Castle Of Pixel Skulls (XBLIG): "A Retro Skeleton Platformer"

This review of 'Castle Of Pixel Skulls' was actually requested by the developer. I'm always thrilled to have game developers contact me about reviewing their latest creations. I don't think I'd turn down any request unless the developer was being a total arse about it. In this case the developer (Josep Monzonis, 2KSOMNIS) was actually fairly straightforward with the email inquiry he sent me. I was definitely glad to accept the assignment since the game (Castle of Pixel Skulls) looked very interesting to me. Everything from the graphics to the gameplay itself all looked well designed yet simple. Simple games are sometimes much better than the mainstream games that gamers pay top dollar for. I definitely wanted to see if that was the case with this indie game title ...

Castle of Pixel Skulls is a simple platformer that is designed like a lot of other impossible objective games (Platformance: Temple Death, SuperMeatBoy ...) that are available on the Xbox LIVE Marketplace. The visual theme of the game is based around dark dungeons with dungeon related obstacles/hazards (spikes, lava, fireballs, moving platforms ...) that prevent you from making it to the end. The goal in this game is very straightforward. You must get your skeleton knight from the starting point of the level to the exit door that is located elsewhere on the stage. The task is complicated by the presence of other skeleton warriors, and enviromental hazards that are placed between you and your goal. Each level is timed, and you only have a certain amount of seconds to get to the end. There are extra time power-ups that can be obtained by killing the other skeletons (B = Slash), and they are definitely worth the effort of finding in the harder levels of the game. There are numerous levels in the game, and there is an end according to the developer. I was only able to make it to level 4 though.

In the end I found this to be a fairly decent game. I'm sort of biased against games like this though, because I had some very aggravating experiences (147 deaths in the single level of 'Platformance: Temple Death') with a similar XBLIG title. I understand that it's all about the challenge, but I love to make it far into a game without being bothered by senseless deaths. One significant thing that really bothered me about this game is the fact that if you die from a time out you have to start over at level one regardless of how far you made it. There is no kind of leaderboard or scoring system that would make this a reasonable action. If there were some sort of checkpoints that allowed you to restart from the last level you left off then the game would be better. As good as the game looks I'm still going to have to say "skip it". The absence of any solid replay value really brings the quality of the game down.