Sentences written about this title, gathered by type from the Japanese and English Wikipedia articles (as of 2026-8-30).
IGN listed it in their list of the "Top 100 Games of All Time" at number 74 in 2003, and at number 91 in 2007.
It was named the 16th best game on the Super NES by GameDaily in 2008, while Game Informer listed it at number 131 in its list of the "Top 200 Games of All Time" in 2009.
In 2009, Official Nintendo Magazine ranked the game number 61 on its list of the "100 Best Nintendo Games".
In 2018, Complex rated the game 77th on their list of "The Best Super Nintendo Games of All Time".
In 1995, Total! placed the game at number 20 on their list of the "Top 100 SNES Games".
In 1996, GamesMaster ranked Pilotwings 30th in its list of the "Top 100 Games of All Time".
The prototype of this game is a flight simulator flown in a biplane, shown on video to the press under the provisional name Dragon Fly at the first Super Famicom presentation, held at Nintendo's head office on 1988-11-21, 2 years before the Super Famicom went on sale.
In a later announcement the title was changed to Flight Club, and the game system also returned to the original flight simulator. It was finally decided to release it under the retail name Pilotwings.
Nintendo EAD completed Pilotwings and two other games (Super Mario World and F-Zero) within 15 months of the debut of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System.
At the 2nd presentation, held the following year on 1989-7-28, a version was shown in which the title was unchanged but the player's craft had been changed to an imaginary aircraft that flies with wings, and the game had been changed to an overhead shooting game seen at a downward angle looking at the ground.
In a later announcement the title was changed to Flight Club, and the game system also returned to the original flight simulator. It was finally decided to release it under the retail name Pilotwings.
The game was originally released in Japan in December 1990, shortly after the launch of the Super Famicom in the country.
In the "Cross Review" feature of the magazine Famitsu, the game scored a total of 30 out of 40, earning a place in the Silver Hall of Fame. In the "Game Report Card" reader poll run by Family Computer Magazine, it scored 21.51 out of 30, as shown below.
This score placed it 103rd among all Super Famicom titles (323 titles in total, as of 1993).
In addition, in the "Best 30 by Category" printed at the end of the "Super Famicom All Catalog '93", a special supplement to the 1993-8 information issue of SUPER FAMICOM Magazine, it took No. 20 for originality.
It was also released as a launch title for the SNES in August 1991 in North America, with a European release following in 1992.
A second sequel for the Nintendo 64, which showed off the console's capabilities, was cancelled due to lack of development resources within Nintendo.
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