Title: Skullgirls
Format: PSN, XBLA
Release Date: April 10, 2012 PSN April 11, 2012 XBLA
Publisher: Autumn Games / Konami
Developer: Reverge Labs
Price: 15.00
ESRB Rating: T
Fan service consumes fighting games. Each title prioritizes character license and a mangled idea of accessibility over balanced gameplay and fun. We see the same situation as fifteen years ago when Capcom and Neo Geo/SNK dominated aracdes with CP System II and MVS respectively. The genre is saturated not with a variety of IP, but rather iterations of the same game with the same characters. Developers train gamers to expect these iterations so much that when finally Capcom learns to count to three in Street Fighter, the question becomes, "Where is everybody?" Street Fighter III needs two more "strikes" before the classic quality sticks. Away from the arcades, the PS1 and Dreamcast stand out as heralds of a future yet to come. You don't have to huddle in the dimly lit "Aladdin's Castle" to get some Vs. fighting. We don't just get ports of aracde fighters, either. Your favorite retro gaming mag tucks away a blurb about a new game, Guilty Gear. Refugees from the house that built Samurai Showdown lovingly craft something new and fresh and exciting.
Presentation:
And so, Samurai Showdown begats Guilty Gear begats Blazblue begats... Skullgirls? It's a romantic proposition, but in a Kevin Bacon-y sort of way that lineage exists. Mike Zaimont a.k.a. The Russian from the tournament fighting world carries a fighting game engine around for almost ten years. Before that, the arcades raise and nurture his gaming mind on Killer Instinct. He follows his passion through the tournament circuits and a position at Pandemic Studios. The connection to BlazBlue comes in when The Russian designs a tutorial for the character Tager called "Real Soviet Damage." The Russian goes on and has a game engine with no art and no story. Enter Alex Ahad and with him the roots and lienage from Udon and Scott Pilgrim. Throw in a couple of notable anime voice actors and we have a game.
Skullgirls positions itself as this generation's Guilty Gear. It's an indie game with Konami's seal of approval. Tucked away on XBLA or PSN (pick your poison), Skullgirls could fly under your radar. When I purchase the title, I find it on xbox.com. When I go to game marketplace on release day, it's nowhere in the "S" section. Yet no matter how much of Konami's lack of marketing or XBLA's positioning obfuscates the game, Skullgirls stands as that game I read about months ago and yet held in the back of my mind as a release day purchase.
Graphics:
Graphically, Skullgirls borrows heavily from anime as per Alex Ahad's style. The hand drawn characters duke it out in a realized and flesh-out anime world. The background characters are as well-designed as any playable character. Instead of the usual rabble of bystanders, I saw an anthropomorphic swordfish that just looked like he was "from somewhere." The playable characters are as wild as anything seen in fighting games. An android cat-girl haplessly scraps with you as she fights to keep her head attached. Failing that, the head falls off and barks orders at the body from the ground. All of this is hand-drawn with smooth animation that dances across your HDTV and shames the latest King of Fighters.
Gameplay:
Gameplay-wise, the emphasis of Skullgirls is to train the gamer to be a better fighter. The Russian's tutorials go from the basics of movement to tagging characters in and out of battle to blocking and combos. The movelist is available at the game's website as a printable pdf game guide. The download is free to anyone through Mediafire. About tagging characters in to battle, you have the option of 3x3 matches in addition to the one on one. This highlights Skullgirls' main drawback: the limited selection of characters. There's only eight playable characters with two more coming as DLC. That may turn away price-conscious gamers especially in light of sales on MvC3-vanilla. Still in a fighting game world where "Fox only, no items, final destination" is more adage than meme, a bloated roster may not adequately compensate for broken gameplay. (Although, I may just be a little jaded as Howard the Duck didn't get "in on the brawl" in UMvC3). With infinite juggling prevention and precise controls, Skullgirls is very tournament worthy fare. There's little room for button-mashing, here.
Final Thoughts:
Skullgirls stands as a labor of love from very passionate people. They're passionate about gameplay and passionate about art. Any fighting game entusiast will be well served by playing this game regardless of skill level. Despite the paltry selection of characters, there's plenty of modes to immerse yourself in the game's world. With the support of the community, we may see the beginnings of a competent franchise. I wonder, though: will we really still be doing quarter-circle-forward for the next fifteen years to come?
Final Score = 9.0/10 Email: jeanlucpierite@gmail.com Twitter: @jeanlucpierite PSN ID: neshoba78 XBLA: neshoba78