Skullgirls sat off my radar for a long time, I was aware of its existence but I wrote it off as some niche indie game meant to pander to a sect of fans who weren’t me. Occasionally I would run across a character design, go “oh that’s cute” and move on with my life. I had no interest and made some assumptions against the game, thinking the gameplay could be no better than other indies and even, say, published fighting games I had played before.
When I finally did take a crack at Skullgirls it proved all my criticisms dead wrong. It’s possibly one of the tightest, most polished fighting games I’ve seen in years, indie or otherwise.
It’s not a fighting game that’s instantly overly complex, people familiar with the standard six button attack/fireball special setups should be able to jump right into this. If for some reason you’re not and this is the first fighting game you’ve ever played, Skullgirls has an incredibly in depth tutorial mode that will take you through nearly every beginner and even intermediate mechanic. The game doesn’t assume you’ll just jump in and know what to do, something most fights do these days. Supers are relatively simple to pull off, as are combos, but that’s not to say this is a game steeped in simplicity. As you get more used to the mechanics you’ll be chaining together combos, supers, and cancelling into other moves. Skullgirls immediately feels like it’s a game suited to all levels of play, beginning, intermediate and advanced. I’ll add as an aside that while the game is available for the PS3, Xbox 360 and PC, I played on the PC. Using a USB controller on the PC is the most ideal but for giggles I tried it out with a keyboard and the game controlled…. Surprisingly well.
The approach to selecting fighters is another interesting one that you may have seen in the Capcom vs SNK series. Essentially in any mode but story mode, you can select one high powered fighter, two super powered fighter, or three regular fighters. Choosing one character gives you a bit more power and health, while three allows you the ability to use assists, tag out and chain together individual supers. It’s a relatively speedy game as well, characters handle fast and smooth with the slightest delay in their attacks so you can get a good feel on their timing and how to build up combos. It’s a game that allows for a great amount of flexibility including key mapping options I’ve found absent from other indie fighters.
My only major gripe here is the game just doesn’t have a big enough roster to support the team tier system. Too often a matchup would be Filia, Parasoul, Peacock just to be followed up by Peacock, Filia, Double. That said given the amount of current depth and detail given to the limited roster, I think I’d rather a little less for the quality I’m getting.
The game is oozing with style. Having a Roaring 20’s Hollywood vibe paired with some tight jazz tracks, and a cartoony look that stretches as far back as Steamboat Willy and Tex Avery and as recent as some of the 2011/2012 anime releases or Scott Pilgrim (in fact two of lead artists on this game worked on the Scott Pilgrim game). It sounds like it may have a little too much going on, but it all meshes very well. This is in part due to the hand drawn animations of each character, they’re absolutely awesome to look at, from Double’s disturbing opening animation where she turns herself inside out to Ms. Fortune who makes good use of separating her limbs from her body. If you’d like just a little extra bit of fanservice feel free to cycle through the color palette options for each lady, the developers are true anime and video game fans and you can go through the game with say, a perfect Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt, Persona 3 or Puella Mahou Magika Madoka color swap. It’s not a major detail, but another nice minor touch where color swaps are otherwise a lazy after thought.
The storymode isn’t exactly the most intense experience, but it has a little more going on than some of the excuses we’re given for story modes these days anyway. Online play is fantastic, though be prepared for a level of competitiveness the AI and training modes can’t prepare you for, this doesn’t reflect badly on the core game mind you, it just shows there’s so much more to do with the mechanics they present you with. The online runs smoothly, the game also has an auto detection system that will suggest settings to you for the best multiplayer experience. If playing against strangers aren’t your thing you can create a few private lobbies to go up against your buddies, the first night I played this I had a group of friends up well into the wee hours going match for match.
EDIT: My comments on the story mode were before I had completed the game with the 8 main characters and the one free DLC character. It’s actually a fairly well thought out and complete narrative. Each lady’s tale reveals just a little bit more about the world and the overarching plot of the game, and by the time you’ve cycled through all 9 you’ll find it’s an interconnected narrative where you need each individual part to understand the whole. Anyone who has played Persona 4 Arena or BlazBlue will be familiar with the story telling mechanic. This doesn’t affect my score any (I already gave it the highest possible on this site) but I was pleasantly surprised and engaged by what they did here.
If you’re a fighting game veteran, I’d highly recommend giving this a shot, if you’re new to the fighting game genre I’d also recommend this as a great starting point. The flash and style paired with the tight controls and gameplay make this a fun, unique experience that has an edge up on the recent slew of lazier brawlers.
