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Skyhammer Thoughts?


Sputnik2600

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There was a rather..curious comment..well..rant really. .posted on YT i stumbled across by accident a few months ago...by a certain ex-poster on here.

 

He launched into an attack on Rebellion for apparently not pushing the Jaguar hard enough in terms of 3D performance with Skyhammer.

 

Once i had stopped laughing..i politely pointed out that i was sure he was aware the lead 3D coder on the project had quit company before game was finished..had to be called back to assist as it was..and politely asked if the angry gentlemen could perhaps point me in the direction of a commercial or home brew Jaguar game that matched or surpassed what Rebellion had achieved. .

 

I still await any examples to be shown.

 

I personally think it is up there as 1 of the best commercial titles that show what could be done on Jaguar and it is the type of game the system needed rather than Mario Kart or M.K clones..to set itself apart from the 16 bit systems..even if it's not everything it could be..game play wise .

Edited by Lost Dragon
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Haha, ok. It's hard for me to take your semantic outrage seriously... since we're talking about video games, and I'm a 39 year old grown man.

 

But, yes... obviously the Jaguar is a system. I consider the Jaguar games to be in the same genre as other odd/orphaned systems of the time like the 3DO, CD-32, etc. More specifically, games that have been ported from computers, but largely from Amiga or Atari ST type systems. Compared to Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo, those systems were more well known for their platform specific games.

 

The games that were Jaguar specific, were usually games that followed the old "Atari" model... IE: beat your high score. Defender 2000, Tempest, Breakout 2000, Missile Command, etc.

But Skyhammer doesn't really follow the old school Atari arcade update model. I was giving you the benefit of the doubt earlier on the whole "genre" thing and thought you meant the open world, mission based, 3D shooters/sims that are popular on the Jag, such as the Morph series, Iron Soldier series, Hover Strike series and I-War.

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3DO games were Amiga and ST ports?

 

No... Jaguar games were. 3DO had a lot of PC ports. Star Control 2, Wing Commander 3, etc.

 

 

But what I really meant (trying to not get you guys more worked up and insulted)... was the Jaguar had a bunch of games most other systems could have cared less for.

 

So if you like those games... the Jaguar is for you!

 

(and I do like those games)

 

 

 

 

It's like he really doesn't know what the word "genre" means, but he's determined to use it anyway.

 

Genre simply means a category of something... IE: a particular style of something. It was well within it's proper use.

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3DO games were Amiga and ST ports?

 

A lot of these were games that were hits on the computer and branched out to other systems, I can't think of any that were ported exclusively to 3DO. Usually it was games like Cannon Fodder or Sensible Soccer, big sellers on Amiga and, to a lesser degree, ST, in Europe from European developers, that moved out to other platforms, to limited success (in most cases)

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I've always viewed Skyhammer as the Jaguar's answer to ST and Amiga The Killing Cloud..

 

And it's the middle ground game between Killing Cloud and G-police.

 

Ehhhh... The Killing Ground is pretty mediocre, and not a patch on Skyhammer... Did G-Police come out before or after Skyhammer? Either way G-Police is obviously graphically superior, but I'm not sure if I like it more than Skyhammer... And I feel that Skyhammer has more scope, vertically at least, than G-Police

 

Now Battlesphere vs Colony Wars, there's a Jaguar vs. PSX debate XD

Edited by LianneJaguar64
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Ehhhh... The Killing Ground is pretty mediocre, and not a patch on Skyhammer... Did G-Police come out before or after Skyhammer? Either way G-Police is obviously graphically superior, but I'm not sure if I like it more than Skyhammer... And I feel that Skyhammer has more scope, vertically at least, than G-Police

 

Now Battlesphere vs Colony Wars, there's a Jaguar vs. PSX debate XD

 

Oh man I almost forgot Colony Wars & G-Police! Both were awesome PSX games. I can't believe I forgot about those two considering how much time I spent playing them back in the day.

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Ehhhh... The Killing Ground is pretty mediocre, and not a patch on Skyhammer... Did G-Police come out before or after Skyhammer? Either way G-Police is obviously graphically superior, but I'm not sure if I like it more than Skyhammer... And I feel that Skyhammer has more scope, vertically at least, than G-Police

 

Now Battlesphere vs Colony Wars, there's a Jaguar vs. PSX debate XD

You mean The Killing Cloud :-)

 

Which pulled in scores of 92% Raze

 

88% The One

 

87% Zero

 

86 Zzap

 

So pretty rave scores from UK press at the time.

 

Hardly medicore for it's time..

 

My only criticism of it was Vektor Grafix having to cut the prisoner integration sequence..

 

As for Colony Wars..loved the 1st game, second was the pinnacle and found the 3rd the most technically impressive but least fun to play.

 

It's regarded by many as the weakest in the series.

