SkyGunner is a 3rd person flight combat game, with its emphasis on action. Players choose to take the role of either Ciel, Copain or Femme, each with their own campaign and unique flying abilities and special skill. Players can turn the plane's direction up, down, left and right, perform barrel rolls, use afterburners and breaking. Weaponry is handled by a complex system of targeting, with involves two types: "Look Targeting" and "Weapon Lock". Look Targeting simply assigns a particular enemy as the center of the camera and can be switched between at any time. The player must still maneuver near the enemy and target them with the cross hairs in order to fire on them. Depending on the secondary weapon selected, players can roll the cross hairs over the wing leader of an enemy group or the sequentially lead gun on a battleship, allowing the player to instantly target multiples from that group. The primary weapon of each airplane is a machine gun which fires straight ahead. More destructive secondary weapons are also available, and include Fireworks Missiles which create area explosions, Dog Missiles which slow and/or immobilize targets and Cross Missiles which stick to targets and need to be shot by a machine gun to detonate. Copain also has his own weapon, the Pumpkin Bomb which is a big destructive bomb. These secondary weapons are automatically replenished with the destruction of chains of enemies and/or combos. Chains/Combos are also the way to activate score multipliers, which affect the amount of money won in each mission. Ciel, Copain and Femme are continually in competition throughout the game and often bonuses (such as faster engines) are given to the character with the highest score in specific missions. Bonus scores are also awarded for specific mission events.
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this game is BEAUTIFUL beyond belief. play this and you will want to live here
Very challenging to the non-schmup brained like me but the soul is immaculate
It’s amazing how deep this one is, despite looking like an arcadey experience at first. Put this on the biggest screen you can and taste the technicolor joy of whipping your whirligig around as the camera spins across this 3D sky blue sandbox.
Thought this would be a fun one to clear in a weekend, but it quickly spilled out into something I’ve had to chip away at over the course of the last month or so, each session revealing some new layer to the game. It may not seem like much at the outset, with SkyGunner’s base difficulty being pretty relaxed, other aerial targets flying lazily around the screen and death being a genuine rarity- taking enough damage only sends you into a “crashing” animation you’ll need to button-mash to pull out of. Combined with the breezy story and charming visuals, and it makes for a very inviting game if you just want to “see” it, (a nice contrast from the initial hostility of many arcade games) but if you’re really taken with it, going for score more than makes up for the initial ease of everything.
There’s a great balancing act in trying to build up your multiplier and keeping your combo timer alive, taking down enemy squadrons to build-up your resources and cashing out by destroying ground targets for their destructive and extremely lucrative “chaining” properties. At the same time you need to prevent your engine from overheating by overusing your abilities, so you have to use your special moves and fully-charged weapons judiciously or plan around the movement penalty incurred by maxing out your gauge, and doing all this while completing its quickfire succession of different objectives; It’d be easy to build up a decent score in a vacuum, but the real test is if you can do it under the pressure of a timer or while protecting an ally, making risky maneuvers to try and clear the skies as quickly as possible. The result is something where you always feel challenged to further optimize your play, where even something as basic as firing your standard machine guns can send you into the red, as it eats away your score- one more great consideration of many to add to your mental stack.
To be honest, chasing high scores is rarely the main appeal of a game for me, but it’s framed particularly well here: you may not care too much about it in the abstract, but SkyGunner frames this is as a competition between the main trio, the minimal threat of the objectives revealing itself to be a race to see who can get to the highest value targets first. Earn a “D” rank at the end of the game and it might not matter so much, but lose the lead in a simulated competition and that might be enough to spark some interest in the scoring system. And, as an added bonus, the extras are only unlocked after getting first place with each of the characters, another nice incentive to see how well the game flows together.
I mention it a lot, but the pacing here really is phenomenal: 5 stages that come in at around 45 minutes if you skip all the cutscenes. No scene here drags out too long or has a chance to outstay its welcome, and even an endgame stretch that initially felt a little dull can be dramatically shortened by helping your companions complete their own objectives for them (thanks for the tip Caim!)
