One of the franchises that I know was always more of a niche Nintendo creation, but still greatly loved, was the PilotWings series. I suppose it then makes sense that it’s been a very long time since we’ve seen a new one made, and with the prospects of that changing anytime soon likely being poor, fans of that series haven’t really had any viable alternatives. There was one indie title that came out a few years ago, called Pilot Sports, that at least tried to capture a portion of the PilotWings experience, but overall there aren’t that many flying games out there simply built for all-ages enjoyment.

Stunt Flyer has thankfully now arrived on the Switch, seemingly looking to help fill the void in the eShop for more casual flying fans. Though not anywhere near as ambitious as the PilotWings series, focused only on flying planes, it’s still quite a pleasant experience and plays out more as a flying adventure in many regards. In it, you’ll fly through 3 pretty large regions, swooping through rings, finding a number of hidden gifts, and completing a variety of missions to gain experience, level up, and unlock a variety of cosmetics, new equipment, and locations. What’s nice is that you’re free to do whatever you’d like pretty well in any order, so if you simply want to fly around and follow your curiosity that’s fine too.

To be clear, the controls aren’t quite perfect, perhaps being a bit on the loose side, and your ability to shoot takes some getting used to. What’s strange is that your rounds sometimes seem to be guided somehow, allowing you to make tough shots at range at times, but if you’re in something like a target challenge and trying to quickly shoot down multiple targets in sequence you’ll miss everything. There does seem to be an indicator with your reticle being green when it will sort of do the finer aiming for you, but I wish there was a way to choose between the guided ammo and simply shooting straight at things yourself, which would probably feel better for the sake of variety.

To be sure, the game is graphically quite simple, the controls work well enough but can be quirky, and the degree of challenge here is generally quite low overall. That said, if you’re looking to simply relax and enjoy flying around, working to find every ring and gift box, and completing the challenges at your leisure, it’s tough to be too terribly hard on it. It certainly won’t fill the void left by a lack of new PilotWings titles, but that wasn’t its goal. It’s instead a more narrowly-focused flyer that is meant to be enjoyed by all, and I can absolutely respect that approach and the result.