Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces for Wii Reviews by Gamers

First of all, this is NOT a flight simulator. It's a more of an anime movie simulator where you are one of the characters. If you are expecting flight sim style dogfights you will be disappointed and not like this game. However, if you let go of those expectations and just roll with it (no pun intended) it can still be pretty fun.

The graphics are excellent and everything is visually stylized for maximum dramatic effect, right down to the fight music that will be playing in your head hours later. It really IS like being an anime movie, so if you like that sort of thing you'll get a kick out of that.

My only gripes are minor ones. The UI is clunky in parts. At one point I couldn't figure out how to flip pages back to the first page of planes because the button was a funky looking symbol (why not just use a simple arrow?!?). I played a couple of missions with the absolute WORST plane possible thinking it wouldn't let me choose another.

The controls take getting used to. You are limited in how much roll you can do unless you use a "special move." Which is why I say if you want multiplayer flight-sim action forget it. And the way those moves are used to line you up behind your target feels practically like cheating.

The story is clunky too. It's about as deep as an empty swimming pool sometimes and at other times tries to be this pensively esoteric narrative on the human condition. eh, whatever.

Oh, and one other thing... the mission map is of Europe but all the names are Japaneseish. What's up with that? o.0!??! Oh, except for your name. You get cheesy names like "Cheetah" and you CAN'T change it. Your character doesn't talk so I started to wonder if I was "Cheetah" from Tarzan and would make chimp noises whenever the other characters talked to me.

If you like retro-looking planes zooming through the sky blowing stuff up from camera angles designed to maximize the coolness factor this game is a fun ride. Just don't take it too seriously, sit back and enjoy it

When I first played the game I was quickly displeased because I was expecting a simulator type experience, which this is not. But it is fun to play . I Thought the menu was a bit confusing, for example; to load a saved game you choose New Game instead of continue. You start with one plane and one level and have to beat your way through the story mode to unlock new planes and levels. Once beat you can play any of the 17 levels over at any difficulty level. The controls after learned are easy to use. Finding and locking on to enemies is easy with the system the game uses. Stay within a certain circle around an enemy for a few seconds and you can press A to perform a "tactical maneuver" where by you position yourself behind the enemy for an easy kill. This makes game play quicker and you can easily kill 40+ enemies on a single mission. Again someone looking for a take off and land simulator will be disappointed. It's only a one player game. Also, the only view is from behind the plane. If these things don't deter you then you'll probably like it. There is an extensive storyline that's written, spoken and animated. Overall not a bad game, there is a variety of missions and game play is easy. I give it a 6 because its worth trying if you like arcade style combat.