Yup, you heard me, in Wing Island, you play a young pilot who has just been asked by his Grandfather to take over "Wing INC." a devil-may-care, no-job-too-odd plane delivery service. Oh, and you are a man/bird hybrid. You know the type, just like fox from Starfox, animal creatures that walk around and wear clothes, buy mochas and attempt to wrangle the occasional cow all while flying in planes. The premise is so off beat it should work like a charm, and with the motion activated controls of the Wii, this should be a top-shelf title. Too bad it just doesn't come together quite right.

I wanted to like this game so much, of course, there is going to be the comparisons to "Pilot Wings" since the game practically a cousin in the same family. Flying missions that involve delivering packages, racing against rival companies, rescues, bombings, formation flying, you name it and there is probable some sort of mission that loosely resembles it. But the experience is really marred by a completely befuddling control schematic. Let me explain. In Wing Island, you are a pilot. Pilots fly their planes with a control stick (at least the planes you fly in this title, not a 747). When they hold the stick, they do so like it's connected to the ground, straight up. if you will. Now when I asked for this title, I automatically assumed that this would be the case, it was a natural assumption, right? Well, no, I was pained to discover that you must hold the remote flat and tilt it up and down to maneuver the plane(s), rocking it side to side makes the plane turn, so on and so forth. The attached nunchuk also provides some additional controls, but at this point I had a hard time even fathoming the developers idea to make the game control this way.

 
 "Formation flying, get used to it cause many of the missions require it."

So just so you know, the game even features a tutorial on how to do the basic flight maneuvers; it is laid out in very easy to understand 20-second blurbs that are designed for even the youngest of players to get and understand. Now here is the real kicker, the game has this sort of inane storyline that moves the game forward, but as you read the interactions of the various pilots, you have to wonder who came up with this idea, surely there should have been better ways for a pilot to convince the young owner that he needs to accept a challenge from a rival company other then "Just do it!" The plot is very rough and give the game no weight. For as poorly realized that it is, I would have rather just had a game that presented a challenge one after another, with no sort of wacky story pressing me forward.

Back to the controls, since the Wii is lacking in easily accessible buttons on the remote and nunchuk, the developers choose to have the gamer, press down the "A" button and then move the remote in order to do secondary functions, things like speed boost and air braking are done merely by pushing forward or back with your arm to do so, but holding the button down has your plane doing barrel-rolls and formation changes. Problem is, all of the "quick" movements don't always translate to the system like it should. The game is nowhere near the level of effectiveness of say, Zelda or Wario: Smooth Moves. Rather the game quickly becomes frustrating by the inability to respond correctly. And, dare I say, the game sometimes has you doing things that need to be done quickly, like when you are leading you squad through an underground tunnel and you need them to fall in behind you and they are flying in a "V" formation. I found out quickly you can wreck one of your team into the terrain.

And speaking of terrain, the graphics and presentation of the visuals really feel a bit dated, as if the texturing of the in-flight visuals took a back seat. I don't think they look horrible mind you, it's just the game has the appearance of a GameCube title. Sure the mini-map in the upper portion of the screen give you an idea of where you need to go to accomplish your missions, and there is a visual difference in the way the different planes look and move, but it's all so mundane looking. I ap[ologize to the developers, because making a game can be a real challenge, but the game really looks unpolished. I will say that the game clips along at a steady 60 fps, but I can't really say the graphics did it for me. I spent the money on my nice TV and then bought the Wii - where's my eye candy?

"Whhheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!" Oh, I meant Wii."

The game does have some interesting choices when it came to the audio portion of the title, and when I say interesting I'm just being nice, they are pretty thin. Crash your plane or another's into the wall of a cavern or the ground and you hear some light thumping. The aircraft engines reminded me of my gas-powered weed whacker, only not as powerful sounding and the background music merely provided white noise to me. I can't help but not be excited about this title.

Oddly enough, the most chuckles came out when I was playing the split-screen multiplayer mode against my son, and I think he was laughing at me, getting ticked off at the game's poor controls more than anything. There are a couple of balloon-popping races including one where you must pop balloons attached to your opponent's plane that provided some mild amusement, but the game does not come with very many additions when it comes to play once you have beaten the very short single-player game.
 

Gameplay: 5.0
Yeah, there is frustration found in a title that has you attempting to do as many flight maneuvers as this one, but then having those very maneuvers not be recognized by the sensor bar. Oh did you mean speed up? I thought you wanted the team to fly in a cross formation as we entered the tunnel.

Graphics: 5.2
Hello, churning graphics. Every once in a while, things get choppy and the level design (all two islands) were pretty bland.

Sound: 4.5
Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Difficulty: Easy
You could rent this, beat it and return it in the same day.

Concept: 5.5
At least they get some props for attempting to be the heir apparent to the Pilotwings mantle. Of course it is no where near as fun, but hey, they tried.

Multiplayer: 5.5
There were some, laughs and giggles, but it simply was not enough.

Overall: 5.1
Oh man, the game had so much potential, but the execution simply never occurred. This game was made by the same folks who did Mario Party? Why couldn't they sprinkle some of that magic dust on this title?