Skullgirls - PlayStation 3

Skullgirls Review: Fighting For Everyone

2012-04-09T17:01:00Z

Consoles have been treated to a revival of the fighting genre ever since Street Fighter IV’s release in 2009, but no notable new entries have made their way to the downloadable arena. Reverge Labs is finally delivering this with Skullgirls, a game that feels more like a full-on fighting experience than a diluted downloadable wannabe.

Creating a fighter that appeals to both casual and hardcore fans of the genre is no easy feat. To pull this off, a game has to be accessible enough to be immediately fun while deep enough to reward gamers who sink dozens of hours into learning minute elements of the battle system. By combining familiar inputs with an extensive training system, Skullgirls successfully courts both audiences.

Most attacks are performed via Street Fighter-like dragon punch and fireball motions, which should feel familiar. Some attacks have unique characteristics, such as the nurse Valentine’s syringe. Her fireball motion typically throws a shuriken, but you can opt to fill a syringe with a poison that causes unsavory effects like input lag or damage over time. Little touches like these give the player more variety when putting together their offensive strategy. Skullgirls also features a super meter that gives the player access to flashier and more deadly attacks, and it’s a basic (and frequently-used) damage-based mechanic that anyone can easily understand.

While casual fighting fans shouldn’t have a problem jumping in and discovering some great special moves, Skullgirls features many mechanics the tournament crowd will appreciate. An extensive tutorial system teaches more advanced tactics, such as mix-ups, canceling, chain attacks, and off-the-ground combos. If you’re looking to dive even deeper, training mode allows you to study elements as specific as hitboxes. I’ve always been a fan of fighting games, but I’m admittedly not a tournament-level player. Despite this, it was impressive to see the obvious love and knowledge of the genre that Reverge showcases via these tutorials.

Despite the impressive amount of information in these tutorials, Skullgirls features no in-game command list. This would be baffling no matter what fighting game it was, but it’s especially confusing considering how much learning material they did include. I can turn on advanced hit boxes, but I can’t see how to perform a specific move? Not having this information available via a pause (or any other) menu makes learning a character more of a hassle than it needs to be. Reverge’s solution is to send players to the Skullgirls website for each character’s command list, so players should be prepared to be near a computer if they want to have access to this basic information.

Players can choose whether they want to go into battle with three standard characters, two powerful characters, or one overpowered character. It adds a nice layer of strategy, as multiple characters allow for assists and tagging, but masters of one particular character may relish the opportunity to control a super-powerful version of her.

Eight fighters are included, and their character design is certainly unique. Ms. Fortune is a cat-like fighter that can toss her own head at opponents and extend her limbs. Peacock is a 13 year-old girl that resembles a Steamboat Willie-era cartoon, complete with rail-thin arms and oversized hands. Each combatant features over-the-top attacks that are as useful as they are fun to watch.

These characters are beautifully animated, but I noticed a Tecmo-like obsession with breasts and oversexualized characters. This may not be a new phenomenon in the genre, but many fighters in the all-female Skullgirls roster make Cammy look like a nun by comparison. Some animations are juvenile and unnecessary, such as the nurse that sticks a thermometer (that later explodes) between her breasts. For a game that seems intent on attracting serious fans of the fighting genre, it’s disappointing to see that so much of the art style seems focused on anatomy and fetishistic outfits.

Online mode is a given in any modern fighter, and Skullgirls is no different. You can participate in ranked or unranked matches, although it doesn’t include additional modes like Super Street Fighter IV’s endless battles. Since online play allows players to choose the size of their team, you may find your super-powerful Valentine going up against a team of three lesser-powered foes. It’s great in terms of variety, and certainly affects strategy as you head into a fight. While most of our pre-release online matches featured minimal lag, it did rear its head occasionally.