I also want to mention its unique approach to difficulty: instead of a standard set of difficulty modes, it's instead divided up into different characters, who in addition to having planes with unique stats and moves, also end up tackling their own scenarios at specific points in the story. The second mission, for instance, can see you fighting off additional waves of standard enemies as Femme, the game’s easy mode, to destroying volleys of incoming missiles as Copain, the game’s hard mode. Outside of something like The Ninja Warriors: Once Again, I’m hard-pressed to think of a title where your choice of character can so dramatically recontextualize your understanding of the game, the combination of their remixed arsenals and deviations in their stories making for something where successfully finishing it once only leaves you with the realization of how much more there is to experience.
That said, there is one convergence point for all of the characters that I do think is kind of weak: all of them have to contend with the upset that is the final boss, Ciel and Femme the tasked with performing the surprisingly tricky maneuver of hitting it with three fully-charged missiles in a short window of time, a task that asks you to keep track of your ammo and heat meter in a way that no other section of the game outright mandates. On the other hand, Copain gets the much easier objective of simply landing one fully-charged bomb on him and then continuing the fight as normal. It's manageable with some practice, but it’s the one point in where the game feels really inelegant, throwing newer players into a set piece that demands a surprising amount from them, and a strangely flat way to close out the game, dramatically. It might also be the downside of having such a tightly-paced game, it’s one misstep given prominence in a way a longer game might never invite.
There are a few other hang-ups worth mentioning to: the lack of a first-person view has been discussed by the devs as a feature that was experimented with before being cut, but there a few targets where it’s easy to lock-on to some vestigial turret and a waste your shot due to the lack of a more precise aiming option (again, a small thing brought into more pronounced focus on the final boss). Can totally see the art style being a dealbreaker too; reminds me a lot of the self-reflection Jason Rubin had on the Jak games, caught between aesthetics in a way that might be intensely appealing to some, but seems like it’ll ward off just as many. Also easy to imagine another game using the multiple perspectives here to tell a more layered story- for the most part you’re getting different insights into what charming detour each of the characters went on, with only the unlockable character’s story offering some real intrigue.
It’s been hard to articulate why I’ve enjoyed this so much- know a trend in the past for me has been a sense of “completeness,” no ideas left unexplored and where the prospect of mastering the game feels limitless. That quality is probably the reason the lack of a sequel (well, a true sequel) is easier to live with, a sense that developer PixelArt truly understood their own game, successfully creating a title meant for newcomers and hardcore players alike. A rare and excellent thing.
///
References
2001 Developer Interview for SkyGunner, https://shmuplations.com/skygunner/
Interview with Jason Rubin (Timestamped for the discussion on the aesthetics of Jak), https://youtu.be/0EkRT7qOMq0?si=qrzfYN9VGL1JEChr&t=2150
There’s a great balancing act in trying to build up your multiplier and keeping your combo timer alive, taking down enemy squadrons to build-up your resources and cashing out by destroying ground targets for their destructive and extremely lucrative “chaining” properties. At the same time you need to prevent your engine from overheating by overusing your abilities, so you have to use your special moves and fully-charged weapons judiciously or plan around the movement penalty incurred by maxing out your gauge, and doing all this while completing its quickfire succession of different objectives; It’d be easy to build up a decent score in a vacuum, but the real test is if you can do it under the pressure of a timer or while protecting an ally, making risky maneuvers to try and clear the skies as quickly as possible. The result is something where you always feel challenged to further optimize your play, where even something as basic as firing your standard machine guns can send you into the red, as it eats away your score- one more great consideration of many to add to your mental stack.
To be honest, chasing high scores is rarely the main appeal of a game for me, but it’s framed particularly well here: you may not care too much about it in the abstract, but SkyGunner frames this is as a competition between the main trio, the minimal threat of the objectives revealing itself to be a race to see who can get to the highest value targets first. Earn a “D” rank at the end of the game and it might not matter so much, but lose the lead in a simulated competition and that might be enough to spark some interest in the scoring system. And, as an added bonus, the extras are only unlocked after getting first place with each of the characters, another nice incentive to see how well the game flows together.
I mention it a lot, but the pacing here really is phenomenal: 5 stages that come in at around 45 minutes if you skip all the cutscenes. No scene here drags out too long or has a chance to outstay its welcome, and even an endgame stretch that initially felt a little dull can be dramatically shortened by helping your companions complete their own objectives for them (thanks for the tip Caim!)
