Up close and personal: a first hand look at EA's MySims SkyHeroes

©EA Games

During EA's Hot for the Holidays media event I sat down with Matthew Salazar, the Assistant Producer of The Sims Label, for a close look at MySims SkyHeroes.  Matthew was playing the Xbox 360 demo.

The background to MySims SkyHeroes is that it lets players "take to the sky to lead the resistance against Morcubus and his drone army and stop his plan to take over the skyways!  MySims SkyHeroes is an all new adventure that brings the thrill and high-speed action of flying to the creative, immersive world of MySims" and "go from unknown pilot to celebrated hero as you defeat dangerous enemies in aerial dogfights, test your reflexes in fast-paced speed challenges, and take on massive enemy bosses that demand all your skill as a pilot to survive."

MySims SkyHeroes is geared towards children.  Instead of mind-blowing realistic graphics, MySims SkyHeroes opts for an appropriate and child friendly cartoon look.  According to Matthew, MySims SkyHeroes is meant "to act as a transition between playing children games like SpongeBob and more serious first person shooters like Call of Duty.  We want children to experience MySims SkyHeroes as their first 'hardcore' game."

Characters are extremely customizable in MySims SkyHeroes, with over twelve different plane types.  All parts are fully interchangeable and can be painted individually for complete personal customization.  Playing through the main campaign yields many unlockable plane parts ranging from purely cosmetic to weapon upgrades.  Early weapons include a basic machine gun and missiles.  It isn't until later in the game that one can unlock devastating weapons.

The main campaign features five chapters, each with a special boss event and a total of 42 chapters.  One of the neat things about MySims SkyHeroes is that there is no way to lose.  Players have unlimited lives.  Each death results in your pilot spawning in a different part of the level, without loss of game progress.  This is a great feature that rewards young children for not giving up - a valuable lesson to learn that will help them throughout their lifetime.

MySims SkyHeroes is "all about aerial combat," with two main types of game play: dogfights and racing.  Dogfights reward players with points from hits of other players.  Dying means a small loss of points.  At the end of each match, the player with the most points wins.

On the racing side of MySims SkyHeroes, players race through checkpoints in a track in the sky.  The large green checkpoints are easy to spot, and flying through the center gives a short boost of speed.  Varying powerups and weapons throughout the course create intense action as players constantly are trying to shoot down the pilot in front of them while also evading fire from behind.  Dying sets players back to their last checkpoint so that they can quickly catch up on the action.

MySims SkyHeroes also features free for all and team co-op on twelve colorful levels via Xbox Live.  While parents can play co-op with their children via split screen on local games, online multiplayer doesn't support split screen functionality.

"We wanted to make a game that had alot of action intensity and that players of all ages could enjoy," Matthew told me, while a giant explosion occurred after beating one of the chapter's bosses.

Check out a few other screenshots from MySims SkyHeroes in this slideshow.

MySims SkyHeroes will be available to videogamers around Boston Massachusetts for PlayStation 3, Xbox360, Nintendo Wii, and DS later this fall.

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