Product Description

In Wing Island you'll get to save the family aviation business. Become a wide-eyed teenager with the skill to fly -- and soar around Shell Island taking on jobs to keep the business flying. From dusting crops to more daring missions like aerial fire fighting, you'll use the Wii Remote to perform aerial acrobatics and learn to fly in formation, controlling a group of five planes at once.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #11913 in Video Games
• Brand: Konami
• Released on: 2007-03-20
• ESRB Rating: Everyone
• Platform: Nintendo Wii
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: .50" h x 5.50" w x 7.50" l, .24 pounds

Features

• Family friendly game for all ages, featuring a cast of colorful characters
• Use the unique controls of the Wii Remote to soar through the skies
• Engage in over 20 missions from racing and crop dusting, to fire fighting and stopping thieves from stealing treasure
• Earn money to unlock and upgrade a variety of new planes
• Compete against a friend in a collection of 2-player mini games

Customer Reviews

not very good
I rented this game and i am glad i didn't buy it. it has a very kid oriented cast of characters and look to the game play. its somewhat challenging with the controls which kind of makes you wonder why they made it geared towards kids with the difficulty level it has. the controls themselves aren't that great. too many things being based on remote movement and they don't respond like they are supposed to. for example to use a speed boost you thrust the remote forward and to brake fast you thrust it backward, yet when you try to brake the Wii senses like you are thrusting forward for some reason when you are not. took me quite a few tries in the training sessions to get the plane to brake. the game over all is just not fun. Later that day after playing this game i went and bought blazing angels for Wii. now that is a game to get if you like flying although it is a war game instead of some poorly done pilot wings ripoff like wing island. the controls in blazing angels are what flying games need to all base theirs on.

Promising controls marred by insane difficulty / inane setup
Let's be brief here.

1. Wing island is insanely difficult. The nice thing about flying in general is the sense of freedom. Wing island is like being beaten over the head with a relentless taskmaster. Expect to repeat missions 8 or 9 times simply because you've run out of time. It's that badly tuned.
2. Annoying / inane dialog. This is not just a reflection on the kiddy veneer over the game, but that the dialog, is long, empty, and annoying.
3. Broken rewards system. Great, you've finally found all those darned cows that are wandering around the island and you get... nothing. Successfully cleared some rubble from the docks? No pay for you.

On the positive side:

1. Flying formations, at least in theory, is kind of neat.
2. The controls could be kind of fun.

The sad thing is, with the solid control mechanism, Wing Island simply needed another tuning pass (and maybe a script overhaul) to be a lot of fun. As it stands, it's just another launch (ish) title that could have been better than it was.

Fun Game That Could Have Been Better
Despite the fact that this game has a few areas that could have been improved, it is still a fun game. The pros of this game include: simple controls, average graphics, and enough challenge to keep you playing. The cons include: some difficult maneuvers, several tedious missions to beat, a bit of unrealism, and a lack of variety.

The game play, challenge, and graphics are three of the enjoyable aspects of this game. The basic controls are easy: tilt the Wii remote up to go up, down to go down, etc. The graphics, although not entirely realistic are still believable considering that the game is more on the "cartoony" side. There are three different islands that can be played as you progress through the game. The islands have caves to fly through, rock arches to fly under, towns to fly over, and many other features. There are about eight missions per island in story mode. You have to beat the first four to get the next four plus a new island to explore. The three game modes you can play are: story mode (play missions), free play (where you can explore the islands), and competition mode (where you can play different aerial mini-games against other players). It is a completely non-violent game.

However, there are four areas that could have been better. Several formation changes are difficult to do when you are dodging houses, walls, and the like. They don't sound hard (thrust the Wii remote forward to signal a straight formation) but the game doesn't always do what you want it to do. There are a few missions that are challenging, because of a time limit, and they require multiple attempts to beat. There is also a bit of inconsistency in the way the game rewards you for completing missions. On some missions it seems that no matter what you do, you don't earn any reward even if you complete them perfectly and on other missions you barely complete them and get a great reward. The game is also a bit unrealistic because you always start in the air and can never takeoff or land anywhere because there are no airports. In terms of variety of planes, there is not quite enough. There are only six planes that you can fly and there are no jets; there are only propeller planes and none of them are real airplanes. You start with two planes, a single-engine biplane and a double-engine biplane. You can "buy" a faster single-engine biplane, a tri-engine biplane, a biplane that sort of looks like a jet, and another biplane that also looks like a jet. But as someone who plays a lot of Flight Simulator, maybe I'm just spoiled.

All in all, I still found this game worth the rental fee even with its cons and would recommend this game to anyone who wouldn't mind only being able to fly propeller planes and would also like a relatively easy game compared with other airplane games. Some people might not like it because there is a lack of aircraft to choose from and you are not able to takeoff or land. In addition, I completed all of the game missions and unlocked/bought all the planes in only four hours of game play. It may be best to rent the game first to see if you enjoy it enough to buy it.
Wing Island