Skydiving Extreme

Although the package is unassuming and generic, Skydiving Extreme is actually a hidden fourth Bust-a-Groove entry, using a similar QTE combat concept without the rhythm component.¹ The latter absence fundamentally alters the flow of each match: without synchronized measures tying the players together, the race is on to mash the button commands as quickly as possible. Dance battles from Bust-a-Groove transform here into skydiving choreography, with each team of four leaping from a plane and forming what are effectively body sculptures of progressive complexity. Presumably these formations also increase drag, as incorrectly executing them will put the divers in free fall, with the team that reaches the break altitude first losing. Over the course of a clear, the player earns the right to take on more and more complex maneuvers, performing in thunderstorms and other dangerous locations.

In line with the lack of the rhythmic frame, the button commands are more complex in Skydiving Extreme, requiring the player to roll their finger across the buttons in a connected line dictated by the symbols on screen. This may involve multiple lines between the d-pad and the face buttons, with later lines doubling back and crowding the limited graphic given to each command prompt. If the description here sounds shallow, the actual product absolutely is as well: the actual “skill” portion of the game is surmounted as soon as the player can tell the d-pad commands apart from the face buttons, and the window to input the commands is relatively generous. Clearing eight formations in a row for a given class (specified at the start of each mission) bumps one up to a higher class for the next battle as well as switching them to the “a” command set from the initial “b” commands for the rest of the stage. This opens the way for five main stages (E through A) plus an additional stage for those who qualify for S-class formations, but the strategy doesn’t remotely change depending on who you’re facing or what class you’re in: as long as you can key in the commands, you’re set for a clear.

To those who love late-era PlayStation vistas, Skydiving Extreme gratuitously features them, as long as you don’t mind the cramped skyboxes. The “Accept” and “Input” gauges visualize the timing for the QTEs; they aren’t present in the main tournament mode. [src]

The only interaction between the combatants in each battle are plainly labeled “attacks,” which instantly put the opposing team in free fall and mix up their commands. Unlike Bust-a-Groove, where the limited attacks play into mind-games around how to space combos in the limited rhythmic frames, the attacks here completely preserve the player’s momentum if they’re able to input them on time, and given that some of the attacks commands are easier than their standard counterparts, they’re rarely a threat.² Attacks are governed by a gauge that scales with the player’s performance, and in the process they are effectively a “rich gets richer” mechanic that eliminates any hope of even mild strategic interplay. Instead, the main draw here is the shuddering, turbulence-afflicted camera, showcasing the well-animated choreography and jumping between the two teams during their descent. The visual effect of controlling the show, no matter how spurious the actual connection to their actions is, lets the game punch above its weight in a highlight reel or obscure game compilation, even if the skill ceiling can be reached in just an hour or two.