SkullMonkeys

"A Weird But Great Platformer"

This game is odd, period, it's probably one of the highest games on the Odometer on the Play Station. Let's be honest, clay animation is pretty scary stuff.

Skullmonkeys is pretty like Earthworm Jim, since it is made by the same people, but it's a better neater game.

You take the part of Jerry-O, a Klayman from the Neverhood. whose mission is to prevent the uber-baddy, Klogg, from obliterating your home world. You've beaten him before, but now he has all the Skullmonkeys, the inhabitants of Planet Idznak on his side. It gonna be tough.

Before you start you'll notice that the FMV sequence has to be stated for it's originality. A Skullmonkey sees Klogg falling from the sky and he spots his evil, he then sends Jerry-O a package to bring him back to Planet Idznak.

The animation in the game is absolutely superb - totally seamless and consisted of a mind-blowing number of frames. The game itself is a fair good challenge, for a platform game, but it dosen't add up to anything like a Resident Evil or a Tenchu.

There are 100 levels split up into 17 worlds all of which are pretty tricky and can get pretty annoying. The game itself is viewed from a 2D, sideways scrolling perspective. The backgrounds are average, I think but the graphics are plain hilarious. When you blow a monkey up he shoots into tiny pieces. CLAY GORE!

You have bizarre weapons to help you through the game such as Universe Enema, Slappy The Hampster, Fart Head and Phoenix Hand. The meat of the game consists of destroying all The Skullmonkeys that thwart your progress throughout the level.

The Skullmonkeys themselves are apes with skull for heads (don't even ask!) which come in various guises; some just run up and down warbling whilst others glow red and become invincible for a second killing you instead. The easiest way to kill most of the enemies is by butt-bounce, a kind of jump that makes them explode into tiny giblets. But the best fun is when you fir bullets or weapons at them.

The songs and music on the game is hilarious and good to listen to. It really catches the atmosphere.

To spoil the party though, Skullmonkeys does get repetitive and after a while you find yourself doing something you've already done. It also dosen't last too long - that's not to say it's easy, it's rock, just dosen't last too long.

There hasn't been too many good platformers on the Play Station so I think this, Klonoa and Abe's Exodus are running away with it.

It's a good game!

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 11/06/01, Updated 06/12/02