Unlike titles such as Namco's Ace Combat, which meshed military weaponry with arcade style shooting, Aero Wings is all about flight control. The game is based upon the premise of mastering the subtle control nuances of flying a high-tech aircraft. The objective is to become proficient in performing close tolerance Figure-Eights, Immelmans, Verticle Cupids and other dexterous flight maneuvers so as to navigate the courses found in the various game stages and modes. Like Pilot Wings, the courses are strewn with checkpoints represented by circular, floating bulls-eyes. Nosing your plane around the course is easy at first, until certain flight intrinsic acrobatics are required to hit all points without missing bonus awards and pre-determined stops.

The game starts with a section called the Blue Impulse Mission. This mode is the training ground for your future endeavors. There is a pre-flight grid with 3D graphical representations of the flight objectives. In addition, there is a post-flight briefing, where the instructor will critique the flight, and offer scores for each segment of the mission until a total is calculated. Instructions voiced over the graphics have been done by a fairly decent voice actor, who is encouraging and disparaging where need be. In Sky Mission Attack, the player plays through a variety of missions that require flying through circular waypoints. The more rings the player successfully navigates, the better the score. In Free Flight mode, formations can be introduced, so that all mission objectives are contingent upon precision flying patterns and following commands-like a game of Follow the Leader. What is nice is that, in this mode, the player assumes the role of the leader. So while flying the player can order his team of pilots to perform scores of patterns at will.

Plane models are very detailed, sporting fancy paint jobs, clearly defined flaps, rudders, landing gear and detailed instrument panels. Terrain is very convincing, though there is some notable disparity in the quality and detail of the textures used for the various locations. Some are the best seen to date, while others are just average fair. When flying around the Island stage for example, breakers come into the beach-line from the surrounding ocean can be seen from above-one of the small but pleasing graphical touches. Rustic terrain seems more aptly rendered than cityscapes which sport some very shallow ground textures. However, look out across the expanse at the horizon (especially at dusk) and Aero Wings shows what it is made of. Some of the most realistic clouds done on a console, truly depict their softness and lighter-than-air appearance. However, buildings are just…well…buildings! They do look nice and sport lights at night creating a great obstacle course to navigate one's way through, but they are not much more than that in the grand scheme of things.

All this terrain becomes convincingly more appealing in the various replay modes that make you feel you are watching Top Gun (for real) all over again. This is one of the most appealing aspects of the game. Complete a mission objective, and not only do you get the satisfaction of having achieved a milestone, but you can then watch your handiwork from some really sweat cinematic camera angles.

Successes are rewarded with additional craft to fly. Controlling the planes is relatively simple with the stock Dreamcast analog pad. Nevertheless, I would venture to say that by incorporating an analog flight stick, the game would become inherently more precise, in terms of having more subtle ranges of motion. Taking-off is rather easy, but landing is a whole'nudda ball game. Landing gear must be deployed, flaps must be actuated and trimmed, and air speed must be regulated to bring the planes down like a feather. All these features are found on the DreamPad without need for menus.

The planes feel convincing in their representation of virtual flight. Variances between weight, wing type, airspeed and environmental conditions (i.e., the performance of a plane based upon whether it is traversing land or sea) factor into how you craft feels. Slipping past buildings and monuments at breakneck speeds is certainly fun for those so inclined. Sound effects attempt to enhance the experience, but the techno soundtracks leave much to be desired. Actually, it seems that sound is the one area in Aero Wings that got the least amount of attention. Plane sounds are not varied by craft type, and crash explosions are limited. What has been used, in terms of sounds, gets the job done-though not near as ambitious as they could have been. This is one case where the Yamaha soundboard has been under-used unfortunately.