Imagine landing on the banks of one beautiful unspoiled island, rich in woods, streams and natural wonders, but in the form of a inanimate skull which is given a second, magical chance to live. This is how we are catapulted into the world of The salty dog, the new platform developed by Finish Line Games and published by Modus Games, the videogame house behind works such as Rock of Ages III: Make & Break and Remothered: Broken Porcelain, sequel to the award-winning (and made in Italy) Remothered: Tormented Fathers. The irreverent platformer is now available on Steam, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and, last but not least, Nintendo Switch, whose version is the subject of this review.
Skully: a diplomatic skull
Skully is not only the title of the video game, but also the name of the spherical protagonist, renamed in this way from Terry, a bizarre boy with a peculiar obsession with rocks. It is Terry who revives our skull thanks to the magic of which the island is infused, immersing it in one of the many pools of black clay present here and there. We soon discover the reason for this so altruistic gesture: Terry has a fight with a certain Wanda, who is now on a rampage, and needs Skully's help to appease his soul. But the unexpected doesn't end there: Terry and Wanda, as well as Brent and Fiona, are there elemental deities who rule the island, struggling with a family dispute. So we find ourselves forced to intervene in these quarrels to prevent the angry gods from destroying the island and, with it, the magic that keeps us alive ...
The story is told through gods movies (which you can look at at will in the Extra section), very well made and original both in tones and in the character design, and through the voices of the characters who guide us (or make fun of us?) during the levels. Listening to Terry's comments and bickering with the other deities it is impossible not to compare them to those of Pit, Palutena and Viridi in Kid Icarus: Uprising, irreverent and always over the top, ready to get us a laugh. The excellent English dubbing is accompanied by a full localization of the title in Spanish, making it easier to understand thanks to subtitles. However, as this is a talk-through dubbing, this can be difficult for players less accustomed to English to follow, as they would have to stop to read the subtitles and, given the hectic nature of the game, this is not always possible.
As we progress through the game, we will discover that not all clay pools on the island are the same; in fact, some of them will allow us to transform ourselves into 3 different creatures with specific powers: the strongest will allow us to break down obstacles and defeat enemies, the fastest to run and move the boulders with the help of magic and the most agile will allow us to jump higher and reach new areas. But beware: no version of Skully is invincible, so special attention must be paid to the water (which will melt the clay golems) and the enemies that populate the levels.
Mind-boggling physics
A peculiarity of Skully is his physics-based nature, or game based on the laws of physics. This means that every element of the magical game world is ruled by plausible physical laws to which we will have to pay particular attention to get to the end of each level. For example, Skully's basic shape is small and round, which means that it is more difficult to handle (especially on slippery or sloping surfaces), but at the same time it is able to build up speed very quickly and climb walls covered with water. 'ivy. Conversely, the Mighty Creature is much slower, but more stable on steep trails and easier to control. In conclusion, each transformation of Skully is aimed at solving precise environmental puzzles to progress in the adventure, but also of customize our gaming experience, leaving us to decide independently which form to use.
In accordance with this love for the player's freedom, the level design of the chapters that make up the game it is not linear, entrusting the player with the choice of the easiest path to his style of play. Guiding us from one end of the level to the other we find gods yellow flowers, to be collected to unlock gods extra content as illustrations and concept art, to mark the way. However, many of these flowers are hidden or placed in hard to reach places, encouraging you to take alternative paths or to return to explore the chapters to collect all the flowers present in the level.
To enable such thorough exploration of each level, Skully's development team has avoided entering a time limit to complete the chapter, except for some segments in which we will find ourselves running away from natural cataclysms on our heels. Sometimes the absence of a map is felt, which would have greatly simplified some points, but it is perceived as a choice aimed precisely at raise the difficulty of the game, composed of well 18 chapters that will guarantee you at least ten hours of gameplay. Tuttavia, there isn't much else in the levels to do apart from picking the flowers and getting to the end of the chapter. The lack of bonus levels, mini-games, and extra content other than sketches is felt, flattening the overall play of the game.
Do not be fooled by the friendly appearance of the characters of Skully: we are facing a game from medium-high difficulty that increases from level to level. The presence of a physics-based setting is certainly one of the strengths of the game, raising the level of challenge more and more. Especially in the phases in which we check the skull, the timing it is essential: a careless jump is enough to make us fall off a cliff and send us back to the last checkpoint. The latter, present in the form of the magical clay pools we talked about earlier, are scattered along the main paths of the levels, although in some cases it is necessary to pay particular attention to the game setting to find some hidden checkpoints in the middle of the most difficult points to overcome.
A cross-platform platformer
As previously mentioned, Skully is available on Steam, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One for € 29,99, or on Nintendo Switch for € 34,99. Having tested the Nintendo Switch version for you, it is bizarre to note that the more expensive version is also the one with the most technical problems. The beautiful, unspoiled island that we will explore during the game does not perform at its best on the Big N hybrid console; in fact, the resolution is not the best both fixed and portable. In addition, the frame rate is not high how much such a lively platform would require.
I controls of Skully are overall effective and they vary slightly depending on the transformation of the protagonist we choose, but they turn out to be very easy to learn and remember. If this were not enough, we have the possibility to consult a summary sheet of each form of Skully or to customize all the controls, set the vibration and sensitivity or even to invert the view of the axes. However, the commands have occasional smudging: sometimes the reactivity of controls is not satisfactory, becoming potentially problematic when controlling the Forced Creature, with which one feels a lag consistent between attack input and attack itself. Also there camera is not fully convincing: a command is missing to bring the view back in front of him and when Skully falls into the water or perishes, the view makes a sudden zoom on him, making any attempt to rescue in extremis useless due to the disorientation.
In summary, Skully is a long-lived platformer based on the laws of physics, with an irreverent story complete with dubbing and with a non-linear level design, in which we will command a total of 4 versions of the protagonist to progress. Despite a good story and fun characters to use, there isn't much to do but finish the levels and unlock extra sketches. More, porting to Nintendo Switch does not appear to be competitive compared to other platforms.
