PSP World

Pilot Academy: the review

We seem to be at a point now, in the PSP's life cycle, where almost every genre is taken care of. There are platformers, puzzlers, RPGs, action, adventure... you name it and it’s here. That is, all except one: the flight simulator. The reason for this has probably been the control system as the average PC based flight simulator requires a keyboard overlay to aid the electronic pilot during their flight time. Pilot Academy is brought to the PSP by Japanese developers Kuju Entertainment as part of their Pilot Ni Narou series of games. Whether this will be as much of a hit in the West remains to be seen but I can't help wandering 'is this what the PSP community are crying out for?'

Pilot Academy allows you to sample aircraft from the past and present from WWI fighters to the latest commercial passenger jumbos and everything in-between. It is split into three different sections: Lessons, Challenges and Missions, which in-turn is also divided into Civilian or Military. Obviously it's best to start out with the Lessons which do a fairly good job of briefing you on the basics both in terms of controlling your plane and, later on, actually engaging in combat. It's then off to the more interesting Challenges and Missions which actually have little to separate them. The Civilian Challenges include a Sightseeing tour (where you must snap a handful of monuments and areas of beauty) whilst the Crop Dusting puts you in a much more maneuverable plane as you swoop down to spray a series of fields with insecticide. One of the Military challenges involves you defending a fleet of warships until your air support arrives, whilst an intelligence mission is more a question of avoidance as you make your way to your home base to deliver valuable photographs. As I've already mentioned the challenges are very similar but not everything is available at the games start so you'll have to succeed in each one of the Missions and Challenges before opening up the whole game.

One section which is freely available at the game’s start is the Free Flight which allows you to fly any one of the aircraft (which you have unlocked) and take it for a spin around the various islands. As you'd expect though, without any objectives of any sort, this can become a little tiresome after a short time. There's also a rather comprehensive Multiplayer featuring a variety of dogfights, chases and air battles for up to four players. Finally there’s a hangar where aircraft enthusiasts can check on the stats of the various planes you've unlocked in addition to 'flying' around them.

Visually the game is functional but far from outstanding and while each of planes is well modelled the same cannot be said of the scenery. This is very changeable in its quantity and quality. While the airports and their immediate area are pleasing, as soon as you take off you’ll see a difference. The majority of the cities are simply plots with the odd skyscraper dotted about. As you'd expect the game works much better when you are flying over the mountains and countryside with the odd area of interest and I can only assume the lack of detail is simply down to a question of keeping the game running at a suitable frame speed. The highlight as far as the game’s visuals are concerned, is probably the front end which is both easy to navigate and pleasing to look at, something that is often overlooked in today’s titles.

The soundtrack is a real mixture. There’s a handful of pleasing tunes and what can best be described as 'elevator music'. This is fine for most of the game but it does tend to irritate when you are in one of the more tricky situations and I could feel myself thinking 'will someone please turn off that terrible music while I'm attempting to land this 747 in the middle of a tornado'. You'll see what I mean when you get there. There's also a fair amount of voice acting and while this is all well performed the tone of the dialogue doesn't always suit the actual subject.

Most of the problems lie in the control and although the various tutorials are perfectly pitched they do expect you to know how to 'place the flaps in take off mode' or 'lock-on a target'. This wouldn't be a problem if things were fully explained in the manual but there are a handful of glaring errors making whole chunks of the game an unsatisfying 'trial and error' affair with your aircraft plummeting to the ground while you try to figure out why the red light is constantly slashing on the flight deck. The same is true with some of the Challenges and while they'll fully brief you with a range of objectives they don’t always tell you how to fulfill them.

I started off by questioning the wisdom of bringing a Flight Simulator to the PSP and after playing this title I still think that anyone who really wants to get behind the controls of a 747 will favor the PC route. For those that do fancy a bit of flying on the move though, Pilot Academy may be just what you are looking for. It's certainly easy to get into thanks to the many tutorial missions. The problems start though as you begin the missions when you discover that the control system is not all it should be, leading to hours of confusion and frustration. You will eventually overcome this, of course, but it does seem a great deal of pain to go through just for the sake of a game. As for the ultimate question: can we recommend it? Well, it's hard to say really but I'd definitely say Pilot Academy is more of a 'try before you buy' than a must purchase.