I also want to mention its unique approach to difficulty: instead of a standard set of difficulty modes, it's instead divided up into different characters, who in addition to having planes with unique stats and moves, also end up tackling their own scenarios at specific points in the story. The second mission, for instance, can see you fighting off additional waves of standard enemies as Femme, the game’s easy mode, to destroying volleys of incoming missiles as Copain, the game’s hard mode. Outside of something like The Ninja Warriors: Once Again, I’m hard-pressed to think of a title where your choice of character can so dramatically recontextualize your understanding of the game, the combination of their remixed arsenals and deviations in their stories making for something where successfully finishing it once only leaves you with the realization of how much more there is to experience.
That said, there is one convergence point for all of the characters that I do think is kind of weak: all of them have to contend with the upset that is the final boss, Ciel and Femme the tasked with performing the surprisingly tricky maneuver of hitting it with three fully-charged missiles in a short window of time, a task that asks you to keep track of your ammo and heat meter in a way that no other section of the game outright mandates. On the other hand, Copain gets the much easier objective of simply landing one fully-charged bomb on him and then continuing the fight as normal. It's manageable with some practice, but it’s the one point in where the game feels really inelegant, throwing newer players into a set piece that demands a surprising amount from them, and a strangely flat way to close out the game, dramatically. It might also be the downside of having such a tightly-paced game, it’s one misstep given prominence in a way a longer game might never invite.
There are a few other hang-ups worth mentioning to: the lack of a first-person view has been discussed by the devs as a feature that was experimented with before being cut, but there a few targets where it’s easy to lock-on to some vestigial turret and a waste your shot due to the lack of a more precise aiming option (again, a small thing brought into more pronounced focus on the final boss). Can totally see the art style being a dealbreaker too; reminds me a lot of the self-reflection Jason Rubin had on the Jak games, caught between aesthetics in a way that might be intensely appealing to some, but seems like it’ll ward off just as many. Also easy to imagine another game using the multiple perspectives here to tell a more layered story- for the most part you’re getting different insights into what charming detour each of the characters went on, with only the unlockable character’s story offering some real intrigue.
It’s been hard to articulate why I’ve enjoyed this so much- know a trend in the past for me has been a sense of “completeness,” no ideas left unexplored and where the prospect of mastering the game feels limitless. That quality is probably the reason the lack of a sequel (well, a true sequel) is easier to live with, a sense that developer PixelArt truly understood their own game, successfully creating a title meant for newcomers and hardcore players alike. A rare and excellent thing.
///
References
2001 Developer Interview for SkyGunner, https://shmuplations.com/skygunner/
Interview with Jason Rubin (Timestamped for the discussion on the aesthetics of Jak), https://youtu.be/0EkRT7qOMq0?si=qrzfYN9VGL1JEChr&t=2150
SkyGunner is not the son you wanted, it's the son you loved.
The game's intro blasted my brain with impeccable vibes I have not experienced since the first time I watched Aria: The Animation twelve years ago. We are presented with vast blue skies, shimmering sea, a quaint little Italian town, a character bringing a plate of spaghetti on spinach with cocktail wieners to a cafe table. The intro fades out and the title screen triumphantly appears against a bright blue sky while a distinctively digital sounding orchestral main theme blasts from your speakers. Any button will lead you to an elegant sepia toned menu beckoning you to begin playing. This luxurious PS2 game from 2001 features both the original Japanese and English voice acting in the US release.
For a game of its time I was delighted that it was playable even without reading the manual. The developers clearly loved their creation, even if their child was not one who did well in school, or had many friends, or were noticed at family gatherings. While dogfighting games already had a large history at the time of release, a 3D shooter with lock-on and all axes of control was mostly still uncharted territory. Game's got a steep learning curve for something that you can beat under 2 hours. Yet love shines through the cracks, as the developers implemented an extensive tutorial. Each segment ends with an optional mode that lets you practice each mechanic of the plane indefinitely. In the two decades since the release, games engineered to be played like a sport don't feature learning tools like this.
