Customer Reviews

Kid Adventures: Sky Captain

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I've spent hours reading reviews and trying to find a good Wii airplane game for my just turned 5 year-old son (who is obsessed with airplanes). He was bored after a while with the airplane part on Wii Sports Resort but the "daddy" airplane games like Blazing Angels are WAAY too hard for him and have bad language on them. After several months of researching, we finally found this game that just came out. He's played with it for a few days now and just loves it. A lot of the things are locked to start with but that's okay because there are lots of missions and it makes it a challenge to do well so it will unlock airplanes and missions you like. Luckily, you have to do well to unlock things but not that well. He's playing it right now with a big smile on his face and I'm enjoying the rare moment when he isn't saying he's bored. I would say the recommended age would be around 4-10 or 12.

Let me go for "Most Helpful Critical Review."

I wanted to love this game. I've flown full sized planes and R/C planes and Helis. I wanted a game I would have fun playing with my children and introducing them to the joys of flight. I admit I was a bit disappointed.

And that disappointment started from the beginning. The game does not use the Miis.. which is annoying but not a showstopper.. but what is completely ridiculous is that you can only save your games under 3 characters, two boys and one girl. So if Mom and Dad want to play you better only have one son. 4 kids? Too bad. Adding to the stupidity, you can not rename the characters and both of the boy characters have the same name! (Jimmy and Sophie is the girl's name) Why, I ask, why? ;-)

Then the control are weird. We all know that you hit "A" to get past title screen etc on the Wii.. It is the de facto "enter" key. Sky Captain uses weird buttons like 1 and 2 that you don't use often and will use 1 for the first screen in a series and - or + for the second. HUH?

Ok so getting past that, how does it play? Sadly not great. The spatial perception is off... You can't tell how close you are to the ground or an obstacle. I've flown flight simulators since the mid 80's and designers must give you visual clues when you approach an object. (like a shadow on the ground before you hit the grass.)This game is rather poor at this making it very easy to crash. (if you watch the video on youtube of the designer flying it at a gaming conference you see he keeps crashing.)

Luckily the penalty of crashing is small so each crash only costs you a few seconds of game play. So it's not a big deal but it is annoying.

One last knock.. I had sorta of hoped that it would be microscopically more realistic in that I hoped in that it would use energy. (for you non-pilots...) Flying is all about energy... In other words you can't just point a real plane straight up to the sky and have it climb forever, the engine can't do it. If you dive you pick up speed etc. This game does not have any of that.... Now before you dismiss that as too complex for children to grasp, they get it when they ride the bicycle on Wii Sports Report. If you sprint for too long it makes you take a break because your character gets tired. Even my 3 year old grasps the concept as he tells the 5 year old to slow down. So this could add a really cool dimension to the game without making it too complex. [I do admit I wrote that mostly for the benefit of other dads who might be wondering about that.]

I find the flying controls very shaky and I used 2 different wiimotes both less than 2 months old but maybe I'm getting old.

OK so the acid test... Shut up dad, what did the kids think?

Both my kids (boy 5, girl 8) really enjoyed it. While their old man might be a hyper-critical fault finder, they just found it fun... which I guess is the point. The girl did complain about the characters without being prompted and some of my other objections they have also voiced, but in general they have spent hours flying around unlocking all sorts of stuff. (I played for maybe an hour BTW)

Bottom line: If you're looking for a kid's flying game, since this is the only real choice, you've found it. Just know it's a bit quirky and you won't be disappointed. I would buy it again knowing the quirks.

However. If you have an older Wii and do not own Wii Sports Resort and are willing to get a less complex flying game of higher quality (and a mountain of other cool games) put the money from this toward WSR. You won't be disappointed.

If you're still awake, I hope you found this helpful.

You won't find anything like this on any system. You have a plane that controls like butter thanks to the unique capabilities of the Wii-mote. You have islands that are big enough to fly for hours yet small enough so that kids could explore all the ins and outs. You have graphics that are beautiful, colorful and elegant--the younger audience will feel right at home. The music is relaxing and keeps you in the mood to fly. Then you have non-linear missions that are challenging but never frustrating. Best of all, the game encourages children to fly without resorting to the use of guns and missiles; they can even land and take-off on the runway! In short, everything in this game just feels right.

If you're into flight simulators and would like your kids to appreciate your craft (and possibly become a pilot one day), don't hesitate to pick this one up. You won't regret it. It's a brilliant game.

Length:: 4:17 Mins

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Don't be too quick to judge.

A $19.99 game in which you fly around (and are unable to leave) one island in a dinky plane that doesn't seem to respond well to controls may not win you over at first. However, after getting a sense for the island, discovering all of its carefully programmed nuances (you can fly through train tunnels, dip under bridges, skim the water, etc) and taking on a few of its missions (you choose which missions to undertake when, much like the sandbox style of Grand Theft Auto or Endless Ocean), you'll discover that you can upgrade to many other aircraft (all of which respond to controls with a lot more precision than the intentionally clunky one you were given to start with) including Bi-Planes, Tri-Planes, Seaplanes, Helicopters, jets, and even a flying saucer, and (best yet) you can actually move on to two other meticulously programmed islands in the game once you've completed all the tasks for the previous one, and both have their own unique feel and qualities including a Goonies-inspired Pirate Island plagued with pterodactyls and a Super Mario Galaxy-inspired island in the sky. In short, this game has a lot more going for it than it may initially let on.

