''Savage Skies'' is a 2002

combat flight simulator Combat flight simulators are vehicle simulation games, amateur flight simulation computer programs used to simulate military aircraft and their operations. These are distinct from dedicated flight simulators used for professional pilot and mili ...

video game developed by iRock Interactive and published by

BAM! Entertainment BAM! Entertainment, Inc. (formerly Bay Area Multimedia, Inc.) was an American video game publisher based in San Jose, California, that was founded by Ray Musci in October 1999. BAM!'s partnership with Cartoon Network in 2000 led to the developme ...

in North America,

Success Success is the state or condition of meeting a defined range of expectations. It may be viewed as the opposite of failure. The criteria for success depend on context, and may be relative to a particular observer or belief system. One person mig ...

in Japan and

Bigben Interactive Nacon (formerly Bigben Interactive) is a French video game company based in Lesquin. It designs and distributes gaming accessories, and publishes and distributes video games for various platforms. In 2020 Bigben Group was consolidated to form Na ...

in Europe. The game is set in a fictional dark fantasy world and is accompanied by a heavy metal inspired soundtrack. The game was originally conceived as a licensed tie-in game endorsed by heavy metal musician

Ozzy Osbourne John Michael "Ozzy" Osbourne (born 3 December 1948) is an English singer, songwriter, and television personality. He rose to prominence during the 1970s as the lead vocalist of the heavy metal band Black Sabbath, during which period he adop ...

, but licensing difficulties and the impact of the

September 11, 2001 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial ...

on the entertainment industry forced iRock to retool the game and release it without the Osbourne branding.

Gameplay

The player can choose between three factions of mythical creatures. The three factions were created when the King of the Land fell to the necromancer Mortalvis, and the land was divided into three. The first two were owned by subjects of the late king, whilst Mortalvis took the last third. Once all the monsters are unlocked, they can be used on any campaign level and any multiplayer level. There are additional items that can be unlocked, including cheats, such as vampirism, and in-game movie sequences.

Development

At an earlier stage in its development, ''Savage Skies'' had been set for release as ''Ozzy’s Black Skies'', complete with an endorsement from

Black Sabbath Black Sabbath were an English rock music, rock band formed in Birmingham in 1968 by guitarist Tony Iommi, drummer Bill Ward (musician), Bill Ward, bassist Geezer Butler and vocalist Ozzy Osbourne. They are often cited as pioneers of heavy met ...

front man

. In the original concept, each of the game's three playable factions would have been led by a different ‘Ozzy character’. The game was also to feature music from Osbourne, including " Crazy Train" and "Paranoid," as well as voice acting from Osbourne and a track recorded specifically for iRock called "Black Skies". However, in late 2001, the tie-in was dropped for reasons including its high financial cost and "misconceptions about the game that made it difficult to secure a publisher" as well as the

impact Impact may refer to: * Impact (mechanics), a high force or shock (mechanics) over a short time period * Impact, Texas, a town in Taylor County, Texas, US Science and technology * Impact crater, a meteor crater caused by an impact event * Impact ...

of the

as the developers felt that a combat flight simulator would be in poor taste in the aftermath of the attacks. Its name was subsequently changed to ''Savage Skies''; Osbourne would later include the song "Black Skies" as a bonus track in Japanese and European pressings of the single " Dreamer". An

Xbox Xbox is a video gaming brand created and owned by Microsoft. The brand consists of five video game consoles, as well as applications (games), streaming services, an online service by the name of Xbox network, and the development arm by the na ...

version of the game was planned but cancelled. A PC version was also planned when the game still had the Ozzy branding.

Critical reception

''Savage Skies'' received "mixed or average" reviews according to

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

. Gamezone rated ''Savage Skies'' at 6.5 out of 10, finding the game concept to be fun with good variation in play style between the three factions. Criticisms included the average graphics, bad sound, and several missions with excessive difficulty.

References

External links

''Savage Skies''
at iRock Games (archived) {{Ozzy Osbourne 2002 video games BAM! Entertainment games Cancelled Windows games Cancelled Xbox games Combat flight simulators Impact of the September 11 attacks on the video game industry PlayStation 2 games PlayStation 2-only games Video games developed in the United States Dark fantasy video games Ozzy Osbourne Heavy metal mass media