As a downloadable title featuring the bells and whistles that many retail fighters are lacking, Skullgirls is an impressive feat. Hardcore fans of the genre should find a lot to love, but more casual fighting fans may not have the same appreciation for the game’s intricate mechanics. The barrier for entry isn’t high enough to significantly hurt the game’s entertainment value. Regardless of your level of experience, Skullgirls is a solid fighter that’s more than welcome on XBLA and PSN.

New Skullgirls Trailer Shows Off Story

2012-02-05T18:09:00Z

The latest Skullgirls trailer shows off the story without offering many concrete details.

You get a lot of interesting Skullgirls art, some gameplay footage, and a few hints at the back stories of these bizarre characters.

Skullgirls is a downloadable title for the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade that should be releasing sometime early this year.

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New Skullgirl Unveiled In Trailer

2011-06-24T20:00:00Z

The upcoming girls-only fighting game has a new crazy combatant. Check out the video.

Since we first had the opportunity to see the game, we've been eagerly anticipating the release of Skullgirls, a brand new fighting game franchise set to release as a downloadable game later this year. The highly stylized animation and tight fighting mechanics look like a blast.

Up until now, most of the characters we've seen for the game fall pretty clearly into the sexy anime babe vibe. However, newly announced Peacock goes in a different direction. Like the unholy progeny of Popeye the sailor, Peacock is one of the stranger fighting game characters we've ever seen.

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Is Skullgirls The Next Great Fighting Game?

2011-03-18T00:01:00Z

The developers at Reverge Labs have some big ambitions. The team is building a brand new fighting game complete with its own deep fiction, creative new characters, and an entirely new fighting engine. But the thing that really makes the game stand out is how it is planned as a downloadable title for PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade.

The team from publisher Autumn Games and developer Reverge Labs swung by the Game Informer office this week to give us our first in-person glimpse of the new game. Skullgirls is in many ways a sort of hybrid -- a mix of the freedom and creativity inherent to old 2D fighting games like Guilty Gear, Marvel vs. Capcom 2, and Darkstalkers, but with the design and technical complexity of modern games thrown into the mix.

At first glance, the most obvious feature you'll note about Skullgirls are its combatants. The all-female cast of Skullgirls has all the buxom anime styling anyone could ask for and more. Independent of your opinion on the cute meets sexy vibe, there's no denying the detail and quality of both the art and animation on display in Skullgirls.

All the sprites are drawn at twice the resolution that the game plays in, assuring each character pops off the screen with sharp lines and bright colors. The game plays entirely in 2D, but the technology is running on a 3D engine. The most obvious effect is that the characters are lit realistically based on lighting sources within the game world.

Skullgirls has what looks to be a deep fiction behind it, more akin to some role-playing games than many fighting games. The story circles around a powerful artifact that can grant a wish to its owner once every seven years. Each of the characters has a unique backstory and some unusual feature that sets her fighting style apart. We met one character who had a strange symbiote creature where her hair should be. A second character has a hat that is an entirely separate monster with giant pummeling arms.

Gameplay includes a number of unique features. When you start the game up, you can choose between one very powerful character or two slightly lesser characters, assuring that players can explore both the one-on-one fighting game vibe, as well as the tag team dynamic of games like Marvel vs. Capcom. The six-button fighting system has a number of smart design ideas, such as the ability for players to break out of infinite combos after a certain number of loops, and great controls that evolve off the best tournament level games still being played today. You can even customize your assist moves for tag fights, presetting any attack you want for when you call your partner into play. Mike Z, the game's project lead, led us through the complexities of the fighting system. It's clear he has a keen eye for the best and worst in the fighting game tournament circuit, and an eye towards fixing some of the problems that have plagued many games in that field for years.

Skullgirls' strongest feature is the way it caters to both the casual and hardcore crowd. The engine itself supports the kind of high-level play that serious fighting gamers are looking for. At the same time, the humorous and sex-tinged visuals, accompanied by some awesome combo moves, should make Skullgirls a fun time for the most casual of players.

Skullgirls is one of the most surprising and exciting new downloadable games we've seen this year. Check out the brief trailer below, and keep an eye on the game as it nears release later this year.

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