Sky Odyssey

This game was a pleasant surprise, if for no other reason than it has a very unusual mix of arcadiness and flight sim stylings. The controls are tight and the planes handle as you would suspect they should in real life, but the mission objectives are so over-the-top sometimes that things can be nuts (but in a good way). With some nice visuals and a soundtrack that is oddly swashbuckling in a satisfying sort of way, it all adds up to a title that PS2 owners should look into.

The game is more or less a racing title with a ton of obstacles and parameters that must be dealt with. Usually courses will require the player to go through some sort of cavern or generally confining region. On top of this points are given for pulling off stunts, like rolls, in between these stone walls. It’s odd how the planes handle while navigating these chasms and whatnot. They respond to the controller in a more twitchy, arcade-like manner, yet wind and momentum/inertia feel very realistic. The wind tosses around the planes and if in a nosedive it can become very difficult to pull up. All this is then combined with often harrowing mission objectives that force players do get into extra tight areas of the course making the runs quite tense.

games, and the sky isn’t anything to be writing home about either. Musically the tracks here have a really sense adventure to them. They fit just right into the courses and the sound effects more than serve their purpose too, providing the whooshing wind, engine noise, and other incidentals that appear throughout the game.

What will really make or break this game is its controls / plane handling. It’s such an unusual mix of arcade handling and sim physics that it does take some time to get comfortable with the setup. However, after a couple of hours with the planes it becomes second nature flying them around making for a very fun game.

- Mr. Nash

(January 12, 2001)