Skully review
We are certainly used to those hybrid titles, halfway between the platforming genre and the puzzle game, but Finish Line Games has decided to offer us a new reading of this category of video games. Whether it is to bring a breath of fresh air to titles and dynamics that are now overly chewed and digested, or whether it is to revive a genre where originality is likely to be lacking and making it become a "dead" sector, what do you do? We stay on the subject and propose a skull that rolls. You got it right: The salty dog is the new platform published by Modus Games is available on PS4, Xbox One, Windows PC and Nintendo Switch. We lived this new experience on our own on the Nintendo laptop, experiencing an adventure in one breath, running around between suggestive landscapes and unique characters, at high speed and without brakes.
Skully Review – Use the head!
This last detail is the main problem, alongside a few others, of the title in question: we can't stop the disarming speed to which our skull sometimes rolls. But how did we come to deal with a skull that travels like a torpedo in evocative paths with a fantasy flavor?
Skully - Nintendo Switch [Edition: UK]
- Hop, skip and roll your way to victory. Dodge obstacles across the island as Skully, a reanimated skull brought back to...
- Adapt to your environment. Transform into three distinct forms to overcome challenges and defeat enemies.
- Traverse a mysterious island. Roll through 18 different levels in 7 distinct ecosystems each packed with unique dangers.
Let's find out briefly about the plot behind this new game: we are on a bizarre island characterized by volcanoes, caves and unexplored scenarios. One of its inhabitants is a shaman, but not too skilled, which is why he is unable to resolve them difficult relationships between elemental deities who rule this otherwise peaceful island and its inhabitants. The man therefore decides to resurrect our hero, not shining for magical abilities even in this enterprise, or at least not with completely positive results.
All it can get is a skull, which comes to life in his hands and which can only roll everywhere to be able to move. Hence, the first name Skully, namesake to the game title. If the popular saying says that "he who has no head, has legs", in Skully the problem is exactly reversed: the head is the only thing we have and that we can use, not only to jump everywhere, but also for attack enemies directly and summon allies if necessary. But let's go in order and analyze everything in detail.
The Care World in Skully
Players lovers of amarcord production, or simply those who directly experienced the first PlayStation launches in the XNUMXs, could feel a tickle in the back of the skull, to stay on the subject. In fact, if the association of puzzle game platform starring a "spherical element that rolls" is not new to you, you are absolutely right.
Now we are dealing with a kind of crazy pinball machine, which runs the risk of falling into various traps at every foot, or rather skull, pushed, but over twenty years ago the players of the first version of PlayStation could try Kula world, whose goal was to roll our ball in colorful wedges on the various paths, without letting it fall into the void.
Also on this occasion, we take up the logic underlying the aforementioned creative expression of Game Design Sweden AB and exactly the so-called model "easy to learn, hard to master". This means that it is enough easy to memorize commands and put them into practice, thanks also to the optional choice of showing them on the screen or not. Instead it becomes more difficult the question when we have to to drive our skull in the different paths.
Skully - Nintendo Switch [Edition: UK]
- Hop, skip and roll your way to victory. Dodge obstacles across the island as Skully, a reanimated skull brought back to...
- Adapt to your environment. Transform into three distinct forms to overcome challenges and defeat enemies.
- Traverse a mysterious island. Roll through 18 different levels in 7 distinct ecosystems each packed with unique dangers.
In fact, Skully is called a explore this island in a series of levels, a total of 18 paths, each with its own evocative title. We will have to bounce everywhere in an attempt to survive and collect golden buds to accumulate experience points. You can take advantage of elements such as rocks, curves, ramps to overcome obstacles and avoid falling into the water, the first and fundamental enemy element of our skull.
Generated from bone and mud
The physical and logically correct answer is in fact fundamental in this game, as contact with water causes it melting of mud of which the skull is composed, causing damage that lower our vital points and empty the life bar, always present at the top of the screen.
It is no coincidence that the checkpoints are represented by small pools of magical mud, which give back the lost energy to our hero, and also become fundamental points to reach. Game over will not be rare at all, until you succeed in calibrate speed and movements well of the head. It therefore becomes essential to keep calm and cool, as well as maximum concentration to achieve the goal: to finish the level safe and sound.
This last task is by no means impossible to perform, given a good command of the commands, especially if we also consider the poor longevity by Skully. We are talking about less than ten hours of rather intense gameplay, if we do not get lost in contemplating the landscapes and evocations.
Scenarios… evocative
Speaking of scenarios, the graphic sector is definitely well cared, characterized by few environmental details, but with a rather good yield. We can support this by closely observing the reflections of the water, the tufts of grass or the sandy soil on which our trace remains. Again, the very useful and highly sought after puddles of clay where we must necessarily plunge, to metaphorically plant the firm stake of the checkpoint. But not all pools are the same: some allow us not only to fill ourselves with mud, but also to transform us into further fantasy-looking beings.
Skully - Nintendo Switch [Edition: UK]
- Hop, skip and roll your way to victory. Dodge obstacles across the island as Skully, a reanimated skull brought back to...
- Adapt to your environment. Transform into three distinct forms to overcome challenges and defeat enemies.
- Traverse a mysterious island. Roll through 18 different levels in 7 distinct ecosystems each packed with unique dangers.
They are the evocations we have talked about so far, characters that finally allow us to have that body that was there denied and thanks to which we can finally perform several more effective actions (but we will have to continue to fear water).
They are in everything three, able make up for obvious shortcomings very well in having only the head available. There prima he can smash walls, attack enemies with powerful punches and energy bursts, and even cast Skully. There second entity, on the other hand, is much more agile in jumping and double jumping to overcome precipices. There third instead it uses the power of telekinesis, in order to lift platforms and create new paths.
However, summons also appreciate teamwork: they can activate multiple characters at the same time to realize combo of powers, create (or destroy) the path and return to play the role of Skully to start rolling away quickly again.
A hasty game
At this point, do we really have to find any flaws? Unfortunately yes, no game is perfect, not even Skully. The game engine performance they are not always at their best, causing the movement to be quite slow. Alongside this not so frequent defect, we have observed how the transition from one level to another is rather abrupt and the fairly hasty transition. Even the graphics in the texts of the dialogues prove to be quite simple and not well cared for.
Furthermore, the latter may also not be consequential to what happens on the screen. For example, if we approach a wall to be knocked down, the sentence of compliment for the fist thrown before having even acted will start. It does not stand out for its originality not even the sound compartment, due to a series of tracks with very limited variations and which offer a pleasant background, but the result of a work without creative effort.
Last but not least, the speed to which the skull roams: it cannot be limited in any way, due to a decidedly high sensitivity that it does not allow us to better calibrate the movements and falling into the water quite frequently. If the longevity of the game is not at all eternal, our patience will struggle to be too in several points.
In conclusion
For a price that is not too low, indeed at times excessive compared to the actual proposed content, Skully gives us one pleasant experience and renews the platform and puzzle game genre. Accomplices one light storytelling and suitable to make it a good pastime, especially for the summer launch period, the game offers us a series of challenging, but sometimes frustrating, paths.
Some technical deficienciesand denounce his roots in independent production, balanced by the accompaniment of the voiceover of our shaman "guiding spirit". A simple title, therefore, on average, which could stand out more with some more creative details, but which therefore fails to get noticed as it could. To lose your mind? Not entirely.
The salty dog
Pro 
- A cool puzzle game ...
- Enjoyable soundtrack ...
- Techniques of immediate understanding ...
Cons 
- ... but not very original
- ... but quite monotonous
- ... net of a very high speed
