Long, long ago, when the often-delayed N64 was still pre-drinking, getting ready to stagger out and embarrass itself at the console party, my younger, fangirl self was drooling over screenshots in my Nintendo Power magazines. Yet it wasn’t games like Blast Corps, Super Mario 64, or Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire that were squeezing out my saliva glands; it was Pilotwings 64. On the surface, it's just a lighthearted flight simulator, but in my mind, an irresistible portal to freedom.
You see, even in the days when 3D wasn’t quite 3D, I was dreaming of big, endless worlds. I wanted to go beyond the invisible walls in Duke Nukem 3D. In Stunt Race FX, I’d run circles around the practice track to try and simulate traveling to the next event. Video game worlds have come a long way since the hardware restrictions of yesteryear, going from the dizzyingly gargantuan, yet monotonous world of The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall to the confined cityscape of Grand Theft Auto III before arriving at today’s formulaic Ubisoft-brand sandboxes. Yet, for me, it wasn’t just the freedom of bigger and bigger sandboxes that I dreamt of, it was actually the restrictions that would shackle me to them.
My interest in Pilotwings went beyond flying through rings and firing hapless daredevils our of cannons into national monuments. I was instead absorbed with landing my gyrocopter on the ground and traveling the roads and highways of its miniaturized map of the United States from the ground level. Even before those days, I was dreaming of the perfect road trip game.
Throughout my life, that never really changed, and in games like Just Cause 2, I’d meticulously drive the speed limit while touring its enormous open worlds. The appeal invariable wears out after a while, but any time a world presents me with long stretches of asphalt, it’s almost a certainty that I’ll put four wheels on it and pretend I’m on vacation.
Little did I know back in the N64 days, I’d be stuck pretending to this day.
from destructoid http://bit.ly/2CZAPXK
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