August 19, 1999 Web posted at: 2:33 p.m. EDT (1833 GMT) by Willem Knibbe

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(IDG) -- Skydive!, the debut title on Electronic Arts' extreme adventures label Gonzo Games (the next one is, I kid you not, Ted Nugent Wild Hunting Adventure), offers nothing for gamers or skydiving enthusiasts. You'll have more fun dropping a bunch of those plastic paratroopers off your rooftop than playing Skydive-and the sim aspects will be about as good.

The $20 game doesn't even come close to recreating the adrenaline rush of jumping out of an airplane and watching the earth approach at 100 mph as the wind whistles through your head and makes your eyes water. And with cheeseball features such as automatic landings, it's not realistic enough to interest skydiving experts or serve in some kind of instructional role.

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You're left with a boring, basic, budget game whose best feature is the ability to choose the type of soundtrack you favor. The diving itself is simple -- click to jump out of the airplane, hear the same silly "yeeeehaw" soundbite whether you're the male or female diver, then use a right-mouse-click to go from a spread-eagle position to a tuck, move the mouse left and right to perform various tricks, and finally click the spacebar to pull the ripcord. A quick look at the "skydive.pdf" file will have you performing the advanced tricks in no time at all since the controls are so basic.

There are three components: accurate landing where you try to freefall as fast as you can before landing in the middle of a bull's eye, target courses where you try to maneuver through aerial hoops to get points, and free flying where you get points for performing tricks in a certain order.

Within minutes you'll be entering your initials on the high score list and thinking how much more fun it would be to throw this game from a plane, sans chute.