The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces Review

The Wii has not exactly been lacking in aerial combat games since its launch, but you could say that it has been lacking in good, or perhaps great aviator sims.  Blazing Angels, Heatseaker and WWII Aces have all been released (among other titles) over the past few years to rather lackluster receptions.  This, of course, has left aerial combat fans with something more to be desired.

Well, the good news is that if you’ve been patiently waiting for the right flight sim to fill your needs as a Wii owner, or if you’re just looking for more content after getting hooked on Wii Sports Resort’s Island Flyover mini-game, then look no further than XSEED’s The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces.

The Sky Crawlers is the latest aerial combat game from Project Aces, the team behind the critically acclaimed Ace Combat series.  The game’s story is based upon the anime film by the same name, taking place in an alternate history where corporations go to war against each other using “kildren,” special children who supposedly can only die in battle.

As ace rookie pilot “Lynx,” you’ll set out on 18 various missions for the Rostock Corporation, helping to war against Rostock’s arch rival, Lautern.  Along the way you’ll encounter various friends, foes, superiors and certain surprises as the game’s plot unfolds both through gameplay and beautifully presented anime cutscenes.

The standard controls utilize the Wii remote and nunchuck in an unorthodox manner whereby you hold the nunchuck in your main hand and the remote in your secondary hand.  The nunchuck itself steers the plane much like a flight stick, and the Wii remote acts as the throttle control, pushing the aircraft to full speed when held upright and maintaining cruising speed when held in a level position.

While the controls did take a moment to get used to, I quickly found myself enjoying this unique setup which I’m told is meant to more accurately demonstrate the controls of an actual plane.  However, fans of classic controls can still opt for either a Classic Controller or GameCube pad.