Sky Jinks Review

Imagine a slalom skiing competition where the skier is trying to alternate sides of markers on his way down a hill. That can provide some entertainment value to watch. Now, imagine trying to do this in an airplane with pylons and also with trees and other obstacles in the way while you fly. Such is the concept behind Sky Jinks, a game in which you try to fly an airplane around pylons. Is it any good? Read on to find out.

As I said, in Sky Jinks you are trying to fly around pylons. The red pylons you are supposed to fly to the right of. The blue pylons you are supposed to fly to the left of. The objective of the game is to get through the course as fast as possible. Running into any objects slows you down and increases your time. Missing a pylon results in a 3 second penalty. You use the joystick to move left and right and the button to accelerate. To slow down you just release the button.

Granted, this game is not as exciting as some of the other games that are offered on the Atari 2600. However, the game is well presented. The environment looks convincingly like a real outdoor environment. The trees, balloons, and other obstacles look very good as do the pylons. The sound of the plane flying or crashing sounds as realistic as was possible for the Atari 2600 in that period as well. Overall, the aesthetics of this game are a real high point for it, even if this game is not the absolute best in that category.

Sky Jinks contains five game modes, each one increasing in difficulty. The first four are set in stone and can be memorized or redone over and over to try to improve your time on them. Each one has more pylons than the last. The fifth game mode has the highest quantity of pylons, the same as the fourth, but they are placed randomly. Using the difficulty switch, you can affect whether there are trees or other obstacles directly in your flight path or not.

Sky Jinks is a game of skill as much as it is a game of reflex. Still, to some it might seem less exciting than many other games on the Atari 2600. Either way, the game is common and cheap, so there is no logical reason for anybody who is a fan of the Atari 2600 not to give this game a try. The game might not last forever, but it will be fun while it does last.