Skullgirls

Skullgirls – Demo Review

Skullgirls is an eccentric eclectic art-deco jazz induced over the top 2D fighter featuring an all female cast. Published by Autumn Games/Konami and developed by Revenge Labs for the Playstation 3 and Xbxo 360 via downloadable arcade title. Skullgirls released April 11, 2012. The demo for Skullgirls opens up with a cutscene about a special rare artifact having to do with an all female fighting tournament. Next your shuffled to the main menu.

The main title screen of Skullgirls had some pretty good jazz music flowing in the background by Micheru Yamane. The menu tabs included Unlock Full Game, Achievements, Leaderboards, Extras, Versus, Training, Help & Options and Exit Game. The default controls were as follows (via the Xbox 360): X-LP, Y-MP, RB-HP, A-LK, B-MK, RT-HK, LB-LK+MP, RB-HP, A-LK, B-MK, RT-HK, LB-LK+MP, LT- MK+HP (shorcut). The letters LP for example means light punch. As far as the controls go they are tight and responsive enough. I still believe Street Fighter 4 has the best controls this gen but Skullgirl’s are solid. The controls are put to the test in a deep engaging tutorial system that can be played in the Skullgirl’s demo.

The Training tab houses Skullgirl’s tutorial system. In it you can train to your level of satisfaction through a bevy of training exercises. Tutorial menus include Beginner Tutorials, Immediate Techniques, Basic Chains and Advanced Techniques. Some of the exercises I completed like defending against mix-ups and advanced mix-ups really helped me understand defense and chain attacks in Skullgirls and also how to defend against them effectively. The tutorial has a training tree that unlocks accordingly by showing checkmarks. The tutorial can take a pretty long time if you decide to complete every challenge.

I next entered a Training Room where you can fight against live AI enemies. In the demo you can only play a tag-team like match with only two playable characters to pick from being Ms. Fortune and Cerebella. The full game of Skullgirls has Valentine, Parasoul, Peacock, Pain Wheel and Felia as playable characters. Each character has their own sexy unique look  associated with them in Skullgirls. Each one has sweet moves and actions that will catch your eye. Getting back to the match, you can assign power ups called Assists to your characters for Training Room matches. Some Assists noted were: Ringlet Spike, Custom Action and Updo. My characters where Cerebella and  Ms.Fortune and same for enemies.

Stages in the demo included (some playable and some not): Medic, Tower, Maple Crest, Chass Notes, Lab 8, Lab 8 Empty, Little innsmith, Grand Cathedral (empty), Streets Of New Meridian. The in-game HUD shows Life Damage, Multiplers and Hit/Damage gauges. Going back to Tag Team gameplay its fast, brutal and fun to look at while you’re playing. One thing I noticed while playing Skullgirls was the fact that I couldn’t grab my enemies. I admit I didn’t complete all the tutorials so maybe I missed something. Either way I could not (or didn’t know how) to grab my enemies during my Training Room gameplay time.

This is a Skullgirls demo review albeit ”demo” I can still juge this game’s presentation amongst other things. The presentation is solid. It seems that Skullgirls could be a full retail game if it had more content. The visuals are striking in-game and gives Skullgirls a real vibe that exudes coolness. Visually the textures and colors pop out of the screen and when you see the game in motion it just comes to life. The sound design seems to be done really well. Micheru Yamane did a great job with the music side of things. This game is fun and wildly engaging. its really good. I can imagine how much fun the game would be if I could play online and master a few fighters.

Skullgirls demo lacks content sure but makes up for it with a solid presentation that gives me a reason to buy the full game. If your into 2D fighters such as Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter X Tekken check out Skullgirl’s demo on Xbox Live if you have a Xbox 360. Thanks for reading.

Skullgirls – Painwheel Character Trailer

Skullgirls is a 2D fighting game featuring a female only cast of eccentric and over the top fighters. The featured character in the video below is Painwheel. She wears a sick evil mask but seems to forget to take her medication on a regular basis. Painwheel has a huge pinwheel Krull style blade on her back that she uses to dish out unrelenting pain on her adversaries.

I immediately fell in love with Skullgirls artdeco visuals. I just love the artstyle this 2D fighter uses. The combos look sick in video below make sure you watch it. Skullgirls was developed by Reverge Labs and published by Autumn Games. It releases on the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 early 2012 (from the trailer). Thanks Gamespot.