MySims SkyHeroes for PlayStation 3 Reviews by Gamers

I am a fan of flight action games. I loved Crimson Skies, Star Fox and Panzer Dragoon Orta. Yes, some of those are on-rails, but whatever:) If it involves flying, I'm AT LEAST going to rent it (like Sky Crawlers for Wii). So even though this is targeted at kids, I was game to give it a shot. After all, I love charm and style and color usage with my games too. This should've been a slam dunk...

First the good news. The core game for MySims is pretty great actually. The planes control REALLY well, and the design of the game - splitting up the levels into free-roam stages and more focused flight racing stages (a la Diddy Kong Racing) is genius. The power ups are decent, if not original. And the MySims atmosphere is kicking at 100% charm:) You can customize the look of your character and planes too - always welcome.

The big hit to the whole thing is that none of the stages, as far as I can tell, feature Elimination-style rounds. Everything is delivered by points. Even if a mission involves, say, killing two enemies. What this means is you'll fight two opponents...again and again, as they constantly keep respawning. There's a huge disconnect between what they tell you, and how they actually measure success - through an arcane point system that is done entirely behind-the-scenes. When you can succeed at a mission, but come in second (of two teams in the level), something is wrong. Also, there are no life powerups, unless you kill opponents. So you constantly just get chewed up with no way to build yourself back up. You'll just die and respawn, which devalues any success you would get by flying skillfully. Everything in SkyHeroes is designed in a way to turn what works here into a mess.

The story mode is really weak too. Not that a MySims games needs to be amazing, but it's done in a weird, cheap first person. What's the point of customizing your character if you can't see them? Why no free-roam.

There's a good core here. But too much goes wrong to create a great game:

I have kids, and not just any kids. I have gamer kids. My daughter has advanced gaming skills. I had the choice of piano lessons or gaming and I went with gaming.

She's great at platformers and the like, but MySims Sky Heroes is not for young kids. The controls and varied weaponry are better suited for ages 8 to 31. I call it more of a Mario Kart in the air which makes it more difficult. Navigating 3D space, maneuvering around tight structures and completing objectives in a short amount of time are not gameplay elements most 8 year olds can navigate.

Be that as it may, I give it a 7 out of 10 for actually bringing somewhat of a challenging and fun kiddie styled flight fragfest to PS3 where there is nearly nothing for it to dogfight with right now. There are quite a few kart games on PS3; ModNation Racers, Sonic and Sega Allstarts, Madagascar Karts. The airspace is clear. No bogies in sight. Give it a rent, its pretty tight.