Full Review

23 November 2006 - If you like your flight sims, but don't want to be stuck behind a PC all day, Ringstar games thinks it has the answer with Pilot Academy for the PSP.

The game is broken down to a number of areas and offers both single and multiplayer elements.

Single player involves either taking lessons, completing missions like doing a flyby of landmarks in a map or making sure you land safely at an airport just as a Tornado is about to hit. There is even a free flight mode so you can fly any of the planes in the game as long as you've unlocked them first.

Learning curve wise, Pilot Academy is a synch to get to grips with as there aren't the number keys and sub keys found in normal PC games of the same genre and Rising Star Games has done well to map out what is important - i.e., pitch, roll, etc, on the keys available.

Fight sims are a strange beast because they actually involve concentration and a focus on flying rather than shooting people out of the sky. Here while Pilot Academy does this well we aren't so sure that there are enough Flight Sim fans out there that want to fly planes on their PSP.

VERDICT
The biggest problem for Pilot Academy is that although good fun it's not exciting enough as a game nor in depth enough to fulfil flight sim fan's needs making this sit awkwardly somewhere in the middle.

Good, but worth trying before you buy.