![]() It begins with a young boy who died at the hand of another. The story focuses on Skul, our short in stature but big in bravery main character. It’s easy to point out its similarities with Hollow Knight and Hades, however, Skul has added its own finesse on many of the fight scenes, giving it a fresh touch that is enjoyable to play. Skul is a 2D action-platformer with rogue-lite features and a unique skill mechanic. Well, players, I’m telling you that little skull is exactly what we need on Day 24 of our Halloween Game reviews. But what if the bad guys aren’t really the bad guys? What if… now, stay with me… What if the humans really are a bunch of jerks? Especially the so-called heroes, with their fame and glory and fantastic hair? What if the true hero is someone small? With no fame or glory? And definitely no fantastic hair-it’s just a bald swappable skull. Do check it out.We’re pretty close to Halloween, and I have to admit, all of these games have given me a bit of an appetite for playing the bad guys. Skul is heavily inspired by a modern great, but it's got the making of something very special in its own right. ![]() It's amazing to me that this works so well in 2D, and that's even before you get to the levelling and the skills and the skull-swapping stuff. You can bounce off mushrooms and deliver uppercuts. In the forest you can knock ents into spikes and drop them into pits. And the combat - like Hades there's a focus on foreshadowed area attacks, and even better a focus on environmental damage. I'm still decoding what the different doors mean. Sure, there's that long jump into the game at the start of each round, and there's the purple stuff you collect to power yourself up for the next time, but like Hades, Skul gives you a choice of doors as you move between rooms where you have to kill everybody to progress. As Bertie points out it's not just a Rogue-lite, it's a Hadeslike, and it's very specific in the things it takes. It would be like us, rushing into battle and whacking people with.a bone.? And they rush into battle and whack people with.a bone, which is a bit odd. They store vital things in their chest compartment, just like we do. They get up in the morning and put their skulls on just like everybody else. Skul flips things: you're the skeleton rather than the hero who blasts them into dry grit, and this flipping suggests that skeletons are alright. There's a brilliant Ray Bradbury story about the horror of realising that there's a skeleton inside us, and then think of all those games where skeletons are bashed and smashed and knocked to pieces. It's big, pacey, fun, and has the trappings of something special indeed.Ĭhris: Given our general proximity to skeletons, it's weird that we don't like them more. Skul is a game that's not afraid to let you feel powerful, that's not afraid to let loose. Or, there's the Rider, a biker clad in leather, wielding chains, whose special involves hopping on a chopper and roaring around the level mowing people down. It can also stampede left and right, and do a giant belly flop dive from the sky. My favourite has to be a kind stitched-together beast (I can't find its name but it looks like Stitch from Warcraft) that has the ability to grow bigger after every enemy it kills. And what makes the whole premise sing is how fulfilling and over the top those skulls can be. Default Bertie, and then big, fleshy, powered-up Bertie. It's necessary if you want to do well, and you do, I can tell. In fact, you're encouraged to do so, because switching triggers special abilities related to the heads you have equipped. You can have two of these heads equipped at any one time, and this is a very important thing, because you can swap between heads while you fight. And each of those heads represents a different set of abilities and moves. Was it a thief's hooded head? Become a thief. Was it a sorcerer-like head? Become a sorcerer. See what I mean? Quite Hades-like.īut! And here's where we get back to the skeleton part: because you're a skeleton, you can take your head off and put another one on, and when you do, you become whatever that head was. As you fight, you collect power-ups and abilities, and, at intervals, there's a shop where you can spend currency to either heal or buy further power-ups and abilities. Specifically, you're a skeleton, but more on that later because it's important. You're not escaping a mythical underworld, but you are on a team traditionally viewed as the baddies, the demons, and you're fighting the heroes. It's an action-based Rogue-lite where you get one life to see how far you can get. Skul is a bit like Hades but viewed side-on. ![]() Availability: Only available on Steam for £15.49 (discounted to £12.39 until 3rd Feb).
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