Sky Odyssey
Best flying game in years? Somebody here thinks so. (Hint: He's our big doofis Editor-in-Chief.)
Published: December 29, 2000
For the love of God, don't say it looks like Pilotwings. Nintendo's amazingly kick butt flying game is great, but it's more fantasy than reality. Cross' Sky Odyssey on, the other hand, is planted semi-firmly in the real world. Sure, you'll be doing stuff like flying into tornados, but the controls, physics and planes are almost always what you'll find in real life.
And maybe that's why makes Sky Odyssey such a thrill to play. For the most part, it's very much like the world we live in, but taken to new extremes. If Activision had followed the now-tired formula of naming things that are even marginally over the top "Xtreme" or "Extreme", the moniker, for once, would have no trouble sticking to this game. Ever had to connect to a swiftly moving train to refuel as you hover inches above the ground? How about flying into a stalactite-infested cave with inches of room to maneuver? Didn't think so. In Sky Odyssey, however, this is almost the norm. You're given a normal plane (well, most of the time, the later planes get out there), and then thrust into extraordinary circumstances.
What I'm getting at here is one thing: Sky Odyssey is FUN. I don't care if you don't like flying games, there's something about this one that just seems to transcend genres. Sure, it's still a flying game, but it's a white-knuckle, teeth-grinding thrill ride hidden deep down inside a flying game, and when you factor in control that's so fluid and perfect that you never feel your plane's direction is out of your grasp -- along with a hair-raising musical score -- you won't care what kind of game it is, just that you want to play more.
Sky Odyssey's "story" centers around 4 islands shrouded in mystery. There's a map that can take a brave pilot to the riches located on them, but you'll have to battle everything catastrophic forces of nature can throw at you in the process. Snag more of the map to get more of the missions to… well, get more of the map. Bust through the 40+ missions and you'll be set. At least for the adventure mode. To keep things fresh, and to add a little more practice beyond the simple Practice Mode before you find yourself screaming among the branches of a tree-dotted mountainside, there's the Target mode, which challenges you to fly between numbered rings within a time limit. Oh, and then there's the Sky Canvas mode that lets you wax poetic all across the deep, blue sky.
Sky Odyssey's sound is fantastic. The effects are very simple -- usually only the sounds of your propeller and the wind, with occasional scraping sounds or claps of thunder as the situation calls for it – but that's great, you don't need a million layers of effects to assail your ears when it's just you as the skies. The music, on the other hand is perfectly complex. It's also dynamic, so a sweeping, grandiose melody will give way to a staccato, foreboding crunch of hard notes that puts you on edge as you careen around canyon walls dipping and diving to avoid being a nice smear on a sun-bleached rock face.
Mission variety is the spice of gameplay, and Sky Odyssey delivers in spades. I have no idea what the level designers were smoking when they thought these ideas up, but it MUST have been good. I won't give away too many, part of the fun is seeing how insanely intense the next mission is, and they DO get progressively more crazy as the game goes on. For instance, the first mission thrusts you right into the action, commanding you to soar through a canyon loaded with random acts of Mother Nature's fury. Collapsing walls are far from uncommon, and tight turns will keep you edge until you finally burst free and into the clearing where you'll land.
Alas, in every game, there has to be something to make up for the amazing plusses (it's a whole yin and yang thing, I can't describe it). Amazingly for a PS2 game, it's the graphics. Even naysayers have to admit that SSX looks amazing, or that Tekken Tag Tournament stands as the prettiest version of the series. Sky Odyssey, on the other hand, looks more like a pre-1st generation effort than a next-gen offering. Yes, a couple of minutes of playing the game and seeing real particle rain bounce off the wings and you know it's an 128-bit game, but the textures are shoddy at best. This is most likely because of the fact that the game levels are HUGE. They're quite literally hundreds of miles in some directions. What's more, there's a lot warping that's obvious when you fly near the ground. Add to this the fact that there are the occasional instances where slowdown kills the game, and it can be a little disappointing. Don't get me wrong, it's not so bad that you can't play the game, but it does detract for an otherwise stellar performance.
