Customer Reviews

The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Let me begin by saying that if you have ever played the Ace Combat franchise which was wildly popular on the PS2, you will be familiar with the format of this game. Why? Because the people who make the Ace Combat franchise, Project Aces, made this game. Therefore, if you love playing Ace Combat 4: Shattered Skies, you will more than likely love this game. If you didn't like playing any of the Ace Combat series, this game may not be for you. With that said, while there are many similarities in game play, the first thing that separates the two is the flight controls. You are given three options with which to control your plane. The two "side options" are to use the Wii Classic Controller or a Official Nintendo Classic Gamecube / Wii Controller, however the primary focus is on the Wiimote and Nunchuck. The game suggests you use the nunchuck in your dominant hand, which is the reverse of most games on the Wii, so it may take some getting used to. Tilting the nunchuck up or down will make you climb or dive respectively, while titling it right or left will make you bank/turn in that direction. If you play the game on the Hard difficulty setting, you're given some extra control on pitch/yaw of your plane by tilting right or left allowing for tighter turns, but making it harder to control (as one would expect). The C button on the nunchuck allows you to cycle through your available weapons, and the Z button is for firing the selected weapon. With the Wiimote, tilting upwards results in acceleration, the B button is for braking, and the A button allows you to execute a special move called "TMC" (tactical maneuver command) which, if you're within a suitable range of your target, may allow you to get on their six and attack. It should be noted that this does not work against all enemies, and you have to be within, and maintain, close contact with the target before initiating. The control stick on the nunchuck allows for special maneuvers as well, mostly for evasion. There are eight such maneuvers in total, and you will earn them as you progress in the game.

The game comes with four main sections. There is a tutorial which allows you to learn the ropes and can be completed within 10 minutes. There is the Story Mode which is the bulk of the game, and then a Free Play mode which will allow you to play the missions again once you've unlocked them in story mode. There are initially three difficulty settings to choose from for game play: Easy, Normal, Hard. You start out with access to one plane, with others unlocking as you progress. Based on your performances, you earn points which will allow you to modify your unlocked airplanes and weaponry. When starting a mission, you are brought to the mission room where you will be shown a map of the targets and area in which the combat will take place. The mission will be explained in detail, and then you will be given free reign to scan over the map, zooming in and out to look at the positioning of you and your enemies. When you are done, you are brought to the hangar where you pick your airplane, your secondary weaponry, and then the mission begins. The HUD is fairly extensive, giving you a radar to track your enemy in the lower lefthand corner. A compass is at the top of the screen, and the upper righthand side gives you your status on the amount of secondary weapons you have remaining, as well as a mission counter to let you know if you are succeeding or in danger of failure. Speed and altitude gauges are then found in the lower righthand corner. The similarities with Ace Combat really appear at the end of the mission when, immediately upon finishing you review your kills, and given several options with which to view them. Once you are done reviewing the kills, you are shown the route you and your enemies took throughout the stage as moving colored arrows. Both of these are throwbacks to the Ace Combat system. Combat is intense, and the sky can get quite littered with friendlies and enemies. The backgrounds are detailed, and even when things get crowded the framerate does not drop, stutter, or otherwise indicate that your system is struggling to handle the load. The game is smooth throughout, and thoroughly enjoyable.

The missions are broken up by interludes which advance the original storyline of the game. While the game is inspired by the show/movie The Sky Crawlers, this is supposedly a novel story arc. These interludes are of high quality, and look like you were watching an anime show on television. You are set in a world where there is no war, but the people are restless. Companies have taken to staging life and death battles in the skies, televised (and you hear the announcers over your radio as you dogfight) for the enjoyment of the world. You are Lynx, one of the fighter pilots of the Rostock airforce, and you are introduced in the early stages to the newest recruits to your company ... all of whom are children.

Overall the game is great fun. Graphically, both in combat and with the interludes, this game excels. The combat experience is intense (even at the easier difficulty settig), and the controls while daunting at first are easy to master. It helps that Project Aces made the more difficult moves pre-set with the nunchuck and wiimote, as this cuts down on the learning curve, but is done in such a way that it won't allow you to cakewalk the game either. On a ten scale, this game is easily an 8, more likely a 9, and a 10 for people who crave flight games. It is rated Teen, but is suitable for children 9 and up. There is no profanity and the violence is limited to shooting down planes. It is a single player game, and does not have online connectivity, but they are not missed with this title. An excellent game that cannot be recommended highly enough.

