Wii Sports: Airplane
Details | |
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Developer(s) | Nintendo |
Publisher(s) | Nintendo |
Release date(s) | Unreleased (Showcased at E3 2006) |
Platform(s) | Wii |
Input(s) | Wii Remote |
Game chronology | |
Previous game First game in series |
Next game Latest game in series |
On affiliated sites | |
Walkthrough | |
Wii Sports: Airplane, sometimes simply referred to as Airplane, was one out of twenty[1] tech demos shown at E3 2006 in order to showcase the power of the then to be released Wii, most of them showcasing the pointer and motion control of the Wii Remote in various ways.
Amongst the tech demos shown, nine of them were focused on ideas that later turned into sections of three Wii series games after being tweaked into better version of themselves[2]. Those tech demos were separated into three groups : "Wii Sports:" for the tech demos that turned into Wii Sports, "Remote Pointer Demo:" for those who turned into Wii Play and "Wii Music:" for those who turned into Wii Music. Two tech demos weren't however present in respective final games, being Wii Sports: Airplane and Remote Pointer Demo: Obstacle Course for Wii Play.
Gameplay
Wii Sports: Airplane consisted of a single sport that did not end up in the final build of Wii Sports. In this sport, the player's Mii was on board of a plane controlled by the player who had to tilt the Wii Remote in order to control the plane around what appears to be an early version of Wuhu Island and had to fly through the most rings scattered throughout the island as possible before running out of time.
While not present in this demo, a screenshot of a Mii using a Wii Remote and a Nunchuck as a Jetpack (perhaps based on the Rocket Belt from the Pilotwings series) near the town seen in this early version of Wuhu Island was found during the Nintendo data leak and was perhaps planned to be a part of Wii Sports: Airplane when it was still going to be a part of the Wii Sports game.
Links with project released afterwards
While not confirmed to be the case, it is interesting to note that this mini-games shared a lot of similarities with the Pilotwings series, a series famous for having all of its games being launch titles, and with Wii Sports being a launch title for the Wii, the game may have been planned to either pay homage to the Pilotwings series or replace it as the launch title series for Nintendo consoles, with the two series years after this tech demo making a crossover titled Pilotwings Resort as a launch title for the Nintendo 3DS, it is possible that the idea behind it game came from Wii Sports: Airplane.
The early version of Wuhu Island shown in this tech demo was later repurposed first in Wii Fit under the name Wii Fit Island, and then did end up in a Wii Sports game with the release of Wii Sports Resort, albeit being heavily modified in order to put every single sports in Wii Sports Resort on this island rather than simply Air Sports, who seems to have been based on this tech demo, with the plane controlling the exact same way but with the main goal of the sports being heavily modified.
Gallery
A leaked screenshot of an unused Sports found during the Nintendo data leak