The only real reference point I have for explaining this sandbox-style first person flight game is to compare it to Pilot Wings and Pilotwings 64, comparable simulators from earlier generation Nintendo systems with similar looks and designs. I've been a die-hard fan of Pilot Wings 64 for years and was disappointed when Nintendo dropped its plans to produce one for the Wii. As it turns out, however, Kid Adventures: Sky Captain maintains nearly all the strengths of the Pilot Wings franchise and adds a lot more to top the previous games.


PROS (compared to Pilot Wings and Pilot Wings 64)

- Wii motion controlled. You move the controller to move the plane. Granted, it doesn't simulate how you actually fly a plane at all, but the motions are far more intuitive and fun than the old thumb-stick interface. Once you upgrade to the second and third planes, the wii motion controls prove to be surprisingly precise for a budget game.

- Better designed maps. There's a lot more to see and do. You can really have fun exploring every inch of the island without things feeling too repetitive and, since this is a sandbox-style game (unlike Pilot Wings) YOU choose when its time to move on and start a new mission, as well as when you'd like to spend more time exploring. With the exception of sheep that seem to have the physical properties of concrete walls, the islands are very well mapped. You rarely find glitches, oversights, or bland areas that the programmers clearly didn't want you to observe. Every inch of every island has been lovingly programmed for you to explore.

- Greater variety of vehicles. While you have to earn your way on to other vehicles (you could choose them from the start in Pilot Wings), you get a lot more to choose from, as mentioned earlier on. I still can't wait to see what the flying saucer is like! Additionally, I find the helicopter in this game a lot more maneuverable than the gyrocopter in PW. I do miss the difficulty of the hang glider, but you get a lot of the same charm with the propeller planes.

- Better graphics. This should go without saying in a newer generation console game, but the graphics in this game are quite charming and aesthetically pleasing, even while they're hardly elaborate. The appearance does an excellent job of matching the tone of most of the core Wii games. In fact, the first island reminds me of the running island from Wii Fit. Very beautiful and interesting to look at.

- Better music. The music in this game is nothing short of impressive. What begins as soothing without seeming repetitive quickly jumps into a Danny Elfman inspired film score as soon as you undertake a challenge, and the little dings and alerts the game offers to let you know any number of things are charming and never obnoxious. The tone manages to stay calm and relaxing while adding the appropriate level of excitement during missions.

- More to do. There are a lot more challenges in this game than in PW, and while many are similar, none ever bore me and few are ever frustrating. The same was most certainly not true of Pilot Wings, in which certain levels had the wrong balance of boring and frustrating, leaving me to walk away from the console for several days at a time. These challenges are rarely boring and rarely take a long time. Really, my only criticism is that the level of challenge isn't as high, though this comes with the whole sandbox aspect to the game. There's almost no penalty for crashing, which encourages you to play, explore, and experiment more, but it also removes some of the challenge. Of course, if you choose to pursue the optional achievements, those can be a lot more difficult to execute.

- Water cannon. In addition to being able to take pictures like in PW, you now have a water cannon, which takes on a variety of uses in different missions, from putting out fires, to watering crops, and even to shooting out barricades blocking tunnel tracks and knocking an opponent off course. Kid-safe weapons are fun!

- MULTIPLAYER MODE! Where the heck was this in Pilot Wings? It's LONG overdue. I only wish there was a battle mode. Instead you co-op and compete with another player to finish missions, which is still very fun.


CONS (as compared to Pilot Wings and Pilot Wings 64)

- No hang glider nor rocket pack

- Not many gauges. You have to visually determine how far you are from sea level, there's no overhead map for determining how far you are from your intended destination, and there's no fuel gauge because your fuel never runs out. All in all, the absence of these gauges rarely affects my enjoyment of the game, but a veteran Pilot Wings fan will find it unsettling to operate without these gauges at first.

- Level of difficulty. As mentioned previously, the level of difficulty is a bit lower than in PW (though this does not decrease the fun much at all since the emphasis is on exploration, experimentation, and mechanics, not mission completion). The only real loss is when it comes to photography missions. In the old games, you were graded on the quality of the pictures you took in flight. In Sky Captain, you can take a picture at any angle (distance and centering don't matter either), and you do well as long as you snap the photo. The only issue is how long it takes you to get the pictures, not how good they are.

- Game Saves/Customization. As another reviewer mentioned, you can only save three games at a time, and there's no option to personalize your character or change the name (you are given two pre-made choices). The personalization issue was not a big deal to me since you never see the character in the game, but they are addressed by name whenever they receive a new mission, so not being able to choose your own is a small disappointment. All in all though, I think the game was designed with the intent of an entire family working together to explore and compete missions, not individual family members customizing their own characters and playing on their own. This is suggested by the fact that, once you complete a mission, you are encouraged to revisit that mission and beat the top score at any given time, so mom may want to go back and destroy dad's best scores hours later in the game. Besides, the game is nearly as fun to watch as it is to play, so we naturally chose to have the whole family play and switch off on one game before we even realized that doing it any other way wouldn't be as practical. You can really get in some meaningful family time while playing this game, and a lot of that would be lost with each member having their own personalized game to play and save.

