Fabraz is an indie developer based in New York, USA and Skellboy is their brand new title released for Nintendo Switch. On the papers, Skellboy is an open-world RPG game with its colorful visuals and an equally amazing soundtrack. Skellboy is not the developer’s first release but it is surely the best one and we are pretty happy that the developer has worked hard to release an amazing title. This is our review of Skellboy in which we dig down deep in the colorful world of Cubold Kingdom and tell you why this game is an absolute blast to play.
Right after you boot the game, the first thing you notice is the funky soundtrack which takes you back to the 16-bit gaming era. The soundtrack keeps you company throughout the game and is one of our favorite aspects of Skellboy. As you explore the world of Skellboy, each location will have its own unique soundtrack and we loved every bit of the soundtrack. It is your perfect companion throughout the very end of the game. Apart from the music, the rest of the sounds are also pretty much similar to the classic titles and is a great throwback to the early days of gaming.
Skellboy is set in the colorful 3D Cubold Kingdom where everything was going as it was meant to be until the princess breaks the heart of the king’s council. Because of the heartbreak, the council turns evil and ends up releasing evil spirits all across the Cubold Kingdom. While he was waking up the dead evil spirits, the evil council also ends up resurrecting you, a skeleton of a dead warrior, Skippy, who still longs to fight for the glory of his kingdom. It is now up to you to save the Cubold Kingdom from the evil spirits.
You step in the bone feet of Skippy whose whole body is just a skeleton. However, this gives you an immense advantage in Skellboy. You can completely change your body parts with better ones and completely change your outlook to make yourself better and more capable of fighting. You have access to different body parts which include your feet, back, and head. As you fight through hordes of enemies in different areas, they will continue to drop their body parts for you to use.
You can simply walk over these body parts and interact with them to equip them. Equipping new body parts will grant you many new bonuses and even new types of attacks. Some body parts will grant you increased speed while some will grant you additional attacks. For example, I managed to grab hold of the head of a red plant that shoots seeds and it gave me the ability to shoot seeds as well giving me a ranged attack. Apart from throwing my weapons and losing them for some time in the game, you don’t get ranged attacks so getting this attack is a good addition to your arsenal.
Similarly, I spoke to an old woman who sewed me an upgraded version of a cape which allowed me to have more health than normal. As you continue to play the game, you will get better and better body parts which will make you more powerful. In certain levels, you will also find temporary items which grant you bonus such as the Pumpkin shields. They will allow you to take some additional damage before your actual health starts going down. They are extremely helpful in boss fights.
Boss fights play yet another major role in Skellboy. While normal enemies are pretty easy to beat, bosses in Skellboy will really steal the show. Defeating the bosses will require you to understand their attack patterns and their weak points. You cannot just go swiping your weapons and expect the bosses to die. Each boss comes with its own weak point and you will require timing and a little bit of strategy to hit those weak points to defeat each boss. Boss fights are not extremely difficult as that of Dark Souls as once you understand their attack patterns and weak points, you can easily defeat them.
Finding and equipping different body parts provide you with different passive bonuses as well. For example, I defeated the first boss which gave me the Princess’ wig and the whole town thought I was the Princess and I was able to excess some hidden areas. Picking up a dead Mushroom’s cap allowed me to sneak past other mushroom enemies without them attacking me with their annoying poison attack again and again. The inter-changeable body parts mechanic really opens up different playing mechanics for you that you can exploit to gain an edge over the enemies in the game.
As we mentioned previously, Skellboy combines 2D with 3D. The world of Skellboy is in 3D whereas all character and item models are rendered in 2D. This gives a very unique gameplay experience as you move your 2D character across in a 3D world and swing your 2D weapons to kill 2D enemies. It takes a little bit of time to get used to their weird and fun mechanic and the gameplay might appear to be a little choppy in certain scenarios but it is actually made to play like this. The visuals are extremely colorful and the world really sets the mood right whether you are exploring underground dungeons or dangerous swamps.
You get 5 different weapon slots. Each weapon is unique and will allow you to land some additional attacks as well. For example, when you obtain the club, you can charge the club and land a huge blow on the ground which has a huge AoE damage. It is great for dealing with multiple enemies if they surround you. Other than that, find a Spear and you will be able to throw it as a ranged weapon which respawns in your hand after a few seconds. As you play the game and progress in the main story, you will get better variants of each weapon type to slaughter through your enemies.
Normally the levels in Skellboy are pretty much linear but there are some areas that are really big and the game rewards exploration. Take the beaten path off the main road and you will end up finding some cool body parts or weapons hiding in chests. You will often find checkpoints in random areas that are extremely helpful when you die. You will die a lot in Skellboy but thankfully there is no penalty when you die and you simply respawn at the last checkpoint you passed. Passing through checkpoints really help you save some repeat trips through the areas you’ve already explored. However, enemies will always respawn in the areas so if you go back, you will have to kill them again.
Skellboy is strictly a singleplayer title. Although co-op would have been amazing in the game so far, you can only play Skellboy in solo and once you are done with the main story of the game, you can hunt for some legendary body parts but after that, there is not much to do in the game. True, you will have a blast exploring the 3D world of Cubold Kingdom the first time around however it does not leave much to go back to the game again which is a real shame because Skellboy deserves more of our time. Adding co-op or other modes such as Boss Rush would certainly help in increasing the life of the title.
The other major problem in the game is its weak combat mechanics. Fighting with swords and any other weapon is extremely poor. The camera turns on its own and sometimes you are left with a view that is completely wrong for the scenario. The enemy movement is also pretty clunky and you will sometimes miss to hit them even if they are in the perfect range of your weapon. Shooting with ranged weapons is yet another problem. They very rarely hit their enemies and your own movement makes it extremely difficult to land some sure shots. Most of your ranged hits will be pure luck.
Final Verdict:
Skellboy features a great soundtrack combined with brilliant body-changing gameplay mechanics. The world of Skellboy is also brilliantly designed as well. With a few post-launch patches now out, Skellboy is free of some of the initial launch bugs and glitches as well making it a solid addition to your Nintendo Switch library. If may look like a cute open-world RPG from its artwork but the boss battles will ensure that you have your fill of deaths and challenge. It is a really decent Nintendo Switch that we have played so far this year and we will highly recommend that you play it as well if you prefer playing titles that offer a massive throwback to classic titles such as the original Legend of Zelda. It just lacks the longevity and does not offer much after you are done with the main story. The combat also requires a lot of work to make the gameplay enjoyable. It is probably the worst feature of Skellboy at this point.
Final Score: 6.5/10