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Pilot Academy for PlayStation Portable
Pilot Academy for PlayStation Portable lets you learn to fly small light aircraft, large passenger planes and military machines. You begin with civilian or military flying lessons and practise taking off, holding a heading and landing, among other skills. The analogue stick controls your aircraft; other buttons handle things such as the throttle, landing gear and weapons. A small aircraft responds differently from a heavy Boeing 747. Landing an airliner therefore calls for a different approach from making a sharp turn during an aerial battle.
After the lessons, you unlock missions and challenges. You perform stunts, try to land an aircraft in difficult weather or fight enemy planes. The military fleet ranges from propeller aircraft of the world wars to modern jet fighters. Flights take you over islands, desert terrain and mountain landscapes. Successfully completed trials earn awards and additional aircraft. In Free Flight, you can fly around the tropical area without a combat objective or time limit deciding your route.
You play the lessons and missions alone. There are also local wireless aerial battles for two to four players. Each participant uses their own PSP with wireless networking functionality. For Deathmatch, the game supports Game Sharing: one player shares the required game data from their copy with the other systems. This option applies to that match type and does not give the other participants a complete copy of the single-player game. You fly together in the same area through a direct ad hoc connection.
Region and language
Our PlayStation Portable games are European editions and come with a Dutch or English box, unless stated otherwise. By default, you receive the version for the European market. We note it in the product details if the region is different or the box is in another language. In almost all cases, the game is playable at least in English, and often in the other five common European languages too.
You receive the physical UMD edition. You need a PSP with a UMD drive to play it; a PSP Go cannot play this disc.
Manual
Pilot Academy for PlayStation Portable includes the manual unless the product title states otherwise. If the booklet is missing, the title says “No Manual”. This lets you see before ordering whether the game comes with a manual.
The manuals included with our games usually contain at least English and often around six European languages. The exact languages vary by edition, so Dutch is not always included. The booklet explains the controls and the main rules. You can use it to check how to control the game, which actions are available and how its different features work.
The history of Pilot Academy
Rising Star Games released Pilot Academy for PSP in 2006. Its origins lie in the Japanese Pilot Ni Narou! series, which began in 1998 and had previously appeared on PlayStation and PlayStation 2. Kuju Entertainment worked on the portable adaptation, involving its Sheffield team and series producer Junichi Kutsuzawa. The collaboration brought experience with the Japanese flight games together with a British developer. In Japan, the PSP release was named Pilot ni Narou! Flying All-Stars.
During development, producer Simeon Pashley described the project as flight action rather than a complete recreation of a long airline flight. The team wanted to keep aircraft movements recognisable without requiring a keyboard full of commands. The early lessons therefore use few controls; weapons, camera choices and other actions are introduced later. The combination of civilian and military flying was retained, allowing practice with a small training aircraft to develop into an emergency landing or a battle with jet fighters.
Rising Star announced the game in August 2005 for the following spring. The eventual European release followed in autumn 2006. The three landscapes provided room for different missions without creating an entirely new world for every flight. Within the PSP catalogue, Pilot Academy thus took a broader approach to aviation than games offering only aerial combat. Lessons, awards and unlockable aircraft linked learning the controls to a series of short objectives.
Similar games for PlayStation Portable
Ace Combat X: Skies of Deception also lets you fly military aircraft and attack enemy targets on PSP. Its campaign follows the war over Aurelia, with your choices affecting subsequent missions. Pilot Academy divides its attention between military action and civilian aviation. You also practise with training aircraft and passenger planes, where flying steadily and landing provide a different objective from taking down an enemy.
Heatseeker on PSP uses modern combat aircraft, missiles and attacks on targets in the air and on the ground. Its Impact Cam follows successful hits up close, making destruction a prominent part of the presentation. Pilot Academy also spends time on ordinary flying skills and aircraft without a combat role. When flying a large passenger plane there, you chiefly need to manage altitude, heading and landing rather than constantly looking for another target.
M.A.C.H.: Modified Air Combat Heroes combines aircraft races with aerial combat on PSP. You earn money, upgrade your aircraft and try to beat other pilots both on the course and in battle. Pilot Academy uses its aircraft for lessons and varied aviation trials. Progress there revolves around completing missions and unlocking new machines, without the emphasis on armed air races and customising a racing aircraft.
After Burner: Black Falcon brings the fast shooting action of Sega's aviation series to PSP in a series of combat-aircraft missions. Missiles, explosions and jet customisation shape the action. Pilot Academy gives you more types of aviation to try, including small civilian aircraft and large airliners. While After Burner keeps the pressure up with enemy attacks, Pilot Academy also lets you take off, complete a flying lesson and prepare for a landing.
Snoopy vs. the Red Baron also lets you pilot a propeller aircraft and encounter other pilots in the air on PSP. The Peanuts characters, comic weapons and Snoopy's dream world make it a cartoon adventure. Pilot Academy uses recognisable civilian and military aircraft from several eras. Its lessons and landing trials require attention to the aircraft's movement, while Snoopy ties his flights to his imaginary battle against the Red Baron.
