Developer: Finish Line Games
Publisher: Modus Games
Platforms: PC, PS4, Xbox One, Switch
Tested on: PS4
Skully – Review
When gods go fighting in the human world, heads will definitely roll. Take that literally for this game as you will be playing as a rolling skull, resurrected by one of the gods on a remote island where this game tells its tale. Never thought a plain skull could be the hero in a game? Well, the creators of Skully have done it and built quite an interesting and funny story around a skull resurrected with magic clay in a platforming game.
Story
On a mysterious remote island, a skull washes up on the shore. This skull gets resurrected by mysterious godly powers to help in solving a war between the gods of the island that each control one of the four elements. The god that resurrected Skully, Terry, is the earth god and he wants to put a stop to all the fighting between him and his siblings. Skully, now in the form of a ball of magical clay, can roll, jump and transform to overcome the challenges that await him. As you progress in your journey, you meet Terry’s pretty violent siblings and you need to defeat them in order to solve the war that is endangering their island. The story of the game continues as you progress through the levels in this game, with some levels having encounters with Terry’s siblings leading to boss battles.
Graphics
Skully looks pretty good with the environment having very detailed textures and great usage of light. The transformations Skully acquires in his journey look pretty cool, even when keeping its base element in mind. Each area is beautifully designed with each of the gods’ element in mind, for example, the fiery inside of a volcano for the fire god. Each level is perfectly designed, making it clear what you have to do next. The cutscenes in this game are comprised of a sequence of images combined with some great voice acting.
Sound
The game is fully voiced in a great way with a lot of humorous comments and very good voice acting. Each area has its own background music that perfectly fits the setting of that area. While playing through the levels, Terry and his siblings will constantly talk to each other with a lot of funny comments that really liven things up. This amusing banter sounds just like siblings quarrelling over stupid things.
Gameplay
Skully is a 3D platformer that combines puzzling and platforming with the inventive use of the multiple forms Skully can change into to solve obstacles in your way. The gameplay is fairly simple, but some practice is needed to handle Skully’s base form as he is round and will not be able to come to a full stop, given his shape. In the base form, you can roll and jump to get through the levels. After a short while, Skully will acquire new forms that give him new abilities and a more stable footing with two legs to stand on, instead of a ball form. Throughout each level, you’ll find pools of clay that serve multiple purposes. When you touch the pool, the game will be saved and that point serves as a checkpoint. Skully can lower himself into the pool to regain lost health and change his form.
The pools of clay also let Skully access three different forms; a bulky one that has some offensive skills, a small fast one that can run very fast in a straight line and a skinny tall one that can double jump to reach higher places. The latter two also have the ability to move platforms. With the small creature, Skully can move around platforms horizontally while the skinny tall one can move these platforms vertically. If you exit these creatures while moving platforms, they will keep them casting to freeze the platforms in place so you can traverse them in a newly created creature of your choice.
The levels are all designed with Skully’s ball form in mind. There are many places where there are stepping stones in water and you need to jump and stay in control of Skully to prevent him from rolling into the water. You can also find a lot of ramps and round paths where the game challenges you in keeping Skully on the track. In the beginning, this can prove to be quite a task, but as you get used to the controls, it will get a lot easier.
Conclusion
Skully is a fun platformer with some great gameplay mechanics that are worked out perfectly. Aside from the great gameplay, the story of the game is also pretty fun to follow, as it contains quite a lot of humor through the dialogues in and outside of the levels. The puzzles you encounter are pretty well made and the abilities provided by the different forms of Skully provide multiple solutions for one problem. If you like platformers and like following a story with quite a bit of humor, then we’d definitely recommend Skully for your next game.
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