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Imagine, if you will, a flying game called Sky Crawlers controlled by Wii remote and nunchuck. Guess the control scheme. You probably guessed wrong.

To control an airplane in a Wii game, I have held the Wii Remote like a paper airplane.

I have held it like a flashlight, dipping and raising it to orient where my plane’s nose is pointing.

These schemes failed me when, unsupervised by representatives in attendance at publisher XSeed’s New York demo event last night, I took up Wii Remote and nunchuck and sent my World War II dogfighter into the drink.

The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces, this flight combat game from the developers of Ace Combat, is controlled differently.

Read this next part slowly, lest you be as flummoxed as I was.

The nunchuck controls plane movement. Tilt, twist, turn it and the plane does the same.

The Z-button on the nunchuck shoots the plane’s guns.

The C-button on the nunchuck switches weapons.

The Wii Remote controls the throttle, so it gets held vertically. Pulling it toward you speeds the plane up. Tilting it away slows the plane.

Tilting the nunchuck’s control stick lets the player pick from a batch of stunt maneuvers. Pressing A on the remote activates them.

Flying the plane into yellow circles on the game’s mini-map causes a meter to appear, a horizontal bar that slowly fills with color. Pressing A as the meter fills makes the plan maneuver into position behind an enemy plane. The more that meter is filled, the better the resulting position is.

Once I got it, the controls worked well. Here’s to Project Aces for coming up with one of the stranger Wii control schemes yet.

A note about the story, which is its own brand of strange: I didn’t play more than a quick skirmish in the air, but the fact sheet reveals that the plot of this game involves a peaceful world that is nostalgic for the constant wars that used to befall it. To remedy the social unease caused by a lack of war, governments hire private companies and fliers, like the ones controlled in this game, to fight battles. The game’s hero is rookie pilot Lynx, who, according to the fact sheet, “becomes involved in a secret new military project with the goal of making pilots immortal.” This is a “somber story of a world that needs war to survive.”

The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces is a single-player Wii exclusive set for holiday release, published by XSeed and developed by Namco Bandai Games and Project Aces.

If you have a comprehensive knowledge of Japanese literature or flight combat games that never saw an American release, you probably already know about The Sky Crawlers. We fell in love with Namco-Bandai’s book-to-game adaptation when we were teased with tons of gameplay footage last year — sadly, the game was never visited by the localization fairy, and never made it to the States. Since then, we’ve been sad all over.

Fortunately, a recent XSEED press release has turned our melancholy into melan-jolly (ugh) — the capitalized company has purchased the North American publishing rights for The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces, due out this holiday season on the Wii. The game, which was developed by Ace Combat veterans Project Aces, will have players using the Wiimote and Nunchuck to simulate actual flight controls. It’s a bit overdue, but we’re thrilled about the Americanization of this aeronautical gem nonetheless.

XSEED bringing The Sky Crawlers to North American Wiis originally appeared on Joystiq on Sun, 05 Jul 2009 20:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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While The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Ages was released by Namco Bandai in Japan last year, it’s going to be all new to the US very soon thanks to XSEED, who announced today they’ll be bringing the game here this holiday season with the help of Namco’s Project Aces team.

Based on a series of novels from author Hiroshi Mori, the game is a flight sim that fully utilizes the Wii control scheme to fully immerse you into battle. If you’ve either seen the Mamoru Oshi film based on Mori’s books or read any of the manga that was serialized in Monthly Comic Blade, you know the Sky Crawlers universe has a lot of story, too, and it looks like we’ll also enjoy that in the game, which promised to tell it through animated cutscenes.

I have to admit, this looks awfully pretty, but since I’ve never enjoyed flights sims I may end up passing on it. Having been a fan of the film, though, I can’t help but be curious about the new story the game will tell. Does anyone still really get into flight sims, though? I feel like it’s been ages since I’ve heard a gamer say they were really into playing them…

XSEED Games Announces The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces for Wii

Latest Flight Simulator From Project Aces Coming to North America

Torrance, Calif., (July 3, 2009) –XSEED Games today announced that they have secured the North American publishing rights to The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces, an intense flight simulation game on Wii™. Originally released in Japan by NAMCO BANDAI Games, this latest title from Project Aces, will be available Holiday 2009 exclusively for Wii.

After decades of constant war and fighting, the world has finally come to a lasting peace. But with war being an integral part of their lives for so long, the citizens of the world are desperate for a solution to solve this newfound peaceful life of calm and tranquility.

To ease this tension and to appease its citizens, the government has started pursuing a new round of wars. These new campaigns are not a power struggle between hostile countries, but rather sponsored events between private corporations with military-trained personnel contracted by each side to do their biding for them. It is the battles fought by these war contracted corporations such as Rostock and Lautern and the constant media reports on them that satisfy and replace the basic human instinct to fight using the war as a show.

The latest rookie pilot to join the Sky Crawlers, codenamed “Lynx,” is working his way up the ranks and becomes involved in a secret new military project with the goal of making pilots immortal. Join Lynx on his journey to conquer the skies while unraveling the mystery behind the military’s covert new project.

”I’m extremely pleased to be able to confirm The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces for gamers in North America,” said Jun Iwasaki, President of XSEED Games.  “The innovative control scheme and gorgeous visuals just go to show what a top-notch development team can do when creating a new game from scratch specifically for Wii.”

In The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces, players hold the Nunchuk in the right hand as the flight control stick which is tilted to roll, pitch, and yaw, while the Wii Remote™ held in the left hand is titled up to accelerate and down to decelerate in its role as the throttle. The somber story of a world that needs war to survive, based on a novel series by Hiroshi Mori and adapted into an animated film released by Sony Pictures in the US, is told with a combination of animated cut-scenes and voiced in-game sequences during battle.

XSEED Games partnered with NAMCO BANDAI Games to secure the North American rights to publish and distribute The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces. The title is being developed by Project Aces , the forefront developer of flight simulation games behind the Ace Combat series, and garnered a Famitsu Gold Award upon release.

About XSEED Games:

XSEED Games was formed in November 2004 by a small group of industry veterans by president Jun Iwasaki with a common vision: to cross pollinate the avid gaming cultures of Japan and North America. Delivering unique, innovative titles across multiple platforms and genres, XSEED Games is dedicated to publishing products that appeal and enrich the North American market. More information on XSEED Games can be found at http://www.xseedgames.com.

© 2009 NAMCO BANDAI Games Inc.
Wii, Wii Remote and the Wii logo are trademarks of Nintendo. © 2006 Nintendo.