top tier kart racing game with tons of replayability and proper crossplatform and crossplay support lol

just buy the game or look for a sale

Classic 2D sandbox fun with fun progression and tons of secrets.

I recommend this game a lot. 30XX is an infinitely fantastic improvement over 20XX. The movement feels even better than 20XX some how. However if I do not get my best girl HAWK by the end of 2021. I will hold this thumbs up recommendation hostage until I do.

This is your first and final warning CK.

paper mario but better and buggier


ya'll dont need me to review the basics of how bug fables works there are tons of that on the net. so instead just take my rambling about my experiences with this game so far.

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Fantastic game. Tons of lore; most of it optional but still recommended you go looking for it. Refines the PM gameplay formula while really making a bunch of changes and fix it to improve upon and individualize the experience. While it feels a lot like PM, it still has plenty of nuances that make you not want to play Paper Mario over this. I'll never go back to vanilla Paper Mario after this game. The only comparable Paper Mario would be Master Quest/Pro mode because this game even has Luigi's Challenge built into it as a secret unlockable.

The story takes a bit to pick up and the story and its tone occur a WILD rapid change out of nowhere that will give you whiplash. It's good but it's abrupt as hell as the tone and pacing change (generally for the better). The music slaps, but I don't enjoy it as much as everyone else. Probably because I have PM music ingrained in my brain so reprogramming is taking longer than expected. The 2nd normal battle them you get half way into the game is fantastic though.

This next section I want to preface with this very important factoid that you need to keep in mind as it paints said section very strongly. I played this game BLIND with HARD MODE medal (which is more than just stat boosts) active on top of HARD HITS medal (Double Pain Badge / Double Damage taken) active. This means that likely my gameplay complaints are specific to or exacerbated by Hard Mode + Hard Hits. Playing Blind may also be a factor. With that being said;

The issues I have with the game is that the menuing is a bit cluttered and can be improved upon.
The backtracking can get tedious.

There is a passive/soft difficulty spike as soon as the game opens up with optional content. What I mean by this is because the game opens up in content at a specific point, the optional content feels like it's designed with the some of the story upgrades partially in mind; so if you jump straight into optional content as soon as it's available then you might have to deal with various frustrations that feel like an unfair difficulty spike. I can assure you its not. You either haven't prepared the right items (requires a fair bit of material gathering and walking) or you simply just need to progress the story more for story upgrades. This is where the menuing and backtracking comments come from actually. I had to do a fair amount of consumable item prep to handle optional bosses in hard mode + hard hits when all I should have done is progress the story for new abilities. It's good that you can tackle challenges fairly early, but if you dont like the prep work needed for said challenges, just play more of the story.

One MAJOR issue I personally had was how wonky the game would get when dealing with a WIRELESS DS4 controller. I talked to the devs about it and they said they were releasing a patch that helped with controller issues; especially when you use Steam is the method for handling your controls. So hopefully by the time you read this (at least 1-2 more weeks from the date of this review) they would have addressed this. I've had to deal with a bunch of personal troubleshooting issues specific to play this game with a wireless DS4 on Windows 8.1 that I have not seen anywhere else. I want to say this is a me issue, but considering I only have these controller issues with this game and no other game; I can't in good confidence say that's the case.

Other issues I've come across in this game are mostly nitpicks. Things like getting stuck while cutting grass or platforming can be a bit wonky from time to time for whatever reason. The visual style and execution can make some of the light platforming more annoying than it needs to be.

Because of badge/medal progression; it'll feel like there isnt enough "power creep" in favor of the player for a while. It does happen though, but there is an unfortunate delay in the overlap of "when the game opens up" and "player gets notably stronger". I'd say the game starts to open up in Chapter 4, maybe late chapter 3, but it takes til at least Chapter 5 before you start getting items, abilities, and medals that really make you feel like you're keeping up with the difficulty curve. Again tho, Hard Mode + Hard Hits so this overlap may happen sooner for you if you remove one or both of the badges.

