’s surprising that the Ace Combat developers decided to make this game instead of giving the Wii a dedicated Ace Combat game. While the lock-on missiles are missed it wouldn’t have fit in with the overall world that’s created in the Sky Crawlers. The control scheme is actually well implemented, with motion controls actually making sense for once in a Wii game instead of being tacked on. The music is very enjoyable and the voice acting is great. Unfortunately the game suffers from a couple of issues including horrible textures on the environment as well as a difficult aiming system. The TMC system helps to alleviate this problem, but it becomes too much of a necessity in the final levels. If you own a Nintendo Wii and are looking for a flight simulator, the Sky Crawlers is probably your best option. If flight simulators aren’t your thing, you may want to look into a rental before a purchase.
Graphics
6.0
The planes look great but the textures on the enviornment are terrible.
Gameplay
7.5
There are plenty of control schemes to choose from, and all work well. Campaign is alright, nothing offensive.
Sound
8.5
The music is awesome and the voice acting is surprisingly good.
Lasting Appeal
7.0
You can blow through the single player in about 5 hours, although there is a lot more to unlock.
Fun Factor
7.0
If you are looking for a flight simulator for the Wii, go ahead and check this out. Otherwise rent it first.