- Short game. I suspect this is the reason why a game this strong sells for so little. I've already gotten to the third and final island, and I approximate that I've been playing for about 7 hours (I kept playing after the rest of my family moved on with their day!). I suspect other adult gamers might complete the game even faster (families and younger children will inevitably take longer to complete missions and compete for better times/scores). The game is too much fun to put down but, as a result, you finish it FAST. I'm honestly sad that I've already made it to the final island, so I'm stalling and holding off on completing it for as long as possible. Fortunately, there are still MANY challenging optional achievements to unlock on each island (combing every last inch of an island to gather all 100 red rings has been particularly interesting) but, while working on achievements and earning new skins for your aircrafts is still fun, some of the newness and sense of discovery wears off once you've made it to all three islands and unlocked all of the aircrafts.


All in all, this is an amazing update of a classic console series that I've been missing for years now. Whether or not you've ever even heard of Pilot Wings, if you like limitless exploring and experimenting in a game, if you enjoy flight simulators and innovative game mechanics, or if you're simply looking for a incredibly exciting, yet entirely unstressful game the entire family can enjoy, then this is absolutely the one for you!

This is an excellent kid's game for the Wii. My 7-yr old loves it. He mastered the controls relatively quickly. The controls are quite responsive as well (compared to wii sports resort, the controls are not that smooth, but game play in this game is far better than in wii resort). You simply tilt the wii remote for pitch, yaw and roll. Push 2 for acceleration and 1 for brake.

The game has three islands that you unlock one by one. you also get plane upgrades (faster ones up to a UFO) as you complete missions. The missions are kid-friendly (very forgiving except the race). racing, shooting water bombs to help a farmer or put out fire etc. The islands are very nicely done. You can land/take off from airstrips. Landing could have been a bit more smoothly done. Over all, it is an enjoyable game.

My son has had this game for 6 months now, and he still loves it! It's easy enough for a 6 y/o to play without getting frustrated and interesting enough for adults to enjoy playing along too, if only to marvel at the detailed and very cute graphics on Gloster Island. Completing tasks earns you extra aircraft in various colors and also leads to unlocking other islands (Captain's Cove and Nimbus) that each come with their own set of tasks and challenges. Challenges include snapping photos of whales for use in brochures, delivering lunch around the island, collecting water from the sea to help put out fires, and racing your plane through giant suspended rings. If you don't feel like completing tasks, you can just fly around and explore as long as you want. It's fun to buzz the ground, skim the water, fly through train tunnels, circle buildings, visit the hangar, or just follow the trains as they move around the island. If you should accidentally crash into the clock tower, that's ok. No one ever gets hurt on Gloster Island! You get a second to dust yourself off then your plane is in motion again. I don't even think that there is a way to lose on this game...though I personally haven't played it long enough to find out. Bottom line: 2 happy thumbs up for Kid Adventures: Sky Captain!!

For some time now I've been looking for a plane simulation game for my 4 year old ever since he asked if we could get a "plane game". Many of the other simulation games are combat related and I did not feel it was something to expose him to just yet. Sky Captain is an excellent game to get for this reason. I was impressed in how responsive the control of the plane is. It's not too simple, the controls are pretty sensitive which makes the game enough of a challenge for a 4 year old. You get experience points as you fly under bridges and thru tunnels and through rings. As you get more experienced, you get promoted. Some rings you fly thru will give you tasks like taking supplies to a hermit on a mountain, moving sheep off the train tracks, and putting out fires with a water cannon. The cool part about the water cannon is that you need to skim the nearby ocean or stream to collect water to fill the cannon's tank. This game was well thought out for young kids. It's not mindless and it can teach hand eye coordination and be entertaining all at the same time.

My family has had lots of fun playing this one.
It is very kid friendly and my hubby liked that controls for the different planes behaved differently... bi-plane flies like a bi-plane, low-wing responds appropriately. He flies model airplanes.

Someone mentioned the limit on characters and saving games... they are right its very annoying. We are a family of 5 (3 girls 2 boys).
But oh well the game itself is fun.... our son (6yo) loves doing a flyby on the arm animals.

Great flying game! My 8 yr old son has completed Star Wars, mastered Mario Kart, etc. and we've been looking for something he likes that we can all play together from time to time. This is a flying game with many challenges and things to unlock. Flying is kind of like driving on Mario Kart - not too hard, but to be really good at it takes a LOT of practice. By beating Snoopy Schultz in a Rival Race a few times we've unlocked a new lava island, and I think there's one more island to unlock eventually. You can have 3 characters and two people can fly at one time and race or work together to complete missions. I caught my husband up late one night, trying to improve his flying skills so he could beat my son... ha ha. Good game!