Game: Skellboy Refractured
Genre: Action, Adventure
System: Nintendo Switch (also on Steam)
Developer|Publisher: Umaiki Games | Fabraz
Age Rating: EU 7+ | US Everyone
Price: US $20.00 | UK £18.00 | EU € 20,00
Release Date: June 4th, 2021
Review code provided with many thanks to Fabraz
Skeleton Hero
Skellboy Refractured is a 3D action-adventure game set in the kingdom of Cubold. It has an unusual premise and graphical style. If you are looking for something light-hearted and different or are looking for something to play in co-op this may be a game worth checking out.
All was well in the Kingdom of Cubold until the king’s court magician (funnily called Squaruman) got dumped by the Princess. Just like in most breakups some of us don’t take things too well. In his anger, Squaruman resurrects the dead and lays siege to the kingdom.
But in despair, there is always hope. Not only have the nasties of the land come back to life but an ancient hero, Skippy, has also returned.though he is looking a little more skeletal these days. But this new form does come with some advantages. It’s up to Skippy to sort out Squaruman and bring peace once again to Cubold. It’s a plot that doesn’t take itself too seriously and with its unique art style, there are certainly plenty of laughs to be had along the way from character dialogue to jocular enemy design.
Bring a Pencil to a Sword-Fight
The goal of the game is to navigate around a large world completing simple quests like; rescuing the King and navigating through a variety of dungeons with various platformer style traps and enemies to take out. The main gameplay feature is that Skippy can swap out his body parts such as his head, torso, feet and weapons. By doing this you unlock new features such as increased health, speed as well as resistance to certain status effects. Different heads can also unlock new abilities like projectiles which come in handy in combat. You also have 5 weapon slots, from regular swords, weapons you can throw as well as a weapon you can slam on the ground.
Some of these are certainly weirder than others, like a pencil and a fly swatter which I guess feels appropriate to the games silly sense of humour. Of course, some are more useful than others in return. You can wield a baguette as a sword that has a long reach but breaks after a few uses. You can also use a bomb head but by activating this you always lose a lot of health.
Certain weapons and items are essential to access new areas of the game and progress further. I had a lot of fun creating the weirdest hero I could, one moment I looked like a Zombie, the next I’ve got a parrot’s head.
Combat and Path Finding
Combat is where things get floaty. When you swing your sword the hit detection seems a little off for enemies who also take multiple hits to defeat. The process doesn’t feel as fun as it maybe should do. Often my strategy was to hit enemies then cowardly run away and repeat the process. It’s quite slow and tedious in single player.
The boss battles ramp up the frustration by having you memorize challenging patterns and attacking the boss at the right moment. But if you are in the wrong place you often have to repeat the boring cycle of avoiding the enemies attack patterns again.
As well as the combat the game doesn’t do the best job of telling you where to go for the primary quest. I spent a lot of this game backtracking to old areas desperately trying to figure out where to go. There is no map or indication of where to go, so make sure you pay attention closely to the last NPC you spoke to.
If you do take the time to explore there are plenty of secrets to discover in the games such as hidden items and even a pretty cool roguelike mini-game I came across which I think I had more fun playing than the actual main campaign.
Paper Craft
The graphics are 2D models navigating around a 3D world with a rather upbeat soundtrack to accompany you in the adventure. It feels like you are moving a cardboard cutout about and strangely it works here. Enemies have a comical design to them and when you defeat them in combat they split apart like paper, which is a very nice effect. A small niggle my co-op partner did report was that the style did create some mild motion sickness symptoms which may be brought on by the janky performance of the game on TV.
Co-op
Co-op is a most welcome feature in the game. At any point in the game, another player can drop in and out of the experience. What’s more, when you end a session and restart your co-op partner still retains all the items they used from their previous session. The experience does come with a few niggles though. We hit some areas in the game where it felt only designed to play with one player.
There was a moment where we tried to go down a lift but only one of our characters could fit in and the other player fell through the floor. We also encountered a mini-quest where we both turned in an item for a new perk to increase our health but it only unlocked for the primary player. While not fully refined the game is still enjoyable to play with a second person.
Conclusion – Hits the Funny Bone
In general, I quite liked Skellboy Refractured. It has its fair share of niggles from flimsy combat and difficulty finding the next quest. But with each fault, I often found a fair few things to laugh at. If a game can make you smile despite its faults I see that as a success. A funny adventure worth trying alone or with a friend or loved one.
Final Verdict: I Like It
