Game:

Pilotwings (1990)

Duration: 5:28

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2

I think...THINK that subscriptions are fixed, so if things have suddenly jumped out of order from where you last entered flight training, I've got a playlist just for you! ...you don't believe me? Well, just let me know if it seems a little too obtrusive, I'm trying a new thing out for linking easily to the playlist pages... which I've mentioned before can be distressingly difficult to reach for anybody but the playlist's owner.

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Lesson 6

Hmm...I'm actually starting to wonder exactly what it might take to make Shirley mad at the player. Even Tony is prone to angry outbursts if you've clearly done something that's way off from the projected flight plan. Lance, of course, is a really creepy both when he's just calmly annoyed at you for not being able to do as he asks...and also when he winks at you for doing well... Big Al is probably the most instructorly of them all, if not a tad on the pessimistic side of things.

Shirley says that the runway is wet, and obviously that wouldn't affect the other two events...but I honestly don't see enough of a difference to write home about. Then again, Tony talks about snow on the runway, but if you're cautious about your landings to begin with, you probably won't be affected by this either.

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Skydiving

Do not let the actual successful run of Lesson 6 fool you! This score is wildly atypical! I for one can't believe I managed to get a score above 20, but that's kinda how the game works out...if you play your worst event first, you can eventually surprise yourself and have a huge windfall of points to supplement the other objective scores.

You may notice the atypical angle to my approach, but in this case it's solely based on using the wind to slow down the parachute, giving me more time to flare myself down to the ground and not into the water.

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Rocketbelt

A small horizontal ring is the greatest challenge we've encountered to date for the rocketbelt. It's the aeronautic equivalent to threading a needle! At least the spin speed of these rings aren't able to affect our ability to pass through them.

For those who may be curious as to the nature of the bonus game that I haven't actually shown off in these videos, I should probably talk a little strategy...in the earliest lessons, you may have actually noticed that a bonus chance was severe overkill for getting certified, to the point that I actually "accidentally" skipped a whole portion of my test with Big Al.

Well, here in the Expert Pilotwings stages, you'll be far more likely to come up short in terms of one event or another, so going for the bonus stage proves to be a viable tactical approach for overcoming a weak score somewhere else.

In my case, that's usually the skydiving, but based on my lucky dive just before this objective, I decided to take a pass on it...this time.

Since the rocketbelt is the vehicle that gives you the greatest personal control, it should come as little surprise that it's also the most feasible bonus to access on demand, although that doesn't mean by any means that it's not extremely easy to botch and earn yourself a zero for what would otherwise be my best event.

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Light Plane

Wow, and I thought the crazy rings in the previous Lesson were intense...but as per the name, "Expert" Pilotwings manages to take scenarios built around an "easy" experience, namely already-airborne starting conditions and a heading that already points you at your final destination. Nope, how about instead, we get a fierce and thrilling dive that brings you dangerously close to the ground for the duration of your flight, eh?

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