Music to My Ears is taking to the skies and trying not to crash back down.

I sucked at Pilotwings. I’m not sure if there’s ever been a game I’ve played that I’ve been worse at.

At a certain point, I started taking out my frustration on the poor guy trying to make it through his training. Why should I fly around with a rocket belt jetpack when I can just see how high I can make the boosters go? Why go through the rings with my parachute open after jumping out of a plane when I can just not open the parachute and leave a me-shaped crater in the ground?

As a kid, I never really understood why I got to retry after I entered the crust of the earth at maximum velocity. Or why I wanted to retry. And I should have known better from the start. Remember the NES game for Top Gun? You had to finish each level by navigating your plane back onto the aircraft carrier, and I crashed every time. Why I expected anything different here is beyond me.

I did manage to make it to the final mission a few times, where you have to complete several objectives in enemy territory. You also die in one hit. Needless to say, my helicopter was spiraling toward the ground on more than one occasion.

So why in the hell is Pilotwings being featured here? Despite its flaws (or my flaws), the game had great music. Light Plane was always one of my favorites. It’s a peaceful yet encouraging track that is the perfect background theme for cruising through the skies in your aircraft. It’s NOT the perfect track for slamming your wing into the landing strip at the end, but at least it works for the journey before that.

Light Plane

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqTt9j_bHPE

Music to My Ears covers soundtracks or individual songs from video games every week. You can view all posts in the series by clicking here.