No one expected Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces to be anything beyond a cheap budget title. When it was released Stateside on January, however, the game earned the unofficial title of "best crappy game" by the internet community due to being released, hyped, and marketed as one would a cheap budget game. The game surprised many with its incredibly responsive controls and surprisingly fun gameplay. At a simple $30, The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces proves to be a very worthwhile game, one blend quality and an affordable price tag, and one that any flight enthusiast should play.

The Sky Crawlers benefits from a very interesting, and effective, control scheme unlike anything else on Wii. The game has players using the Nunchuk in their dominant hand, as opposed to the Wii Remote. Regular Wii enthusiasts have thought for a long period now that the Nunchuk doesn't respond to motions anywhere near as well as the Wiimote, but low and behold, Project Aces (the game's developer) has somehow managed to create a very taxing motion control scheme, assign it to the nunchuk, aand keep the game fun and easy to control. Needless to say, the control scheme in Sky Crawlers is one that works amazingly well, but since its so realistic, it takes a while to master. The learning curve look me about 6 hours before i felt comfortable making sharp turns. While multiple control options exist (such as Classic Controller support) in game, but the nunchuk mode on Expert is the only way to play as far as im concerned. Playing on Normal mode lets you taste the controls and play reasonably well, but it was only with the Expert mode that i could made quick turns, fly upside down, and make 360 turns in precious seconds less than you regularly would.

Gameplay involves mostly destroying plane model "X", but there are other missions that spice it up. One mission had little to no air combat what-so-ever, and has you taking out various trucks and tanks on the ground. Another has you taking recon photos in enemy territory. The game allows you to personalize your plane by creating an intricate, but easy to learn, optimizations menu. You can customize you plane(s) with different parts, making them faster, have higher defensives, more mobile, etc. Those not interested in such options can have the game assign the parts in accordance to how you want your plane to generally perform (I.E. Speed over anything else; mobility over anything else) This system provides some depth while still allowing new-comers to enjoy the game. Another addition to the game is a mode called TMC, or Tactical Maneuver Command. While tailing an enemy plane, a small meter pops up at the bottom of the screen. The TMC meter takes a few seconds to fill, and once it reaches a certain point, you can execute a variety of maneuvers that position your plane directly behind the enemy, allowing you to take him down. This doesn't feel cheap, since it takes skill to position yourself close enough (and long enough) to an enemy for the TMC meter to kick in.

The story presented in Sky Crawlers isn't all that interesting. It has its moments, but rarely are the characters or plot anything beyond a predictable mess. I suppose if you saw the movie and enjoyed it, you might get a kick out of seeing the world in a new light, but for someone as myself (a nooby to Sky Crawlers), the plot wasnt very engaging. The story missions are complimented with the occasion anime-style cut scene. These are very well done and are on occasion funny or interesting in their own right, but as a whole the games plot isnt a driving force. I played the game because its fun to do so, and i cared little about the characters.

As far as graphics are concerned, the game ranges from somewhat high end to somewhat low end. It suffers from the lack of polish traditional with budget games. The game case itself has a very neat, thick, full color booklet detailing the games mechanics and characters. The slip cover is reverseable, giving way from the standard "Wii" covers to a more artistic one displaying all the characters. These are nice additions that are customary with XSEED games on Wii (the reversible cover is new), and help make the game feel like a full priced release.

