145. Sky Odyssey (Cross, Playsation 2, 2000)

Sky Odyssey was one of the first games released on the Playstation 2 in North America, arriving less than a month after the console's debut. It strikes a nice balance between being a flight simulator and an action adventure title. I am no flight sim maven by any stretch of the imagination, but this strikes me as like 30% simulation, 70% arcade fun, which I appreciate, because flight sims have never interested me for more than a few minutes.

The game's story (told to you by a very dry narrator that just feels so early PS2) involves a chain of four mysterious islands that house a tower that no pilot has been brave enough to find. I dig the Indiana Jones style setup, and there are a ton of little details about the islands that make them start to feel like a real place that I was excited to explore. While levels take place over discrete maps, the game really makes them feel connected, like you are in a bigger open world.

The real fun of Sky Odyssey is its tight but fun / expressive controls, and just the sheer variety of missions it is able to squeeze out of a pretty basic game. Every mission in the game feels very different. Even though the basic type just involves flying from point A to point B, the terrain and conditions changing make it a totally different level. Other stages have objectives like docking with another plane to refuel, or riding air currents through a thunderstorm. There is one late-game mission that blew my mind where your engine breaks and you have to float down a river to boost your speed.

The music is really intense, turns out it was the same composer from Shadow of the Colossus, though I think his music was a little more fitting when you were on the back of a huge creature. But it still makes tearing through storms and canyons feel even more dramatic.

Sky Odyssey initially turned me off because of its difficulty. It leans very hard on the analog sticks, and I needed time to figure out the basics of turning and yaw control. After a few hours of sticking this the game, I am definitely much more competent, though it still feels pretty bad to crash when you're 80% of the way through a mission and lose all progress. I'm getting big Stuntman energy because it's a PS2 game where you are piloting a sensitive vehicle and cannot make any big mistakes or you have to start over.

5/5, a dry action adventure flight sim with amazing variety