2000 · Flight simulation · Simulation

Sky Odyssey

PlayStation exclusive

Arcade-style mission-based combat-free flight simulator.

Released: 15 November 2000
Platforms: PlayStation 2
Genres: Flight simulation Simulation
Developers: —
Publishers: —
Modes: Single-player
Themes: Action
Country: Japan
Age ratings: ESRB E PEGI 3
Languages: English
Composers: Kow Otani

About

Sky Odyssey, known in Japan as The Sky Odyssey (スカイオデッセイ, Sukai Odessei), is a flight simulation video game developed by Cross, XAX Entertainment and Future Creates and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 2. It was released in 2000 in North America by Activision and 2001 internationally. The game's soundtrack was composed by Kow Otani, who also composed the music for Shadow of the Colossus, a variety of Gamera films, and various anime.

The game follows an Indiana Jones-style storyline in which the player character flies through several areas of a fictional world, collecting artifacts as well as pieces of a map. The adventure mode of the game focuses on reaching the hidden tower of Maximus, which is located on one of four uncharted islands which are explored in the game.

Keywords

helicopter
flight
airplane
retroachievements

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

The player in the game is given control of 10 different aircraft, 7 of which must be unlocked. g. the Kyūshū J7W), to completely fictional ones. While a few of these are military aircraft, no combat actually takes place in the game.

Instead players are given the task of flying complex missions to search for the map pieces needed to find the Tower of Maximus. Most missions involve traversing from one point on the games map to the next, but rarely is this straight forward. The missions often follow a path that requires flight through extreme terrain such as canyons, caves, and mountain peaks.

Reception

The game received "generally favorable reviews" according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. Kevin Rice of NextGen said, "Sky Odyssey is one of those peculiar games that will have half the people loving it and the other half wondering what the commotion is. It's definitely good, but it won't suit everyone's taste." In Japan, Famitsu gave it a score of 28 out of 40.

GamePro said in a negative review, "The controls are the game's saving grace, but the other features ground Sky Odyssey indefinitely. Drab environments and incredible amounts of draw-in make up the visuals (the half-point is for the so-so detail on the aircraft). Even more egregious, the awful background symphony doesn't remotely go with the game's ambiance. You'll have more fun cruising third-class on a no-name charter flight than playing this awful flyer."