Guilty Pleasure- The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces Preview

Many veteran gamers are familiar with the dreadful legacy of the licensed game- few interactive adaptations reach the potential implied by their source material. In anticipation of a preview build of The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces, I watched the game’s celluloid inspiration. The anime proved to be an unconventional choice for a video game. The film was especially emotive, and had a spare amount of action. Moreover, the movie’s message was decidedly anti-war- I felt guilty watching the fleeting moments of aerial combat.

Luckily, Innocent Aces forgoes the anime’s protracted emotive elements for a generous supply of dogfighting. The game was developed by Project Aces, best known for their work on the Ace Combat series. Clearly, the production team hasn’t deviated far from the success of franchise. Sky Crawlers contains all the elements the series is known for- from fluid framerates, loquacious teammates, as well as a wealth of well-rendered aircraft. Wii owners seeking a capable flight-sim could do far worse.

One of the more intriguing aspects of Innocent Aces is the title’s default control scheme. The conventional method of holding a Wiimote in your right hand and a Nunchuck in the left is inverted to better simulate an aircraft’s navigational method. As explained in the game’s tutorial, players hold the Wiimote vertically- in their left hand, to reproduce a thrust level. Moving the controller towards the screen accelerates your on-screen fighter, while pulling it near your body brakes. The Nunchuck is used to adjust pitch and yaw- by raising the angle of the attachment, the nose of your on-screen aircraft increases accordingly.

Gamers accustomed to the more pedestrian controls of the Ace Combat series will feel at home with the option to use the Nunchuck’s analog control as a flight stick, relinquishing any motion support. Additionally, owners of the Classic Controller can emulate a more conventional control scheme, although the option menus seem to conceal this inclusion. Whichever mode is used, aircraft feel suitably nimble, as they slice through the air.

Once gamers maintain a close proxemic distance to specific opponents, they will begin to charge their Maneuver meter.  Once the gauge is filled, players are a button press away from a host of agile tactics, which place the gamer directly behind their foe. The power-up allows multiple levels of attack, if virtual pilots have the aptitude to pursue dexterous enemies. With the inclusion of this ability, it seems Project Aces have been keeping a studious watch over the H.A.W.X. development team.

Visually, Sky Crawlers recalls the aptitude of the Ace Combat series, with well-rendered plane and ground textures. Both clouds and explosions are satisfyingly voluminous, although it’ll take more time to see if players can take cover the fluffy, white objects. The game’s soundtrack recalls the cyclical theme of the anime; purists will be disappointed by the lack of Japanese dialog.