I wanted to tell a skeleton pun, but I don’t have the guts for it…
A bell begins ringing incessantly in your quarters. A frantic friend paces nervously as you awaken from your undead slumber. He warns you of invading humans! It is up to you to heed his words, arm yourself for battle, and venture out into your unprotected underground home.
Konami has been quiet in the gaming industry as of late with only releasing PES and the forgettable new Contra title, so I was surprised that out of nowhere they’ve launched a dungeon-crawler that feels like a mixture of Castlevania with Cuphead’s style of visuals. The story is also pretty interesting as you push on to learn what you were before you became a skeleton with some clever, amusing writing.
The difficulty can be a bit brutal, but there are checkpoints that break it up nicely. Oddly, there is only 4 trophies for the PS4 version while the Xbox One version has 10 achievements including one that is rewarded for finishing the game with under 50 deaths, something that is missing from the PS4 list. I’m not entirely sure why that is and it’s the first time I’ve noticed this from a game, there may be other instances out there but it’s the first I’m aware of.
The controls will take some getting used to as you try and avoid certain death from traps or badly timed jumps, while battling some tough NPCs along the way. It soon becomes second nature though and ultimately a rewarding experience overall.
Like I said, the visuals are a nice nod to infamously difficult platformer Cuphead, which itself is also inspired by old-school cartoons. The animation is great and the game runs smoothly overall, while the soundtrack isn’t too bad either.
The Verdict
Skelattack is a surprisingly fun and enjoyable game from developer Ukuza and it’s good to see Konami backing it as publisher, something that I was not expecting. It’s a tough game but one that is rewarding to play while looking great too. Definitely worth a look.