This review was originally published on the Console Purist Facebook group on May 9th, 2020.
Another week, another PlayStation Basement! PlayStation Basement is a weekly review of games for the original PlayStation that are somewhat obscure, unusual, or unknown. Games are rated Good, Bad, or Neutral to emphasize the review itself. Now, let’s go!
Last time, we went to outer space (sort of) with Baby Universe. Today’s game is one about descending back down to the ground – Skydiving Extreme. This game was released in Japan on January 11th, 2001 as Aero Dive and later in North America (August 9th, 2001). Skydiving Extreme was developed by Metro (Bust A Groove, Bravo Air Race, The Idolm@ster) and published by Natsume in North America and Banpresto in Japan. It is a rhythm game with a skydiving theme, sort of like Metro’s earlier Bust A Groove series of fighting/rhythm games. As we jump from the plane, I can only hope it will be a safe landing.
The cover art for Skydiving Extreme is similar in both regions. It shows the Japanese team, Air Walkers, falling through the bright, blue sky. I like the Japanese design a little better, as the image has a white border that fades into the main image. I also like the Japanese logo much better. The more zoomed out American art is also much less dramatic and compelling. If I had seen this game back in 2001, I don’t think I would have been that excited to get it.
Graphically, Skydiving Extreme is nothing spectacular. The presentation is all very average. The polygonal models of the various skydiving teams look okay; they don’t have particularly interesting details or the like, though the models are also nicely solid and decently animated. The backgrounds need a bit of work: each stage is prone to warping and otherwise looks very much like a 2D image (compare to Tekken 3). I enjoy that they gave a unique look to the levels and gave each team unique tricks to perform, but these backgrounds do hinder the experience a bit.
The sound design is okay as well. Again, there’s nothing absolutely amazing here. The sound effects basically consist of a man narrating how well you are performing. He sounds a bit stiff sometimes, though he does go for an energetic narration. The musick is decent, going for a general rock feel. I like a lot of the musick that plays during gamepay. I wish that this wasn’t essentially bookended by the very generic menu musick though. The sound is a bit above average, but it’s still nothing that really ascends to the highest level.
As a rhythm game, you probably have the gist of what playing Skydiving Extreme is like. Players pick a team and then perform different button presses that correspond with what appears on the screen. Each side of the controller is treated in a similar way, so you must use both the D-pad, and the face buttons. If you miss a motion, you must rapidly press R1 to get back into formation. L1 is used to attack the opposing team, causing them to fall faster and input more difficult combinations until they do so many successfully. Different teams have different attack types, with B and C types giving more of a handicap than A types. Whoever makes it to the ground after performing the most successful tricks wins.
There are a few problems here. Though they may look confusing at first, the actual inputs are decently done. I wish there was more variety in terms of, for example, holding buttons or having to press multiple buttons at once. It’s all just single buttons here. The game is also very limited in terms of modes. There is the single-player Tournament mode, 2P Battle, and Training. Tournament mode scales itself to the player’s own skill level. The player starts as a lowly E ranked team and scales up if they complete a stage to high standard of some sort (the manual does not explain this much at all). If you defeat an opponent but don’t do particularly well, you still pass on to the next stage but remain at the same ranking. The ranking is basically your score, so you can beat the game at various ranks. The highest I got to was B rank. The biggest issue I have with this game is that it is not well explained at all. The manual is very oddly arranged, and there is little explained in-game beyond the Training mode, which provides you with data about how much time you have to input each maneuver at each level. I still don’t really understand the altitude level on the side of the screen; I think the idea is that the higher each team is listed, the better they are doing, but it might just show who is literally higher up. There is otherwise no score displayed on the screen. The sky is full of clouds that make Skydiving Extreme a bit harder to understand than it needs to be.
Skydiving Extreme is just an okay game. There is not enough content here to really garner a significant amount of playtime. There is nothing to unlock, but if you really like the general gameplay, this could be a pretty fun time. My girlfriend and I had some fun with the 2P Battle, and the Tournament was okay too. I just don’t see this lasting for much longer than a week at most. Just like skydiving itself, Skydiving Extreme is a fleeting joy.
Skydiving Extreme receives a Neutral.
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