Skullgirls is the first major beat-’em up to try its initial release solely on XBLA and PSN. It’s a bold move to make for a game which requires a strong community to be successful, but one that hopefully will pay off. Skullgirls is a brilliant game, but the low price tag of this all female game comes at a cost?

The good news is that the core of the game itself is brilliant. Moves feel fluid and familiar to anyone who has played another six button beat-’em up. Each player has their own super combos and unique special moves just as you would expect. The pace of combat feels fast and frantic. While it is easy to pick up and play there is a clear level of depth for the more competitive player.

Skullgirls is no copycat though, as it brings some fresh and exciting ideas to the table. Players can either play the game with one, two or three characters. The amount that you pick will affect the health and strength of your characters. This makes for a more tactical game  that suits different play styles.

The characters are brilliant too. Other than the one character Double, who has various moves from each character, all of the other girls are unique. You wont find any Ryu/Ken or Sub Zero/Scorpion clones in this game.

The art style in Skullgirls is one of the major selling points. The whole thing looks beautiful with animations playing smoothly for each character. Why other beat-em’ ups don’t got for this 2D style is beyond me. While Skullgirls partially dressed girls have been criticised by some, I did not find any problem with it. Characters such as sexy nurse Valentine and Cerebella are both have well endowed chests that are on show, there are plenty of other characters that balance this out. Anyone that finds the weird little munchkin Peacock or the twisted Painwheel attractive has some serious issues.

There’s enough to keep you occupied in Skullgirls. I enjoyed the different story modes (even if they were a tad short) and online play is generally lag free. Stick on a Arcade mode with some great AI and you have got a game that can drain your time. Even the tutorial mode has had love poured into it. Here the game tries to teach you useful techniques in Skullgirls such as crossovers and tag attacks. It is an interesting concept and makes more sense than only teaching players combos, although the latter is missing from the game.

The game does have some obvious flaws though. Other than the game’s story, arcade, versus and tutorial modes there is nothing else. While the online matchmaking is great, you cannot search based on what is most important to you (e.g good connection, disconnect rate) and there is no way to see how many fights you have won.

There are other odd omissions from Skullgirls too, such as a move list. I have no idea what Reverge Labs was thinking with this one. Since the game was released they have put a free move list online, but it does sap the fun from a game when you have to pause to look up moves.

The enemy AI is punishing too. Most of the time this is fine, but I noticed against Peacock and Double that the computer would ALWAYS get in a particular super combo after throwing one projectile across the screen.  This was only on normal too. Playing the game for the first time was truly a baptism of fire, even for me, a beat-’em up junkie.

Skullgirls is by no means the perfect game, but when I think about it, the price of £10.20 was well worth every penny. The game has enough modes to rival contemporary, shop-released titles. The characters and game design are good enough to rival many of these too. This is a purchase I would encourage every beat-’em up fan to buy, at around £10 this game is a bargain.

 

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