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Skully

Be the mud (in a skull) in a slinging match between siblings.
56%Game Brain Score
gameplay, story
grinding, stability
50% User Score Based on 161 reviews
Critic Score 62%Based on 28 reviews

Platforms

PCPCXboxXboxXbox Series X|SXbox Series X|SPlaystation 5Playstation 5Playstation 4Playstation 4WindowsWindowsPlayStationPlayStationNintendo SwitchNintendo SwitchXbox OneXbox OneSteam DeckSteam Deck
Buy Nowfrom $1.07
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About

"Skully" is a single-player fantasy platformer game offering about 5 hours of playtime. Players control a reanimated skull named Skully, who is tasked with intervening in a war between three sibling deities threatening their island home. Skully can transform into three distinct forms to overcome challenges and defeat enemies, and must traverse 18 levels in 7 different ecosystems. The game features a compelling story with fully voiced dialogue and cutscenes.

Genres & Tags
Play Modes
Skully screenshot
Skully screenshot
Skully screenshot
Skully screenshot
Skully screenshot
Skully screenshot
Skully screenshot
Skully screenshot
Skully screenshot
Skully screenshot
Skully screenshot
+10

50%
Audience ScoreBased on 189 reviews
gameplay17 positive mentions
grinding14 negative mentions
  • The game features beautiful graphics and a charming art style that enhances the overall experience.
  • The voice acting is surprisingly good, adding depth to the characters and story.
  • The mix of puzzles and platforming mechanics provides a fun and engaging gameplay experience.
  • Controls can feel stiff and clunky, leading to frustrating moments during platforming sections.
  • The camera angles, especially during chase scenes, are poorly designed and can hinder gameplay.
  • The game suffers from pacing issues, with some levels feeling tedious and overly long due to backtracking and repetitive mechanics.
  • gameplay
    78 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The gameplay in this title starts off engaging with enjoyable marble-rolling mechanics but quickly devolves into frustrating and clunky puzzle-solving involving golem transformations. While the graphics and initial mechanics are praised, many players find the later levels tedious and repetitive, with awkward controls and poorly designed puzzles that detract from the overall experience. Despite some interesting ideas, the gameplay ultimately feels unrefined and lacks the excitement needed to maintain player interest throughout.

    • “Skully offers some great gameplay that's satisfying when done right, and gives plenty of uniqueness throughout its five-hour run.”
    • “Skully is a simple platformer that boasts fun characters, a great soundtrack, and creative gameplay; all of which provide a rewarding experience by the end of it.”
    • “I just finished it and enjoyed it the entire time. I loved how the progression of learning the mechanics of the game was gradual enough to get used to the controls, while still having interesting problems to solve before learning them.”
    • “The gameplay itself is outright atrocious.”
    • “The gameplay gradually loses that initial feeling of flow and instead turns into a tedious back-and-forth grind between checkpoints and puzzles, where you have to shape-shift the character multiple times in order to solve the puzzles.”
    • “The game is very repetitive and the gameplay mechanics get old really fast.”
  • story
    64 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The story of the game receives mixed reviews, with some players finding it charming and engaging, while others criticize it as simplistic or poorly executed. Many note that the voice acting varies in quality, contributing to the overall experience, but some feel the narrative is weak enough that it detracts from gameplay. Overall, the story is described as a light, sometimes cute adventure that may not resonate with everyone, and its impact on the game is debated among players.

    • “The story was sometimes cute, sometimes sad, and it made me actually care about the characters.”
    • “The graphics, music, and story are captivating.”
    • “With some excellent controls and a story told earnestly, I was gripped throughout its entire run.”
    • “Honestly, the story provides so little to the game that removing the story altogether would actually almost help make the game better.”
    • “The story is garbage.”
    • “The main problem is that it can't decide whether it wants to be a linear masochism gauntlet or a story- and puzzle-focused collectathon and does neither particularly well as a result.”
  • music
    40 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The music in the game receives mixed reviews, with some praising the soundtrack as fantastic and well-constructed, while others find it repetitive and forgettable, especially during longer levels. Many players appreciate the atmospheric tunes that complement the gameplay, but the short loops can lead to tedium over time. Overall, while the music enhances the experience for some, it detracts from it for others due to its lack of variety.

    • “The soundtrack was incredible, and I couldn't get over how I never got enough of it while playing this game.”
    • “It's a beautifully designed game with incredible music.”
    • “Skully is a simple platformer that boasts fun characters, a great soundtrack, and creative gameplay; all of which provide a rewarding experience by the end of it.”
    • “The music is repetitive (which kinda sucks when you have to spend, like, 15 minutes in the same level), and the narrator is so corny...”
    • “Combined with how huge the levels are and how short the music loops tend to be, this becomes an exercise in tedium very quickly.”
    • “However, good things only last for a while, since the quality of the story drops off significantly by the end, and the poor music looping quickly becomes boring.”
  • graphics
    37 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The graphics of the game have received generally positive feedback, with many users praising the beautiful art style and charming aesthetic that enhance the overall experience. While some noted issues with graphical hiccups and camera management, the visuals are often described as appealing and well-designed, contributing to the game's charm. However, a few reviews pointed out that the graphics may not be as polished as top-tier titles, indicating a mix of strengths and weaknesses in this aspect.

