Skullgirls

Publisher: Autumn Games
Developer: Revenge Labs
ETA Q1 2012

 

Removing your own head? Cheap

A 2D fighting game in which the only characters are women? Cue an explosive wardrobe, masking gameplay with all the depth of a shallow end, right? Well as far as the second half of that sentence is concerned.
Skullgirls is what happens when you introduce the experience of a tournament-level fighting-game competitor, Mike Zaimont, to a studio happy to bend its characters to his template. Emphasising the qaulity over quantity, it'll release with a mere eight, highly original characters.
Each kick, special and super bears the scars of a thousand frustraitions. For example Skullgirls background mathmatics constantly analyses your oppoent's control inputs, stepping in to allow repetitive combo attacks to be broken with a single tap.
High levels of bout customisation also feature, enabling one supercharged character to face off against three weaker, less powerful ones. Custom assist moves can even be inputted pre-bout, adding a futher layer of tactical depth. There's even an attempt to open up the brawler clique, through tutorials that stretch beyond mere move lists into the exact advanced techniques that exclude so many players. Promising stuff, then.

 

 

 

HIGH FIVE What's great about this game?

1. Top-hatted Peacock summons items to drop on opponents, ranging from elephants to tiki heads.

2. The feline Ms Fortune can rip her own head clean off, migrating heavy punch attacks to it in the process.

3. Umbrella-wielding Parasoul boasts charge attacks, most notably three orbs which release and explode later.

4. Painwheel can charge normal attacks, delivering additional damage when the move matures.

5. With oversized arms, Cerebella has a throw for every situation and a maximum of 70 for her super. 

 

VIDEO PRIMER

Highly animated: Revenge Labs claims that Skullgirls holds the record for the most individual frames of animation per character in a beat-'em-up, on average, boasting 1,400 each. Hand-drawn, it's a thing of beauty, mixing 3D backdrops theming doesn't hurt either, and it's scored by the talent behind Castlevania: Symphony Of The Night.

 

I think I'll skip my hospital appointment today