0 to Z of Playstation 1 - Bogey Dead 6

         

Bogey Dead 6 also known as Raging Skies in Europe and Sidewinder in Japan. The game is a first person action shooter flight simulation developed by Pegasus Japan and published by Asmik Ace Entertainment in Japan, with Sony Computer Entertainment Europe and America publishing in their respective regions.

The game first released in Japan on the 26^th of January 1996, with a North American release of the game coming on the 8^th of July 1996, the European release of the game would also come in 1996, with a release on the 1^st of September 1996. The game released exclusively on the Playstation.

Notable people who worked on this game, Yasuhiro Akasaka who worked as a programmer on the game, went on to work on the Dark Cloud games, working as a Battle Programmer on the first Dark Cloud game. He worked as Program Director on Rogue Galaxy in 2007. He has also worked on several entries in the Professor Layton series, with his most recent work on the series in 2017 and the 3DS and mobile titel Layton's Mystery Journey Katrielle and the Millionaires' Conspiracy.

  

The player takes on the role of an air pilot who is a part of the elite first strike air unit. The unit has been tasked with stopping an international crime organization that Is building up a military sized force, this criminal organization has enlisted the help of several allied nations to build up there forces and become a powerful and global peace threatening military force.

The game allows the player to get behind the controls of six real world aircraft, with the game featuring the F-4E Phantom II, F-14D Tomcat, F/A-18 Hornet, F-15E Eagle, F-16C Falcon and the F-22 Raptor. Each of these aircraft have their own ratings on max speed, endurance, manoeuvrability and stability.

Movement of your aircraft is done with the D-Pad or using the compatible joystick, your throttle is controlled with the R1 shoulder button to throttle up, while the L1 shoulder button is used to throttle down. You can bank either left or right using the L2 or R2 shoulder buttons.

Weapons are fired using the X button to fire your missiles, you can fire your Vulcan missiles using the circle button, switching between your missile types is done with the Square button, you are also able to change which target your are aiming at by hitting the Triangle button, there is a change camera button which is select but there are no exterior camera angles.

Bogey Dead 6 features three modes of gameplay to choose from, the first mode is a training mode to allow you to get to grips with the controls over three different missions, with the player aiming to score the highest score possible.

The second mode is a versus mode this mode allows you to take on another human player via a link cable, this mode is just a head to head dog fight, not additional enemies or objectives other than blowing each other out of the sky.

The final and main mode of the game is the mission mode, this mode is made up of a total of 12 missions, with the player able to choose from any of the six available aircraft. The missions objectives in this mode vary from defending a weapons factors, or shooting down a stolen F-16, each mission that is completed successfully will reward the player with a certain number of credits depending on the difficulty of the mission.

When playing you are restricted to the cockpit view, when in the cockpit you have a radar in the centre bottom of the screen showing the location of enemies as red dots, below this radar is a number indicator showing how many enemies are remaining.

To the right of this radar is a small review view mirror, to show if you have any bogies on your tail, on the opposite side of the cockpit is your weapons display with whichever weapon you have selected highlighted, as mentioned previously the Square button will allow you to switch between the different missiles.

Critically the game received one very impressive review score, but for the most part the game was above averagely received, with one critic review being highly critical of the game with the game receiving a poor review score from that publication.

As usual though we will start with the best of them, this review which is an impressive 90 rated review and comes from Playmag. The French publication found that despite Ace Combat being a very good game, Raging Skies seems to be the best app of its kind on Playstation.

Electric Playground are next up, and we see a significant drop in review score here down to a respectable 75. the reviewer recommending that you rent this game before you slap down big green for it. The reviewer continued by saying, I’m afraid that Bogey might be one of those games that is fun to play through once, but is quickly forgotten.

NowGamer were close behind this review with a 73 rated review score, the reviewer finding that Raging Skies had the potential to be a top notch game, a high altitude gunship in fact. They continued by praising the games graphics calling them impressive, and called the sound effects and flight model well calculated.

