Description
A playthrough of Playmates Interactive's 1996 license-based action game for the Sony PlayStation, Skeleton Warriors.
Skeleton Warriors is based on a 1994 cartoon and line-up of action figures. I'm not at all familiar with the franchise, but according to the game's story, when Prince Justin catches Baron Dark trying to steal Luminicity's Lightstar Crystal, the resulting struggle ends in the crystal being broken in half. The shards hit the men, transforming them into supernatural warriors. Baron Dark becomes a living skeleton with the power to turn others into skeleton minions, while Justin becomes Prince Lightstar, a He-Man sort with "a noble heart" who can fire balls of energy from the tip of his StarSword. To save Luminicity, the prince must now go after Baron Dark and reclaim the missing half of the Lightstar Crystal.
It's a 2D hack-and-slash platformer that mixes prerendered graphics with 3D background elements, similar to what Sega did in https://youtu.be/6c3reFAM0QI. The levels are generally straightforward, and the gameplay focuses more on fighting than running and jumping. The screen will stop scrolling every so often, and once you've cleared out all of the enemy waves that spawn in, you'll be allowed to continue. You can swing your sword in front of you, stab upward, and aim down mid-jump to use the sword to Pogo hop off of enemies' heads. You can also fire energy bolts, as well as special weapons that are powered by the crystals dropped by enemies.
There are a few fully 3D bonus rounds, too, though you're usually better off just ignoring them. They don't play well, and there's no penalty for dying in those segments.
The graphics and sounds are pretty nice for an early 32-bit game. The multi-plane background scrolling and the plasticky CG character sprites look great (though smaller enemies can be difficult to see against the dark backdrops), the music is suitably upbeat and dramatic, and I like how everything explodes when it dies. The game play is smooth, the controls are quick to respond, the silly-looking sword hop is a fun way to chew through large groups of baddies, and the difficulty curve is satisfying. It takes real effort and commitment to make it through the last couple of areas, but it's doable with enough practice.
Skeleton Warriors feels like a 16-bit game that was given a 32-bit face-lift, and I like it that way. It's cheesy fun, and it was a good first effort from developer Neversoft, who later went on to create the Tony Hawk series.
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
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