Have you ever dreamed of flying your own airplane? Sure, almost all of us have but only a few ever actually get a chanceuntil now. Sky Odyssey gives the average gamer the chance to take to the skies in one captivating, epic adventure that proves to be one of the most original and enjoyable games on the PS2. When people see Sky Odyssey, they think about Pilotwings 64 for the Nintendo 64 which was also one of the first games released on the system. They are both flying games but that is where the similarity ends. Sky Odyssey brings the sense of epic adventure and mystery to all of the missions and has a surprising amount of depth for a launch title.

Gameplay
Like you've probably already guessed, this is a flying game. Sorry there are no tactical seek and destroy missions where the world's fate rests in your hands and no hot babes to save from ugly green monsters. Sounds boring right? Wrong. Unlike Pilotwings, where players fly through rings and make landings for points, Sky Odyssey has more realistic missions. Some of them include flying through narrow canyons while avoiding falling rocks to landing on an aircraft carrier pitching violently in the middle of a stormy ocean.

There are five game modes in which to play; adventure, target, sky canvas, training and free flight. Adventure mode is the where the heart of the game lies. In this mode players tackle a series of missions to forge their way deeper into the lands of the four islands while facing harsh conditions and unique challenges. Your ultimate goal is to master the sky above the islands and seek out the lost Tower of Maximus by collection pieces of an ancient map along your journey. Before you take on any of the missions, the training mode is a great way to learn the basics of flying by completing a series of training exercises. This will help you get into the game quicker as it does a very good job in teaching you everything you need to know to fly like a pro.

Before each mission players can read up on the background of the islands and the specific missions themselves via a rather boring commentary, possibly even a little spooky! There can be a selection of up to 10 aircraft after you unlock them all, but you start off with the Swordfish MK1, Pulse Jet and BF-109. There is a great variety of customization for each aircraft as well. New parts and upgrades will be offered by scoring high marks in your missions like wings, tail wings, engines, propeller, canopy, etc. You can also add your own emblems and paint job to further personalize your aircraft. By installing these various parts, your plane's performance will be affected in areas such as speed, strength, climbing ability, stability, weight and power.

On the mission screen you'll find an RPG style map of the four islands where your adventure will take place. The game does a superb job of conveying the sense of adventure and anticipation of the challenges to come which really helps to motivate the player to press on. Each mission is unique in its own right and begins with a briefing and real-time map displaying the steps to completing it. There are many things to do such as rescue operations, mid-air refueling, riding jet streams or treacherous treks over mountain tops thousands of feet above sea level! In addition to the main objective, scoring a high grade is also something to keep in mind. This can be done by flying through rings (but isn't required), doing tricks for points and completing missions under a certain time limit. But don't worry, most missions don't require you to finish within a time limit, it is only required to score bonus points. The game also gives players multiple choices in which route to take on the map screen so you don't have to complete every mission in the same order.

The target mode has more of the traditional gameplay seen in Pilotwings 64 where you fly through targets in the sky and earn points for accuracy and speed. Perhaps one of the most unique modes, sky canvas, grades players for making a series of designs in the sky by releasing smoke from their airplane. Of course all of the missions in the game can be saved to an 8MB memory card for replying later on. The replay lets you choose different camera angles in which to view the action. The replay's can be accessed in the Hanger mode. This is also the place where you can view items earned in adventure mode and special graphics, which are basically snapshots of missions you've completed.

Each aircraft's control is very different and takes time to adapt to each of their unique handling features. Changing and upgrading parts can greatly affect the handling. For example if you wanted better handling in the Pulse Jet, try installing different wings or adding dual propellers. Experimentation can yield surprising results. One of the best things I like about the controls is the inclusion of rudder controls. This allows the player to accurately control the planes pitch, yaw and rotation independently. The analog stick is used for controlling the ailerons and pitch, while L1 and R1 control the rudder. It may seem cumbersome at first but soon you'll be wondering how you could ever do without rudder controls. There are four different views, trailing, behind, 1st person and rear view. The behind view is probably the best playable one because the screen maintains the same orientation of the aircraft so it is much easier to control. However I keep wishing there was some C buttons to rotate the camera left, right, up and down! I really miss not being able to look around but this is only a minor gripe and shouldn't affect your enjoyment of the game at all.

Although there aren't any real flaws in the control, I feel that a few additions could have improved it greatly such as the addition of analog sensitivity for throttle and rudder control. Also, landing your plane in Sky Odyssey has been over simplified and not very realistic. All you have to do is cut your engine as you approach the runway, lower the gears and make the landing. When you land, pushing forward on the analog stick brings your plane to an abrupt stop so even if you come in very fast on a short runway it is still possible to stop on a dim. There should have been more of a challenge to this part of the game; also no points are awarded for landings. Other than these minor shortfalls, Sky Odyssey delivers the goods with depth and solid gameplay, excellent control and plenty of customization options.

Graphics
Here is where the game takes a nosedive (pun intended). The fact is, this isn't a very pretty game to look at despite that it is a flying game. Not only is there a serious flickering problem, but the use of the textures themselves is not very realistic. In comparison to Pilotwings 64, Sky Odyssey cannot match its graphical quality. In that game the textures were designed to look as realistic as possible and from high above, they looked nearly photo realistic. Pilotwings 64 also gave the player a sense of being very high above the ground but in Sky Odyssey there is less depth perception because there is little to no fogging techniques being used to emphasis the distance of terrain. What Sky Odyssey does better though is having very high framerates with almost no slowdown and absolutely massive environments. The weather effects like wind, rain and snow are stunningly beautiful in comparison to its bland environments. When it's stormy the skies are dark, rain pelts off of the plane's wings and bolts of lightening streak across the sky! The snow almost creates a hypnotic effect over you as it blows toward you the same way that it does with a car driving down a highway.

The aircraft are rendered very nicely and look very accurate to their real-life counterparts due to the high polygon count in the models. Their movements are silky smooth and they have moving rudders, ailerons and even landing gears that can be extended or retracted.

There is one graphical effect that I found looked very nice for creating realistic looking water. Near the horizon, the water is brightly colored, almost white because you can see more of the sky reflecting off of its surface. But water that is in the mid ground or below you looks darker. It's hard to explain the effect but it ends up making oceans and lakes in the game look very realistic. Generally though, the game suffers from plain, perhaps even ugly terrain with poor use of textures. On the positive side, framerates are very high which helps give the graphics more realism and spectacular atmospheric effects make you start to forget about the ugly terrain.

Sound
The game kicks back into high gear with great dynamic music and sound effects. Most of the musical scores are very dramatically orchestrated and change depending on what sort of action is happening. The more dangerous a situation you are in, the more frantic the music becomes adding suspense and tension to the gameplay experience.

Aside from the very boring instructor with the monotone voice, Sky Odyssey has some decent sounds like the drone of the engine, the whoosh of the wind passing by your wings and the other typical sounds you'll expect from a flying game. There aren't any flaws in this area and the sound quality is good throughout. Maybe a little more intensity overall would have put the sound over the top.

Replay
This game should keep players interested for a while; the gameplay is fun and addictive but can be boring sometimes if you are playing the same mission over and over trying to beat it. The missions are varied and all unique in their own way. There is plenty of customization that can be done to the aircraft and you'll probably want to unlock all of them. The lack of a multiplayer mode will limit the long term replay value but Sky Odyssey is such a fun game to play and the incentives to complete all the missions and unlock all the items should hold player's attentions for quite a while. I would recommend this game to anyone interested in flying or to those who are looking for a refreshing gameplay experience and a chance to take a break from the traditional racing and fighting genres.