Review (2025 August)

Pilotwings Resort (as "Pilot" afterwards) was designed to be a relaxing game, optimising the 3D feature of 3DS. Although the 3D feature indeed works relatively well for Pilot, I doubt that how many players really turn the feature on when playing it. When the 3D feature is turned on, Pilot is beautiful and intriguing, but meanwhile you eyes are much more prone to get tired, one of the most well-known sarcasms about the handheld game console.

Again, just like some other relaxing games, Pilot suddenly becomes crazy as hell if you want to achieve something, or play it in an unrelaxing way. Every level in Pilot has a grading system, which you can get platinum if you reach max score in every aspect. With patience and effort, platinum every level is not that scary, untill you reach to the final part. For those insane levels in the final part, forget about platinum, forget about gold, even completing them is not easy. To get platinum, you must remember the paths and strategies clearly, execute the movements with precision and then keep playing until you get a lucky run. One mistake ruins everything, and it usually happens towards the end of a level, extremely stressful.

Okay, now imagine that you have completed every level in platinum, what a great achievement! Guess what, Pilot then tells you that a new feature is unlocked: "The previously mentioned max score caps have now been removed, which means you can get something like 43/40 from now on! It is time to replay every level to test your limits!" I did replay the first few levels afterwards, but soon stopped with a helpless laugh. The moment that platinum was no longer equivalent to perfect, all the effort spent had diminished. It is a disgrace to all the completionists, asking them to grind to hell though 100% has become a void. Pilot, what a typical example of relaxing games!

Thinking back, I guess my 100% obsession with games started with Pilot. Before that, I did torture myself sometimes with some insane challenges, pain for fun! But most of the time, I still played games for pure fun, like a naive kid. That said, Pilot had transformed me to a different player, in a special way. Although I have almost forgot the contents in Pilot, it needs its own page.

Suppose now I find a new game similar to Pilot, a relaxing one, I am 99% sure that I will just ignore it. To a player like me, playing a game means playing it 100% or even more, and playing a "relaxing" game like Pilot 100% means a path to the hell. No, thank you and farewell.