But the graphics, story, and presentation dont count for anything if the game isnt fun, and thankfully, thats where Sky Crawlers is at its best. The game provided plenty of fun, and more than enough enjoyment for its price of admission. While not a perfect game (there are many, many load screens), it still manages to blow much more expensive games out of the water. I recommend The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces to any one looking into a fun Wii game, realistic flight sim, or simply a great experience, novice and experienced gamer alike.

it's not quite the "Ace Combat for Wii" that i was hoping for, but it's darn close. it's missing some traditional elements -- no landings, for instance -- but it adds some welcome new features.

i found the story utterly un-engaging. in all fairness i have not seen the source-material film; i figured i'd look it up at some point.

game-wise, it's the best air combat experience on the Wii. i prefer more "sim" and less "shooter" but Project Aces still delivers the goods. put me in 1st-person view and give me 360 degrees of freedom and precise control, and i'm happy.

it's on the short side, and there isn't the variety of planes and weapons Ace Combat veterans might expect, but new difficulties and unlockables and achievements add replay value

more like this, please!

Needless to say this is my new favorite game on the Wii easily. While a low budget title that sold extremely poorly in japan, this game is without a doubt amazingly well crafted. The controls can take awhile to figure out, but once you learn how to do all the maneuvers and get used to steering, this games difficulty drops a large notch so if you find it hard, just be patient. I immediately started this game on expert controls and got stuck on the 3rd level until I learned I could just simply strafe left and right :D

Pros
- Adjustable controls between 5 different sets, including a beginner, normal, and expert mode to better help you pilot the plane, and adjustable camera controls.
- Very realistic to a fighter
- Challenging and fun
- Beautiful graphics
- Great sound track and voice acting!
- Cheap release price!
- Many things to unlock including new planes, modules that effects its performance, plane colors, weapons, etc.

Cons
- Not everyone likes flight sims.
- Can be quite hard, those who do not like challenges beware.

I thought the Sky Crawlers, Innocent Aces was a good game. A little different than Angels but all in all a good game.

This is a fun game to play. It has a lot of action and challenges. It is worth the money I paid for it.

This game is easily on par with anything you expect from ace combat. Story driven flight sim/air combat, excellent story cut scenes, easy enough controls without being oversimplified. The wii goes on to add the fun feeling of being in direct control using the nun chuck/wii remote combo as a throttle/joystick. Fans of the Ace Combat series will instantly recognize the similarities that are carried over from the previous titles. I personally was impressed by the cut scenes, they play out as if they are straight out of a movie and help explain the story very well. (and who knows they may be straight out of the movie, i haven't seen it.) I recommend this game as a solid Wii title, it uses the controls quite ingeniously and is fun and intuitive without being too hard for the casual gamer to pick up and play but has enough there to keep just about everyone entertained.

The problem with Sky Crawlers is that it fails as a simulator and it fails as an arcade game.

First, the game forces you to watch the story wchih is a very long cartoon, drawn in traditional Japanese style. If I want cartoons I can watch TV, let me play!!

The controls are way too easy, even for an arcade game. Whwn you are chasing a target a combination of keys on the remote will make your airplane turn, flip and position itself right behind the enemy so that you only have to press the button to shoot. Waaay to easy.

But sometimes easy games are fun. Not this one. I really wanted to enjoy the game, but I could not play it again. If you are looking for a fun air combat game for the Wii get Blazing Angels.

Easy to understand and play. Multiple missions that become increasingly more challenging. If you fail a mission (by not completing in time or crashing) you can easily restart and even pick a different plane that might work better.

I'm impressed with the graphics and the multi-layered aspect of the game. You are placed in a story line with full briefings on your missions ahead of time. When you complete missions there is sometimes a mini-movie that advances the story line.

There are a number of features to the flying, including being able to execute a move to get behind an opponent.

Some missions are non-combat but it is basically a combat game. You spar with other airplanes and some missions have you taking out ground or naval targets. Once you've completed a mission you can "free play it" any time you want. As you move through missions you unlock more planes and weapons.

Sure, there aren't many flight sims on the Wii, but this on is the best. Brought to you by the same guys who do the Ace Combat series, this game puts you in a alternate future where you still pilot WWII-era-ish aircraft. Those looking for a multiplayer experience should look elsewhere - this is a solo experience. But the cinematics and plotline are actually quite enjoyable.

The controls may strike some people as weird, as the main control is the nunchuck - not the wiimote. But it is responsive and, after a few missions, you get used to it. The graphics are good, the unlockables worthwhile, sound and music is good, and missions varied.

Only strange thing: The mission map is clearly Europe, but the town names are Japanese. A strange disjunction.