Game developers and other weirdos will be enamored from what I'm about to say. What makes this game feel and play different from most of its counterparts is that the camera is pivoted to your target. This is where the heart of the game lies. Just turning towards your enemy looks like a cool maneuver. An arcade shooter from 2001 will supply you with cinematic moments without any scripted camera sequences. You will see your enemies blow up, your bullets tearing through their wings, giant battle zeppelins plummet to the sea in a burning inferno. Visual direction in the moment to moment gameplay, elegantly provided by one of the game's core systems. It's beautiful.
A would be player will be presented with two control schemes: Novice and Expert. Novice will give you two axes: pitch and yaw. Expert will also let you control your roll. Expert was an afterthought, though according to the developers they were split on which is the "better" way to play the game. Expert straight up rules. On the other hand, ask yourself this: how likely are you to play this over 20 years old game multiple times? Go with novice. I won't judge. You can do expert when you pick it up for the second time.
With cutscenes and a few continues, the game takes around an hour or two to clear, if you skip the cutscenes this cuts down to around 45 minutes. This is a pick up and play game, you don't really have to dedicate your entire day to it. You can quit a run and the game will save your progress and let you continue from where you left off, so you don't even really have to do it in one sitting.
You might ask: the character design seems a little childish, is this a game I could play in front of my girlfriend? Rest easy my friend, if they would break up with you over this they probably already had a million other reasons to leave you. Or maybe they just suck, they too are only human. If I were you, I would be booking a date right now. A high tempo two hour long date with you and SkyGunner. Maybe it won't work out. But it will stick with you.
The game's intro blasted my brain with impeccable vibes I have not experienced since the first time I watched Aria: The Animation twelve years ago. We are presented with vast blue skies, shimmering sea, a quaint little Italian town, a character bringing a plate of spaghetti on spinach with cocktail wieners to a cafe table. The intro fades out and the title screen triumphantly appears against a bright blue sky while a distinctively digital sounding orchestral main theme blasts from your speakers. Any button will lead you to an elegant sepia toned menu beckoning you to begin playing. This luxurious PS2 game from 2001 features both the original Japanese and English voice acting in the US release.
For a game of its time I was delighted that it was playable even without reading the manual. The developers clearly loved their creation, even if their child was not one who did well in school, or had many friends, or were noticed at family gatherings. While dogfighting games already had a large history at the time of release, a 3D shooter with lock-on and all axes of control was mostly still uncharted territory. Game's got a steep learning curve for something that you can beat under 2 hours. Yet love shines through the cracks, as the developers implemented an extensive tutorial. Each segment ends with an optional mode that lets you practice each mechanic of the plane indefinitely. In the two decades since the release, games engineered to be played like a sport don't feature learning tools like this.
Game developers and other weirdos will be enamored from what I'm about to say. What makes this game feel and play different from most of its counterparts is that the camera is pivoted to your target. This is where the heart of the game lies. Just turning towards your enemy looks like a cool maneuver. An arcade shooter from 2001 will supply you with cinematic moments without any scripted camera sequences. You will see your enemies blow up, your bullets tearing through their wings, giant battle zeppelins plummet to the sea in a burning inferno. Visual direction in the moment to moment gameplay, elegantly provided by one of the game's core systems. It's beautiful.
A would be player will be presented with two control schemes: Novice and Expert. Novice will give you two axes: pitch and yaw. Expert will also let you control your roll. Expert was an afterthought, though according to the developers they were split on which is the "better" way to play the game. Expert straight up rules. On the other hand, ask yourself this: how likely are you to play this over 20 years old game multiple times? Go with novice. I won't judge. You can do expert when you pick it up for the second time.
With cutscenes and a few continues, the game takes around an hour or two to clear, if you skip the cutscenes this cuts down to around 45 minutes. This is a pick up and play game, you don't really have to dedicate your entire day to it. You can quit a run and the game will save your progress and let you continue from where you left off, so you don't even really have to do it in one sitting.
You might ask: the character design seems a little childish, is this a game I could play in front of my girlfriend? Rest easy my friend, if they would break up with you over this they probably already had a million other reasons to leave you. Or maybe they just suck, they too are only human. If I were you, I would be booking a date right now. A high tempo two hour long date with you and SkyGunner. Maybe it won't work out. But it will stick with you.