Skully

About

Skully is a single player casual platformer game with a fantasy theme. It was developed by Finish Line Games and was released on August 4, 2020. It received neutral reviews from both critics and players.

"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

Single-Player

+10

Skip User Reviews

51%

Audience ScoreBased on 171 reviews

gameplay16 positive mentions

grinding12 negative mentions

The game features charming visuals and a delightful soundtrack that enhances the overall experience.
The core mechanics of rolling as Skully are fun and engaging, providing a satisfying platforming experience.
The character design and chemistry between characters add a lovable quality to the game.

The introduction of golem mechanics disrupts the flow of gameplay, making sections feel slow and tedious.
The controls can be frustratingly imprecise, leading to frequent deaths and a lack of enjoyment in platforming.
The level design can become repetitive and confusing, with some puzzles feeling tedious and lacking clear direction.

gameplay
74 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
22%
69%
9%
The gameplay in this title is a mixed bag, starting strong with enjoyable marble-rolling mechanics but quickly becoming bogged down by clunky golem transformations that disrupt the flow and introduce tedious puzzle-solving elements. While the initial platforming is fun and visually appealing, many players find the later levels repetitive and frustrating, leading to a decline in overall enjoyment. Despite some interesting ideas, the execution leaves much to be desired, resulting in a gameplay experience that feels inconsistent and often tedious.
- “Skully offers some great gameplay that's satisfying when done right, and gives plenty of uniqueness throughout its five-hour run.”
- “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.”
- “Great little 3D platformer, with nice mechanics, nice graphics, I totally recommend.”
- “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 starts with neat marble play for a level or two and then slowly devolves into awful clunky golem puzzle gameplay that is not very fun.”
- “Unfortunately, every new mechanic makes the core gameplay worse and it devolves into a mess that feels unfinished by the developers.”
story
56 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
27%
66%
7%
The game's story receives mixed reviews, with some players praising its engaging plot twists and emotional depth, while others criticize it as simplistic or even detrimental to the overall experience. Many appreciate the charming visuals and voice acting, though some find the narrative lacking in substance or coherence. Overall, the story is seen as a light-hearted backdrop that enhances the gameplay for some, while others feel it detracts from the experience.
- “Also, the story and its plot twists leave nothing to be desired, and the ending was bold in all the best ways.”
- “The story was sometimes cute, sometimes sad, and it made me actually care about the characters.”
- “The game does not go into extreme detail about the characters, and the story is pretty simple, but I could not help but enjoy everyone and what they were going through.”
- “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 story also feels a bit boring with non-skippable cutscenes or one that you have no way to speed up when they go too slow.”
music
36 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
56%
36%
8%
The music in the game is generally praised for its charm and fitting atmosphere, enhancing the overall experience with folksy tunes that complement the visuals. However, many players noted that the soundtrack can become repetitive, especially during longer levels, which detracts from the enjoyment over time. While some found the music memorable and captivating, others described it as average or forgettable, indicating a mixed reception overall.
- “I think the game's biggest charm is in its presentation, having you roll around a lovely naturescape reminiscent of seaside Canada as adventurous folksy music meanders along in the background.”
- “The soundtrack was incredible, and I couldn't get over how I never got enough of it while playing this game.”
- “It’s a very colorful and bright game, has some wonderful music, and solid controls.”
- “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.”
- “It’s probably not the longest game, and the music seems to repeat in different zones.”
graphics
33 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
76%
15%
9%
The graphics of the game are generally praised for their beautiful art style and charming aesthetic, with many reviewers noting the appealing visuals and impressive design. While some mention minor issues like graphical hiccups and camera problems, the overall consensus is that the graphics enhance the gameplay experience, making it visually captivating and enjoyable. However, the contrast between still story visuals and animated cut-scenes was seen as jarring by some players.
- “The art style is beautiful and the design looks great.”
- “Graphically, the game looks really nice and appealing to the eye.”
- “[*] bland graphics”
- “Cute graphics and the marble-rolling mechanics are fun, but all in all I'm already a bit sick of it after finishing the second level.”
- “The graphics look real compared to other 3D platformers, in a 'claymation' style.”
grinding
12 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The grinding aspect of the game has been widely criticized for being tedious and aggravating, with players noting that the initial enjoyment quickly fades as they are forced to engage in repetitive and mindless tasks. Many reviewers feel that the game, despite its beautiful design and potential, suffers from poor pacing and excessive back-and-forth gameplay, turning what could be fun puzzles into frustrating chores. Overall, the grinding detracts significantly from the overall experience, leading to a lack of recommendation from players.
- “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.”
- “You might like it for the first hour but then you'll realize how mindlessly boring, tedious, and aggravating this game is.”
- “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.”
humor
12 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game is praised for its humor, with characters like Brent and Terry providing comedic moments through funny dialogue and quirky 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 light-hearted and engaging, contributing positively to the game's charm.
- “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
100%
The game's stability is heavily criticized, with users reporting numerous bugs, glitches, and unreliable controls that lead to frustrating gameplay experiences, such as getting stuck and problematic camera angles. While there are no visual glitches noted, the overall lack of reliable checkpoints and smooth steering detracts significantly from the experience, making it difficult to recommend without a high tolerance for repeated failures.
- “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 seems to be very buggy and unreliable.”
- “Too few checkpoints and too buggy and unpredictable steering; I can't get past this level.”
atmosphere
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
75%
25%
The game's atmosphere is highly praised for its fitting and professional music, which enhances the overall experience, creating a lighthearted yet grand adventure. Reviewers appreciate the balanced gameplay that complements the immersive sound design, although some express a desire for more varied and extended musical tracks.
- “The atmosphere is great.”
- “The game's atmosphere and sound design is well done, evoking a lighthearted, but grand adventure across the island.”
- “Music is fittingly professional as well with some nice atmospheric tunes, and gameplay never feels unfair, with many checkpoints.”
optimization
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
67%
33%
Overall, the game's optimization is generally praised for its smooth performance and beautiful visuals, particularly on the Steam Deck. However, some players note that the gameplay can become tedious later on, which may detract from the overall experience.
- “Fun game that runs smoothly on deck.”
- “The game looks beautiful and runs smoothly.”
character development
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Character development is highlighted by the appealing and expressive design of characters, particularly Skully and his various forms, which users find cool and cute. The creativity in character design extends to the enemies as well, enhancing the overall visual experience.
- “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.”
emotional
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The emotional aspect of the game is largely perceived as negative, with players expressing feelings of boredom and irritation, likening the experience to a tedious work environment.