SkyGunner is a 3D third-person

Third-person shooter

Third-person shooter is a genre of 3D action games in which the player character is visible on-screen, and the gameplay consists primarily of shooting.-Definition:...

 combat flight simulator

Combat flight simulator

Combat flight simulators are video games used to simulate military aircraft and their operations...

 video game for the PlayStation 2

PlayStation 2

The PlayStation 2 is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Sony as part of the PlayStation series. Its development was announced in March 1999 and it was first released on March 4, 2000, in Japan...

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

Steampunk

Steampunk is a sub-genre of science fiction, fantasy, alternate history, and speculative fiction that came into prominence during the 1980s and early 1990s. Steampunk involves a setting where steam power is still widely used—usually Victorian era Britain or "Wild West"-era United...

. It was developed by PixelArts and was released in Japan on September 27, 2001 by Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc

Sony Computer Entertainment

Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc. is a major video game company specializing in a variety of areas in the video game industry, and is a wholly owned subsidiary and part of the Consumer Products & Services Group of Sony...

. It was released to the North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

n market on June 25, 2002 by Atlus USA

Atlus

is a Japanese computer and video game developer, publisher, and distributor based in Tokyo, Japan, best known for developing the console role-playing game franchise Megami Tensei. The first Megami Tensei was a Nintendo Entertainment System video game published by Namco based on a trilogy of...

.

Ciel

Ciel is one of the three main playable characters, possessing the Avenir, a plane designed by Artisan. He could be considered the leader of the trio, seeing as he is the one in the lead whenever the three are in formation normally. He has an optimistic personality, but can get excited sometimes.

Avenir

Avenir possesses the same loadout as Femme's, with Fireworks, Cross, and Dog missiles, and the ability to acquire 3 lock ons. It's special is actually 2 specials, the Air Brakes and Heavy Fire. Air Brakes momentarily stop his plane, but they're mainly only used to get to his second special, which is Heavy Fire. By firing the normal cannons, he launches a huge volley of powerful, accurate shots from his cannons, at the expense of both lots of money and lots of heat. The strength of the cannon more than makes up for it though, being able to take out the medium size airships in a single volley if they're hit in their weak areas.

Its in-game stats are as follows:

Durability: B

Balance Recovery: B

Maneuverability: B

Other

In mission 3, he is spotted by Rival as he takes out some of Ventre's troops. Rival takes a bit of a shine to his skill and decides to engage Ciel in a dogfight. Depending on how the player does during the dogfight, the cutscene at the end of the mission varies slightly, although Ciel's engine still begins malfunctioning, forcing him to emergency land. Rival again returns for a dogfight during mission 5, impeding Ciel's assault on Ventre's flagship's metal buckles. Once again, the mission is altered depending on how well the player does in the fight, with the entire buckle segment skipped if they fail to defeat Rival.

Femme

Femme is one of the three main playable characters, possessing Branché, a plane designed by Horloger. She is also the only pilot who has more than one outfit while piloting. In addition to her normal brown outfit, she has a red dress in mission 1 (because of her suddenly having to launch from the Merveilleux to assist in its defense from Ventre), and a black dress in Mission 3 (due to needing to quickly engage Ventre's forces to prevent the theft of a telescope, which cut short her dinner). She has a rather calm personality, staying collected and focused even while in thick combat with Ventre's multitudes of weapons and troops.

Branché

Branché is fast, tough, and mobile, easy to fly and easy to destroy Ventre's forces with. It supports the same loadout as Ciel's, with Fireworks, Cross, and Dog missiles, and can get up to 3 locks before firing. All in all, it is a solid choice to play as, with strong balanced stats, and a useful special in the form of Active Turn, which for a small amount of heat allows the player to instantly face the targeted enemy, which makes long strafing runs and dogfighting easy. It's also the only plane which has its gunner standing up instead of seated, but this is purely cosmetic and doesn't affect gameplay. Femme and Branché is the easiest pair to pilot in the game.

Its stats in-game are as follows:

Durability: A

Balance Recovery: A

Maneuverability: A

Other

In mission 1, she can get shot down as she leaves the Merveilleux, if you are playing as Ciel and fail to destroy the large airship right outside it. She is unharmed, but is unable to participate in the rest of the mission due to damage to her plane.

Copain

Copain is the last of the three main playable characters, unlocked after beating Femme's storyline. He possesses Chevalier, designed by Associé. Copain is the "wild" one of the bunch, quick to get excited and always ready for a scrap.

Chevalier

Chevalier is one of the more odd planes in the lineup, having heavy firepower but low stability and possessing its own unique weapon along with an extremely powerful special attack and the ability to lock on 4 times instead of only 3. It sports the normal Fireworks and Dog missiles, but in place of the Cross missiles are powerful Pumpkin bombs. These, when scoring a direct hit on an enemy, are one of the most devastating attacks in the game, but are not very accurate and therefore are mostly useful against almost immobile targets. Chevalier's special maneuver is causes it to rapidly spin and make a vortex of wind, doing massive damage on a direct hit, and still being able to heavily damage or destroy smaller fighters caught in the wind. Copain and Chevalier is the toughest pair to pilot in the game.

Its in-game stats are as follows:

Durability: B

Balance Recovery: C

Maneuverability: B

Rival

Rival is unlocked via beating Ciel's campaign having won both dogfights against Rival. He flies Fantôme, created by Artisan. A calm and collected gunner, he is mysterious and unknown, having little explained even in his storyline. What is only known is that he owns a large mansion-contrast to Ciel, who lives in a garage of some sort-and doesn't live in Rive. He also has a history of ganging up with Ventre in order to steal the precious artifacts of Rive. He is the only character that wears eyeglasses in combat, whereas never revealing his eye color until the end of his story, where his eyes are revealed to be purple.

Fantôme

His plane is extremely fast and mobile, even appearing to possess a sort of rocket or jet boost system while he is boosting. However, as a trade off, it can take almost no damage before going into a spin, and it has horrid heat dispersion. Its primary gun is unique also, being an extremely accurate and rapid Gatling gun of sorts, able to take down larger targets easily with sustained firing on a weak spot. It also, like Copain, possesses a unique sub-weapon in its loadout. At the expense of Cross missiles, the Fantôme carries Bat missiles into combat, along with the standard Fireworks and Dog missiles, and can get 4 lock ons at once. The Bat missiles can home in on enemy targets, but unless the target is incapacitated somehow first, such as slowing down or getting hit with a Dog missile, they will most likely self destruct before being able to hit. Its special is almost a carbon copy of Ciel's, via first Air Braking then Heavy Fire. However, the Fantôme's Heavy Fire is different from Ciel's in that it disperses, hitting a large area in front of Rival for less damage each strike. It still maintains the incredible heat gain and money loss though. As one could guess, this is no plane for beginners, being best used by a veteran of the game.

Its in-game stats are as follows:

Durability: C

Balance Recovery: E

Maneuverability: A

Other

If the player loses the first duel against Ciel while playing as Rival, in the remaining 2 campaign missions, the plane will look different. The Fantome's machine gun bullets will scatter like a shotgun blast and increase the player's gunsight.

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 antogonists 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.