Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces – Review Roundup

Nintendo World Report – 90
Innocent Aces isn’t going to stun anyone from a visual standpoint, but it is a competent effort. The landscape uses GeoEye images, as Project Aces is known for doing, to create landscapes captured from satellite images of the Earth’s surface. However, they decided to use a more colorful palette to complement the cartoon images of the source material, rather than the realistic terrain that the GeoEye system is known for. It is still great to fly over cities, deserts, forests, and oceans. The aircraft, while not highly detailed, are pleasing to the eye and there are plenty of them on screen at once. The game runs smoothly and properly conveys the speed of an aircraft in flight. Outside of missions, there are hand-drawn cinematics, created by the same team that produced The Sky Crawlers film. The character designs in these cutscenes are great, and the art is fantastic.

The sound is absolutely top-shelf work. Radial engines sound sufficiently grumbly and gruff, gunfire sounds just right and varies according to the type of gun being fired, and the sounds of explosions are a fitting climax for each encounter. The aural mastery extends to the music as well. When I first heard Innocent Aces’ soundtrack I was convinced they had lifted it from the film; the core themes and situational variations keep the music interesting, fitting, and distinct. The music ranges from exciting to haunting to somber, despite reusing the same core themes. If that weren’t enough to earn high marks, there are also hundreds of lines of dialogue, with story dialogue punctuating missions, cut-scenes, and briefings. Situational dialogue, be it praise for your mastery of your aircraft and ability to decimate foes or taunts and cries of fear from your enemies, can be heard throughout missions in response to your actions and, at times, even your presence on the battlefield.

One of the few negatives with Innocent Aces is that it only features 17 missions, and could be cleared by a determined player in a single day. However, there are three difficulty settings (and a fourth unlockable one) and various parts and aircraft to be earned through completing missions. There are also awards to be earned by completing specific tasks, such as completing the story mode without dying or failing a mission, and eliminating a specific number of enemies using your cannons.

The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces is a great package. The unique control scheme is unique and effective, providing a sense of connection with your aircraft that mere button-pressing cannot. The story, told both with fantastic movies and via in-flight dialogue, is great; while confusing at times, it has requisite twist and turns just like the film. The sound is amazing, and the graphics are solid. It’s a little on the short side, but at its discounted launch price, The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces is a bargain. If you enjoy flight combat games then you should be headed out the door to buy this game right now. Even if you don’t, the control scheme and the exciting gameplay should be enough to make it worth your while.

IGN – 80

After years of waiting for a truly standout flight game on Wii, XSEED has really delivered with Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces. Mixing in dozens of different mission types within the game’s 18 stages, the Project Aces team puts a more arcade-inspired anime spin on its typical flight engine, and the result is a truly rewarding one.

Nintendo Power – 70
The best thing about The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces is that it makes you feel like a badass ace pilot.

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