In the end, though, no amount of blabbing by me will sell you on the game; you really need to play it for yourself. So, do that. Head to your nearest video store, snag a copy, and give it a shot. Once you adjust to the controls, you'll be barnstormin' like a pro in no time. Sure, the graphics aren't perfect, but just as in the days of the good ol' 8-bit NES, they don't need to be. The gameplay speaks for itself.
And maybe that's why makes Sky Odyssey such a thrill to play. For the most part, it's very much like the world we live in, but taken to new extremes. If Activision had followed the now-tired formula of naming things that are even marginally over the top "Xtreme" or "Extreme", the moniker, for once, would have no trouble sticking to this game. Ever had to connect to a swiftly moving train to refuel as you hover inches above the ground? How about flying into a stalactite-infested cave with inches of room to maneuver? Didn't think so. In Sky Odyssey, however, this is almost the norm. You're given a normal plane (well, most of the time, the later planes get out there), and then thrust into extraordinary circumstances.
What I'm getting at here is one thing: Sky Odyssey is FUN. I don't care if you don't like flying games, there's something about this one that just seems to transcend genres. Sure, it's still a flying game, but it's a white-knuckle, teeth-grinding thrill ride hidden deep down inside a flying game, and when you factor in control that's so fluid and perfect that you never feel your plane's direction is out of your grasp -- along with a hair-raising musical score -- you won't care what kind of game it is, just that you want to play more.
Sky Odyssey's "story" centers around 4 islands shrouded in mystery. There's a map that can take a brave pilot to the riches located on them, but you'll have to battle everything catastrophic forces of nature can throw at you in the process. Snag more of the map to get more of the missions to… well, get more of the map. Bust through the 40+ missions and you'll be set. At least for the adventure mode. To keep things fresh, and to add a little more practice beyond the simple Practice Mode before you find yourself screaming among the branches of a tree-dotted mountainside, there's the Target mode, which challenges you to fly between numbered rings within a time limit. Oh, and then there's the Sky Canvas mode that lets you wax poetic all across the deep, blue sky.
Sky Odyssey's sound is fantastic. The effects are very simple -- usually only the sounds of your propeller and the wind, with occasional scraping sounds or claps of thunder as the situation calls for it – but that's great, you don't need a million layers of effects to assail your ears when it's just you as the skies. The music, on the other hand is perfectly complex. It's also dynamic, so a sweeping, grandiose melody will give way to a staccato, foreboding crunch of hard notes that puts you on edge as you careen around canyon walls dipping and diving to avoid being a nice smear on a sun-bleached rock face.
Mission variety is the spice of gameplay, and Sky Odyssey delivers in spades. I have no idea what the level designers were smoking when they thought these ideas up, but it MUST have been good. I won't give away too many, part of the fun is seeing how insanely intense the next mission is, and they DO get progressively more crazy as the game goes on. For instance, the first mission thrusts you right into the action, commanding you to soar through a canyon loaded with random acts of Mother Nature's fury. Collapsing walls are far from uncommon, and tight turns will keep you edge until you finally burst free and into the clearing where you'll land.
Alas, in every game, there has to be something to make up for the amazing plusses (it's a whole yin and yang thing, I can't describe it). Amazingly for a PS2 game, it's the graphics. Even naysayers have to admit that SSX looks amazing, or that Tekken Tag Tournament stands as the prettiest version of the series. Sky Odyssey, on the other hand, looks more like a pre-1st generation effort than a next-gen offering. Yes, a couple of minutes of playing the game and seeing real particle rain bounce off the wings and you know it's an 128-bit game, but the textures are shoddy at best. This is most likely because of the fact that the game levels are HUGE. They're quite literally hundreds of miles in some directions. What's more, there's a lot warping that's obvious when you fly near the ground. Add to this the fact that there are the occasional instances where slowdown kills the game, and it can be a little disappointing. Don't get me wrong, it's not so bad that you can't play the game, but it does detract for an otherwise stellar performance.
In the end, though, no amount of blabbing by me will sell you on the game; you really need to play it for yourself. So, do that. Head to your nearest video store, snag a copy, and give it a shot. Once you adjust to the controls, you'll be barnstormin' like a pro in no time. Sure, the graphics aren't perfect, but just as in the days of the good ol' 8-bit NES, they don't need to be. The gameplay speaks for itself.
