The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces

Rating Teen Genre action Publisher Xseed Games External Links

From the minds behind the highly successful Ace Combat series comes The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces.  You are the newest pilot of Rostock’s Cougar Squadron.  Although your Captain is behind you, your new wing mates waste no time in giving you a hard time.  That is, until you prove your skills quite quickly on your first sortie.  Afterwards, it’s business as usual for the Rostock Corporation as their civil war against the Lautern Corporation.  Quite the troubling life for a company man.  To top it off, a whole slew of new pilots have been recently assigned to Cougar Squadron.  There’s just one problem: they’re children.

The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces tells the story of two companies fighting for bigger profit margins in an alternate fiction universe where Japan seems to rule all of Europe.  Mission highlights are carried out with a military flair.  Combat zones are well-constructed and give the players enough wiggle room to dart about as they see fit.  Enemy fighters do their best to evade your relentless aerial tactics.  There is quite a package deal at work in this title, and it shows in the final product.

On the surface, this title seems like a combat simulator designed for the Wii.  Dry, yet thorough tutorials are your first exposure.  It’s a wise idea to tackle these first, since there is no learning integrated within the main story mode.   However, once story mode is chosen, The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces proves to be deceptively immersive in terms of plot.  After finishing the first mission, you are treated to a good chunk of animated cut scenes.  In between each mission, you get more and more of the story.  Not only is this a welcome break, but it serves as motivation to complete missions.  

The missions themselves are rather nuanced, albeit straightforward.  Destroying targets is paramount to completing any mission objective.  The difficulty curve allows you plenty of time to get used to both the game’s controls and action pace.  For your first two missions, much focuses on your ability to track and eliminate targets in a timely manner.  On your third and fourth missions, you learn the importance of dodging enemy fire and navigating obstacles on the map.   From there, the sky’s the limit.  As you progress, your kill count unlocks various customizable options for future missions.  Trial and error will soon provide you with an optimal output to match your playing style.

While the controls are both intuitive and motion-sensor friendly, players may find a wide gap in the Normal and Expert flight modes.  Easy mode is a hindrance, plain and simple.  Do yourself a favor and tell R-2 to get you off of the autopilot, because it will get you both killed.  However, Normal mode tends to restrict your movement at the peaks of your turns.  The problem there is that Expert mode tends to be a tad sensitive at times.  However, the gaming experience of Expert mode is well worth the mastery.  With practice, any dedicated player will be able to maneuver their fighters with style.

If you’re familiar with the Ace Combat series, you’d do well to put this title in your collection.  If you’re one of many looking for a game that utilizes the Wii’s motion controls, look no further.  If you’re seeking something you’ve never tried before, I would highly suggest making this game your newest experiment.  By all accounts, Sky Crawlers: The Innocent Aces has something to offer all gamers.