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Originality is an overrated buzzword in the picture game industry . Horizon Zero Dawncherry - pick a crew of ideas from other open - world title and is now reckon as one of the near game of its generation . As long as they ’re done well , copycat games can be just as gratifying as the properties that inspired them . Skellboy , the newNintendo Switchindie game from developer Umaiki Games , owe much of its military action - RPG design templet toThe Legend of Zelda . That ’s as good a starting degree as any but whileSkellboyhas the bones of a great game , someone forgot to put any heart on them .
Skellboy ’s premise is familiar but with just enough quirkiness to describe players in , at least in the early stages . The pixelated Cubold Kingdom has been overrun by an malevolent court magician and his horde of minion . Rather than a young grand male child prefer by lot , Cubold ’s luck flow into the bony hands of Skippy , an ancient hero unexpectedly summon by the magician ’s dark patch . Much like Link , Skippy has no discernible personality of his own and must bank on the Cubold citizenry to bring him up to focal ratio on the current crisis . It ’s a thin patch that have player from Point A to B , but is made a little more engaging thanks to some mildly funny , witty dialog . Skellboy’ssense of humour is decidedly square in the most actual sense , as the game throws every four - sided pun it can cerebrate of at you ( the main villain is advert Squarumon , for blazon out out loud ) . While there are n’t many zingers in the mix , it ’s firmly not to admire Umaiki ’s dedication to the joke .
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Unfortunately , once players really take control of Skippy , Skellboybecomes substantially less enjoyable . Played from an isometric perspective , Skellboy ’s essence gameplay consist primarily of simplistic stuffy quarter battle and forfend environmental hazard . The trouble is , everything about hold Skippy feel , well , terrible . It ’s voiceless to cerebrate of a biz where the enactment of swinging a sword feel less satisfying . press enemies mostly boils down to whacking them until they ’re defeated but there ’s a laziness to the agency Skippy slay foeman that makes it feel like he ’s constantly bundle through a pool of honey . This feeling extends to Skippy ’s movement as well . He move distressingly dumb and given the sprawl nature of the level design , this get navigation feel like more of a job than it call for to be . This problem becomes heighten during the plot ’s foreman battles . While these encounters are more engaging than fights against steady enemies , Skippy ’s sluggishness earn them more thwarting than they should be . Even with a hirer ’s patterns figured out , collision detection is all over the billet , so a successful stratagem could just as easy be damage received .
The dear news isSkellboy’sunique body - switch feature saves armed combat from being a total pull . Instead of skill Tree or experience point , Skippy upgrade himself by picking up new body parts off of downed enemies . While some of these voice are just cosmetic , many of them offer stat caramel brown or even power - ups . One early head swap concession projectile attack , while another permit you set bombs . Players also have to be on the spotter for body parts with negative dimension . One of the most memorable of these is a living dead head that will unload from ceilings and attach itself to Skippy , inverting the movement controls in the process . Unfortunately , the novelty of the torso - swapping mechanic promptly wears off . Once you learn which parts an foeman drops , there ’s little reason to fight them again . Between this and its poor fight mechanics , Skellboyis a plot that ironically learn you to avoid combat , which is a problem given how much of the secret plan revolves around it .
When it comes to visual design , Skellboyis kind of a interracial bag . The art steering is redolent of a pixelatedPaper Marioand it does n’t entirely work . While “ upresed N64 game ” is an divine optical alternative , it ’s hard not to wish Umaiki had function with something a bit cleaner . Navigating the plot ’s 3D environments can be needlessly confusing ( and not just because there ’s no in - game map)Skellboydoesn’t fare much better from an audio perspective . The chiptunes soundtrack primarily consist of the topic being recycled and warped in various ways to gibe the current environment . Unfortunately , learn the same music over and over quickly becomes grating and sinceSkellboyhas no voiceover dialog , it ’s arguably a biz good experienced with the bulk turned all the manner down .
Overall , Skellboyis a charming little legal action - adventure undone by inapt fight and a deficiency of cohesion . While the plot ’s body - swapping mechanic helps it stand out a bit in the Switch ’s sea ofZeldaclones , it ’s not enough to make up for what is , at its core , an disappointing gameplay experience . It ’s also a poorly optimize secret plan , with long load prison term and frequent , noticeable framerate dips . Whimsical though it may be , Skellboyis worth a pass for all but the most dedicated retro activity - adventure rooter .
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Skellboyis available for Nintendo Switch and unloosen on Steam later this yr . A Switch code was provided to Screen Rant for the purpose of this review .
