''Sky Gunner'', often stylized as ''SkyGunner'', is a 3D third-person combat flight simulation video game for the

PlayStation 2 The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October 2000, in Europe on 24 November 2000, and in Australia on 3 ...

. The game's setting and art style has elements of

steampunk Steampunk is a subgenre of science fiction that incorporates retrofuturistic technology and aesthetics inspired by 19th-century industrial steam-powered machinery. Steampunk works are often set in an alternative history of the Victorian era or ...

. It was developed by PixelArts and was released in Japan on September 27, 2001 by

Sony Computer Entertainment Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), formerly known as Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE), is a multinational video game and digital entertainment company wholly owned by multinational conglomerate Sony. The SIE Group is made up of two legal co ...

. It was released to the

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

n market by

Atlus USA Atlus West, formerly known as Atlus U.S.A., Inc., is the North American publishing branch of Japanese video game company Atlus, primarily known for localizing games for both them and other third-party developers. Its first original role-playin ...

on June 24, 2002.

Plot

''Sky Gunner'' follows the story of 3 ace pilots, Ciel, Copain and Femme, who are hired to protect the "Eternal Engine", an engine capable of perpetual motion. Little do they know, the criminal genius, Ventre, is planning to use the town's celebration aboard the luxury airship, Merveilleux, as an opportunity to steal the Eternal Engine for his own evil ends.

Reception

The game received "generally favorable reviews" according to the

review aggregation 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 ...

website

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 ...

. In Japan, ''

Famitsu formerly ''Famicom Tsūshin'', is a line of Japanese video game magazines published by Kadokawa Game Linkage (previously known as Gzbrain), a subsidiary of Kadokawa. ''Famitsu'' is published in both weekly and monthly formats as well as in the fo ...

'' gave it a score of one eight and three sevens for a total of 29 out of 40, while ''Famitsu PS'' gave it a score of one eight, two sevens, and one six for a total of 28 out of 40.

Sequel

In 2006, doujin software house EasyGameStation released a download only PC sequel to ''Sky Gunner'' entitled "Gunner's Heart". The game features all of the original cast of the first game, with the addition of two new female antagonists that work with the original game's main antagonist, Ventre. One of the main changes between the two games is the fact that Gunner's Heart is a rail shooter, whereas the original game featured open air flying and gameplay. Gunner's Heart also has new two-player gameplay.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Skygunner 2001 video games Atlus games PlayStation 2 games PlayStation 2-only games Combat flight simulators Steampunk video games Flight simulation video games Video games developed in Japan