 

Can't really count Blast Radius as that used the game engine for a very different type of game.

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You mean The Killing Cloud :-)

 

Which pulled in scores of 92% Raze

 

88% The One

 

87% Zero

 

86 Zzap

 

So pretty rave scores from UK press at the time.

 

Hardly medicore for it's time..

 

My only criticism of it was Vektor Grafix having to cut the prisoner integration sequence..

 

As for Colony Wars..loved the 1st game, second was the pinnacle and found the 3rd the most technically impressive but least fun to play.

 

It's regarded by many as the weakest in the series.

 

Can't really count Blast Radius as that used the game engine for a very different type of game.

 

Haha yeah, the Killing Cloud, thta's what I meant :P Unless we want to talk about Alien Breed 3D II? Yeah I've heard a few people talk about how good this game is, but I just couldn't get on with I played it... It's not the most spectacular thing I've seen on Amiga (Elite II?), and, to me at least, wasn't that fun to play. It's just my opinion of course, but ehhh... Obviously it's objectively harder for me to look at the game as if it was new to me, because I wasn't born yet :P It's impressive for 1991, make no mistake, it's just I don't think it's aged all that well. That and it's all in the same colour, doesn't look all that appealing, I prefer the 3D abilities in, say, Microprose GP

Edited by LianneJaguar64
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  • 2 weeks later...

I’ve been thinking of picking up Skyhammer but I don’t want to drop a c-note for a game I’m not sure I’ll enjoy. I’ve watched multiple reviews on youtube and everything I’ve seen has been down the middle. Everyone seems to enjoy the Battle mode but passes on Mission mode. I wasn’t a fan of Iron soldier, which this game reminds me of, but I really like the cyber-punk/Blade Runner setting. Any suggestions to help get me off the fence for this game?

 

Its a great game, which shows both the potentials and the limits of the platform. As others have noted, Skyhammer's Blade Runner-like atmosphere is great, the gameplay is nonlinear so you can approach it from tons of different angles. I think it's fun just to roll around the city, blast up the side of buildings and explore. Visually its one of the best titles the Jaguar ever produced (even if it was more or less orphanware),

 

The game's primary issue is low framerate. Get a few enemies on the screen, and the game can slow to a crawl, which can be very frustrating. That cripples its replay value somewhat. IMO not enough to pass it up for purchase, but I can understand how some people are turned off/bored.

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I loved the Alien Breed 2D games, my favourite ever, I wish they had been ported to the Jag.

 

If you own a CD32, you can get them all on there for 'free' with a couple of ROM downloads and a burn program... Obvioiusly easy for me to say, I'm english, there are loads here (relative to the US, anyway) I grew up playing Alien Breed 2, absolutely love it, the 2D games are excellent and would have been great on the Jaguar. Saying that, Amiga computers have a 68k processor, could a conversion be done, as with the ST Games?

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Its a great game, which shows both the potentials and the limits of the platform. As others have noted, Skyhammer's Blade Runner-like atmosphere is great, the gameplay is nonlinear so you can approach it from tons of different angles. I think it's fun just to roll around the city, blast up the side of buildings and explore. Visually its one of the best titles the Jaguar ever produced (even if it was more or less orphanware),

 

The game's primary issue is low framerate. Get a few enemies on the screen, and the game can slow to a crawl, which can be very frustrating. That cripples its replay value somewhat. IMO not enough to pass it up for purchase, but I can understand how some people are turned off/bored.

 

Yah the framerate can be an issue, but it's still impressive, and it doesn't drop frames all too often either.

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Skyhammer is awesome, probably my favorite and most played game on the system. The missions can get repetitive going from zone to zone to randomly find a small blue pod or to destroy sets of enemies. But the size of the worlds are huge and there is a lot to see. Lengthy gameplay also makes this worth your time as you will get a lot of value for your money with hours of gameplay.

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Quick update. I ordered Skyhammer and Rebooreroids from the AA store and have been playing them quite a bit since I received my order last week. First up Rebooreroids is AMAZING! One of my all time favorites for the Jag to date. Skyhammer is another win for the console. While I've played it less than Rebooreroids, I find it very enjoyable and glad I decided to finally get this game. I've been doing mission modes more than the battle mode. Im so glad that I decided to get this game and I plan to do a review on the AA store to help promote the title.

 

 

 

 

Also Rebooreroids... F'in AWESOME!!!

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Good idea, it's only been out 17 years. You want to strike while the iron is hot on a new release with the promotional materials.

 

Do you suffer from Asperger syndrome? Because that's an incredibly sarcastic thing to type. I received a pamphlet from Al with my order requesting more people to review and promote the AA store. With your sarcasm you are implying I shouldn't even bother. Nice... I'm sure Atari Age is in desperate need of people like you to help disenfranchise new members who want to contribute. Bravo!

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