GDC 10: Kid Adventures: Sky Captain, drinking game king

5:20 PM on 03.10.2010   |   Dale North

17 comments

First off, outside of drinking, Kid Adventures: Sky Captain is a very pleasant Wii game to play. Imagine a motion-enabled casual flight/exploration game that gives you a warm and fuzzy Pilotwings feeling, with cute graphics and very tight control. That's what this $20 flying fantasy is. With a name like Kid Adventures, I'm sure you're not expecting much, but it is a pretty relaxing and enjoyable game.

That said, a less than savory press member (Rey) suggested that Sky Captain would make an excellent drinking game. I protested as I thought the game was very charming and innocent. But the more I played it, the more the drinking game aspect made sense. And then the real drinking started, and it all came together.

You'd have to play the game for yourself to fully appreciate how well it would work as a drinking game, but imagine a freely explorable world where you'll fly through loops and past and under obstacles to complete simple goals. Complete a goal? That's a drink. Made it through a hoop? That's a drink. Or, if I'm playing, when you hit walls, make that the drink point.

Up until I showed up, D3 had yet to show anyone the final vehicle you can unlock in the game, the UFO. I demanded that the UFO be shown, so they unlocked it, and that's really when the drinking made sense. Once you have the UFO, you can abduct cows. Seriously. Suck up cow, take a drink. In other missions, you'll fly around in your craft and take pictures of objects or animals. One has you chasing a bird. If the bird gets away, take a drink. While we didn't fully organize the rules, people were drinking and it made perfect sense. Some how it was even more funny when we found you could fly in a first-person view. Laugh, barf.

As for actual game details,  Kid Adventures: Sky Captain also has sky racing, stunt flying and target shooting, all from an airplane (or UFO). There's a lot of unlockable goodies and cooperative play too. The best part is that it's controlled by a horizontally held Wii Remote. Tilting and angling the remote moves your on-screen craft 1:1. If there's anything you'll take as serious from this write-up, know that it controls beautifully. Whether you pick it up for your kids or you take my drinking game advice, Kid Adventures: Sky Captain drops for the Wii on June 15th.