    • “The graphics look real compared to other 3D platformers, in a 'claymation' style.”
    • “The art style is beautiful and the design looks great.”
    • “Graphically, the game looks really nice and appealing to the eye.”
    • “Skully has some interesting gameplay involving your multiple forms, but is ultimately let down by checkpoint issues and blurry visuals.”
    • “[terrible camera management, outdated graphics, errors in the collision system]”
    • “[*] bland graphics”
  • grinding
    14 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The grinding aspect of the game has been widely criticized for being tedious and aggravating, with players noting that the initial enjoyment quickly fades into a repetitive and mindless experience. Many reviewers highlighted the excessive back-and-forth between checkpoints and the clunky mechanics of character transformations, which contribute to a frustrating gameplay loop. Despite the game's beautiful visuals, the overall experience is marred by poorly designed puzzles and a lack of engaging content, leading to a recommendation against playing.

    • “To me, $30 is way too much to ask for a game with only 5 hours of actual story and the rest is just grinding.”
    • “The gameplay gradually loses that initial feeling of flow and instead turns into a tedious back-and-forth grind between checkpoints and puzzles, where you have to shape-shift the character multiple times in order to solve the puzzles.”
    • “Characters that are a chore to handle, sloppy level design, lousy camera controls, irritating puzzles, and a general lack of personality combine to create a profoundly tedious experience.”
  • humor
    13 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game is praised for its humor, with characters like Brent and Terry providing comedic moments through quirky dialogue and interactions. Players find the combination of adorable game design and brutal platforming amusing, while the voice acting and soundtrack enhance the overall comedic experience. The humor is described as quirky and engaging, contributing to the game's charm despite some perceived rough edges in its execution.

    • “Some of the platforming was absolutely brutal, which was funny because everything about the game design is downright adorable.”
    • “The game has very nice graphics and music, the voice acting too is great and the story was quite nice and funny, I liked it.”
    • “Each of Terry's siblings is a little weird and they have funny conversations.”
  • stability
    7 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game's stability is heavily criticized, with users reporting numerous bugs, glitches, and unreliable controls that hinder gameplay, such as getting stuck and experiencing camera issues. Many players find the checkpoint system inadequate, leading to frustration during challenging sections. Overall, significant patch work is needed to improve stability and enhance the gaming experience.

    • “This game needs serious patch work all over to stop bugs and glitches and getting permanently stuck in spots that I have to reload the checkpoint for.”
    • “There seems to be some snapping that is supposed to help so you don't fly off ledges, but this feature is very buggy and unreliable.”
    • “Too few checkpoints and too buggy and unpredictable steering; I can't get past this level.”
  • atmosphere
    5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game's atmosphere is highly praised for its fitting music and sound design, which create a lighthearted yet grand adventure experience. Players appreciate the atmospheric tunes and the effective use of lighting, contributing to a visually appealing environment, while the gameplay maintains a fair challenge with ample checkpoints.

    • “The atmosphere is great.”
    • “The game's atmosphere and sound design is well done, evoking a lighthearted, but grand adventure across the island.”
    • “Nice soundtrack with some atmospheric tunes, a lighting system that can produce nice scenes, and a peculiar style of humor.”
  • optimization
    4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    Overall, the game's optimization is generally praised, with smooth performance and beautiful visuals noted by players. However, some users feel that gameplay can become tedious over time, particularly due to certain mechanics. Voice acting and writing received mixed reviews, with some finding them annoying.

    • “Fun game that runs smoothly on deck.”
    • “The game looks beautiful and runs smoothly.”
    • “[The form mechanic makes for some decent puzzles, the supporting cast puts in a great performance, Skully controls fairly well.]”
  • emotional
    3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The emotional aspect of the game is mixed; while some players found the narrative and characters to have a significant emotional impact, others felt the experience was dull and irritating. However, the game's beautiful setting, engaging story, and strong art direction contribute positively to its emotional resonance.

    • “The narrative and characters really had an emotional impact by the end, and the game’s setting is quite beautiful for the most part.”
    • “Surprisingly emotional and engaging story and characters, great art direction and soundtrack; each of the three forms had fun abilities.”
  • character development
    2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    Character development is highlighted by the appealing and expressive design of the characters, particularly Skully and his various forms, which users find cool and cute. The enemies also contribute positively to the overall character aesthetic, enhancing the game's visual appeal.

    • “The character design looks expressive, and I liked the look of the first form that Skully could transform into.”
    • “The character design is cool and cute; I like Skully and his other versions, as well as the enemies.”
  • replayability
    2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    While the game features lovable characters, a well-crafted soundtrack, and unique gameplay elements that enhance its replayability, some users feel it ultimately lacks sufficient replay value.

    • “The lovable characters, well-crafted soundtrack, and creative world design, combined with a fantastic physics engine, provide incredible replayability with unique gameplay elements.”
    • “Each playthrough feels fresh and exciting due to the diverse gameplay mechanics and the rich, immersive world.”
    • “The game's dynamic choices and multiple endings encourage players to return and explore different paths.”
    • “- lacks replay value.”

62%Critics’ scoreBased on 28 critic reviews

Buy Skully

5h Median play time
5h Average play time
5-5h Spent by most gamers
*Based on 5 analyzed playthroughs

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