Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R312AOJZRCTTXS I review 3rd party games for the Wii on YouTube. To see more of my reviews go to [...].

Let me go for "Most Helpful Critical Review."

I wanted to love this game. I've flown full sized planes and R/C planes and Helis. I wanted a game I would have fun playing with my children and introducing them to the joys of flight. I admit I was a bit disappointed.

And that disappointment started from the beginning. The game does not use the Miis.. which is annoying but not a showstopper.. but what is completely ridiculous is that you can only save your games under 3 characters, two boys and one girl. So if Mom and Dad want to play you better only have one son. 4 kids? Too bad. Adding to the stupidity, you can not rename the characters and both of the boy characters have the same name! (Jimmy and Sophie is the girl's name) Why, I ask, why? ;-)

Then the control are weird. We all know that you hit "A" to get past title screen etc on the Wii.. It is the de facto "enter" key. Sky Captain uses weird buttons like 1 and 2 that you don't use often and will use 1 for the first screen in a series and - or + for the second. HUH?

Ok so getting past that, how does it play? Sadly not great. The spatial perception is off... You can't tell how close you are to the ground or an obstacle. I've flown flight simulators since the mid 80's and designers must give you visual clues when you approach an object. (like a shadow on the ground before you hit the grass.)This game is rather poor at this making it very easy to crash. (if you watch the video on youtube of the designer flying it at a gaming conference you see he keeps crashing.)

Luckily the penalty of crashing is small so each crash only costs you a few seconds of game play. So it's not a big deal but it is annoying.

One last knock.. I had sorta of hoped that it would be microscopically more realistic in that I hoped in that it would use energy. (for you non-pilots...) Flying is all about energy... In other words you can't just point a real plane straight up to the sky and have it climb forever, the engine can't do it. If you dive you pick up speed etc. This game does not have any of that.... Now before you dismiss that as too complex for children to grasp, they get it when they ride the bicycle on Wii Sports Report. If you sprint for too long it makes you take a break because your character gets tired. Even my 3 year old grasps the concept as he tells the 5 year old to slow down. So this could add a really cool dimension to the game without making it too complex. [I do admit I wrote that mostly for the benefit of other dads who might be wondering about that.]

I find the flying controls very shaky and I used 2 different wiimotes both less than 2 months old but maybe I'm getting old.

OK so the acid test... Shut up dad, what did the kids think?

Both my kids (boy 5, girl 8) really enjoyed it. While their old man might be a hyper-critical fault finder, they just found it fun... which I guess is the point. The girl did complain about the characters without being prompted and some of my other objections they have also voiced, but in general they have spent hours flying around unlocking all sorts of stuff. (I played for maybe an hour BTW)

Bottom line: If you're looking for a kid's flying game, since this is the only real choice, you've found it. Just know it's a bit quirky and you won't be disappointed. I would buy it again knowing the quirks.

However. If you have an older Wii and do not own Wii Sports Resort and are willing to get a less complex flying game of higher quality (and a mountain of other cool games) put the money from this toward WSR. You won't be disappointed.

If you're still awake, I hope you found this helpful.

I've spent hours reading reviews and trying to find a good Wii airplane game for my just turned 5 year-old son (who is obsessed with airplanes). He was bored after a while with the airplane part on Wii Sports Resort but the "daddy" airplane games like Blazing Angels are WAAY too hard for him and have bad language on them. After several months of researching, we finally found this game that just came out. He's played with it for a few days now and just loves it. A lot of the things are locked to start with but that's okay because there are lots of missions and it makes it a challenge to do well so it will unlock airplanes and missions you like. Luckily, you have to do well to unlock things but not that well. He's playing it right now with a big smile on his face and I'm enjoying the rare moment when he isn't saying he's bored. I would say the recommended age would be around 4-10 or 12.