The Sky Crawlers Innocent Aces

A Daimond in the Rough Skies:

Being a big fan of anime film The Sky Crawlers and flight games, The Sky Crawlers Innocent Aces grabbed my attention quickly as I glance and the single shelf space of wii games that my local video store had to offer.

In fact I'm begining to really enjoy Xseed, the people reasonable for getting Rune Factory Frontier, Little King Story, and Fragile Dreams, games which I really enjoyed and I will be doing a review on it. I seem to always forget Namco as they do make games that I enjoy, like this one.

So back to Innocent Aces, this game has a well balance of dog fights, story telling and has a great OST. Although the storyline maybe a little timid with 18 missions that this game has to offer, however it is enough to keep you playing and enjoy some of the characters and the interaction between them.

War...has Changed...

Like the film Sky Crawlers(a good film), this game takes place in an alternate past where everyone lived in a peaceful world with out a fear of war. However, some greedy corporations bastards decide to make money from war profits and create meaningless battles as they get funded, to keep the war going and money flowing. They invest in genetic technology that created child like soilders that can only be killed in battle.

Argh You Have Any More Vomit Bags?:

This game fully uses the motion controls you use tilt the nunchuck to move up or down and side to side. While you use the wii-stick to speed up or slow down. But don't worry this game does give you the option to change your control setting so you can just use the Analog stick to move your plane around. Amazingly this game also supports the Wii Classic Controller and the Gamecube Controller as well, so it gives you the slight feeling of playing Ace Combat, another title by Namco.

All Wings Report In:

You play as a member of army squad code name Lynx, one of the members of Cougers. Those you are famliar with the Combat Aces shouldn't have a problem with this game as they are simliar at certain levels. However this game has a system called the Tactical Maneuver Commands or TMC for short, during dog fight you can quickly do some maneuvers that wii get you out of harms way and get you closer to your target. This maybe simliar to other flight games like Star Fox, but there is one thing that is cool. During a dogfight where you are 'chasing' your tagert there is a TMC guage that characers into certain levels, at a certain level yo press the TMC action and you see a cinemac event where you plane does some epic manevers and you end up with a perfect position to take your target out. This may be cheap yes...but in later levels you welcome this feature with open wings.

The game has unlockable planes and weapons that you can customize before a misson giving you some freedom. Nothing more fulfilling on taking out enemies with a rainbow coloured plane.

All I wanted to do is fly..

Overall I really enjoyed this game, it did take me awhile to get used to the wii motion controls and taking down your targets can be a chore in the later levels, and the game is short, you can beat it in a day if you wanted to.

Also if you did see the Sky Crawlers Movie... then the ending is a nice treat.

Next Up: Rune Factory Frontier.