One issue they did have with the game however was the lack of views options, with the game stuck to one perspective, the cockpit view. The reviewer found there to be little to fault about the games presentation, another plus being the games compatibility with the new analogue joystick too. The reviewer however concluded by saying, ultimately however, Raging Skies plummets earthbound because of its shallow gameplay.

All Game Guide are next up with a 70 rated review, the reviewer finding that the games objectives and briefings are well detailed and diverse, the whole experience however involves flying across slow moving landscapes and blasting a load of planes and choppers out of the sky.

They continued by saying the game is like the Ace Combat series, in such the game should be taken in moderation or you’re likely to be burned out on the same old flying and shooting monotony. They continued by saying, still, all things considered if you’ve beaten every other arcade shooter out there and still have the need to blow various military planes out of the sky, take Bogey: Dead 6 for a spin.

We head over to Germany for the next review which comes from Mega Fun who scored the game at an above average 69. The reviewer praised the detailed landscapes and weather affects such as fog that were presented convincingly for the first few hours.

They continued however by saying in a long run the scheme of missions becomes relatively monotonous, since nothing essential changes, the review commented on the automatic air to air missiles just being a matter of waiting for the beep, pushing a button and waiting for the enemy. The reviewer also found the game has taken over many of the bad sides of Ace combat, the reviewer was also critical about the lack of differing views, calling them weak with only the cockpit view available.

The penultimate review comes from IGN who rated the game at an above average 60, the reviewer commented on the game being compatible with Sony’s new analogue joystick, which the reviewer found didn't really help, they continued by saying, when you add up the costs of the game with joystick, it just doesn't seem worth it. To conclude the review said, still if you are jonesing for a flight sim you could do a lot worse.

The final review comes from Computer and Video Games, this review is from some time after the rest of the reviews, with it coming in August of 2001, the reviewer commenting on the realism of the game being in its controls and handling, but not in its cockpit visuals. They continued by saying, Raging Skies has none of the panache or arcade appeal of Air Combat 2.

This is the part of 0 to Z where is visit four online retailers and see what the availability of the title is, and what price you would be looking at if you wanted to pick this title up, the sites that I will be using for this are Amazon.com, eStarland.com, retrogames.co.uk and Gamedude.com I know the last one is very location specific, but from a podcast I listen to, I’ve heard they have a huge stock of older games, Ebay has now been dropped unless the game is unavailable at other retailers.

So lets get down to business with Gamedude, where if you are looking to trade in your copy of Bogey Dead 6 your will be looking at a trade in value of just $2. If on the other hand you are in the market for a copy of the game from Gamedude you will be looking at an outlay of $6.

Moving on to Retrogames.co.uk, we don’t find the North American or European versions of the game available or even listed. We do however find one copy of the Japanese version of the game available, titled Sidewinder this copy is complete and in excellent condition and is priced at $7. Please note this is the Japanese version of the game, so a Japanese region console is required to play the game.

Next up is eStarland.com where we find one copy of the North American version of the game available, this copy comes with no manual and is priced at $6.38. Also on offer at eStarland.com is a trade in for the game, with up to $3.50 being paid for a complete copy of the game.

 

Lastly we have Amazon.com where we find a modest supply of the game listed, the first page of listings has a few complete copies of the game on offer, with the cheapest complete copy coming in at $8.94, this copy is in very good condition.

There is one copy priced cheaper than this in very good condition, this copy however does not state if it is complete. Same goes for another very good copy on offer for $9.23, another complete copy is on offer for $9.98, this copy is in good condition, Amazon also ship a copy for $9.99 in very good condition, this copy again however does not state if it is complete.

A like new copy of the game is on offer as well, this copy comes complete but will set you back significantly more, with this copy priced at $31.64. There are also three new copies of the game listed, these three copies have massively varying prices, the cheapest coming in at $49.98, the next new copy is priced at $77.50. The final copy on offer is massively overpriced compared to the other new copies that are available, this final copy comes in at $469.73.

  

  

Written by

P J Gibbon