And speaking of powercreep. Don't expect the traditional power creep you'd get from normal JRPGs or Paper Mario. Unlike PM, the story upgrades don't increase your attack power (you get skills/attacks) so you really have to make medals work for you so that you can get the DPS you want out of battle. Great for strategy and gameplay depth, but bad for people who have more traditional expectations with player progression. I highly recommend focusing on upgrading MP (Medal Points) more than anything else. Yes even at the beginning where there aren't a lot of badges. It'll work out early on into Chapter 2.

At the time of writing, I'm a bit into Chapter 6 with about 70 hours of gameplay clocked. 4-5 of these hours is from idling in game so realistically I've played 65 hours of gameplay. This is me going after all optional content (not 100%). This means bosses and side quests on top of optional lore. This also includes the backtracking I did for creating end-game consumable items for said optional bosses. This also includes the time I spent thinking about how to tackle bosses I've died against, as the game gives you a RETRY function (on top of a "change medal load-out and retry" function) to jump RIGHT back into the fight. Retry does not exist for normal battles only boss battles. This does not count the times my games controls have broken forcing me to restart.

I haven't beaten this game at the time of review but I'm pretty close so I feel I can make this review in confidence.

Highly recommend the game. 9.5/10 better than paper mario ttyd on all gameplay relayed fronts. Art is its weakest point but indie game am i right? not to say that indies cant look beautiful, but I'll gladly take a small team focusing on everything that matters and having their (still pretty solid) art be the weakest part when they're trying to be a successor to paper mario.

Lastly, there is replayability in the form of game modifiers built into the game. One of which makes the game harder than hard mode so that'll be fun. wish me luck.

0/10, no multishines and no TORYAAHH.

where's the melee?













(get the game if you like megaman x btw. but you can see i have 100 hours so no surprise i recommend it)

As a hardcore gamer, a veteran competitive gamer (for fighting games), and a budding/amateur game designer/developer; Skullgirls is a great fighting game and a love letter to the fans of the fighting game genre as well as a solid display of artistic prowess. While the actual art direction is very love/hate for a huge majority of users, very few people with an aptitude for animation and an eye for detail will deny that Skullgirls' lacks in either category. Myself included.

On the Art side, the fan-service laden game, while not my cup of tea, earns my respect because of the painstaking work that went into animation the whole game as well as the very detailed background art (that works in on a 3-dimensional scale!) The life and personality that is sewn into each character is easy to see, read, and understand and it doesn't require you to tilt your head to try to "get it." It's a testament to the art side of Skullgirls.

The combination of a western based art-style with eastern influence allows Skullgirls a familiar vibe to those who are fans of Eastern Animation (specifically Anime), while not completely going "full anime" and retaining a visible base within the Western style (i.e. Cartoons).

It's all very good in a technical sense, but as I've said, due to, what I feel is, excessive fan-service, a lot of the technical efforts and achievements (60FPS ANIMATION!) that Skullgirls is filled with goes over the head of an uncomfortable amount of people because they cannot take a more objective stance and look past the fan-service to see how good the art is. Which is a shame, but also understandable because again; what I feel is that this game has a lot of fan-service and if you combine this with the obvious anime influence, a lot of people WILL turn tail or stick their nose up before they can take in the meat and potatoes of Skullgirl's art. I am not of this particular group as I do enjoy anime, but it's clear as day to me as to why so many people can look at Skullgirls for 5 minutes, and trash on the art direction.

Art and Aesthetics aside, let's move on to the rest of the game.

The gameplay of Skullgirls is phenomenal. It hasn't ALWAYS BEEN this great, but because of the patience, and dedication of Mike Z as well as the fighting community of Skullgirls, it's gameplay, I feel, has been steadily rising since it's initial release and especially since the first patch of the game. Unfortunately, a problem that does crop up with the user-base from time to time is the frequency of patches, and the degree of how much the game is changed per patch.

There are 2 versions of Skullgirls on Steam. This one, and the ∞Endless Beta∞ version. A lot of experimental changes show up first on the Endless Beta, and the community and Mike Z collaborate on the effects of said changes and over time, which ever changes are finalized, are then applied to the stable version (this one). As such, the game can feel like, that after a patch, it's a brand new game. This bothers people from time to time because some amount of time they put into the game becomes moot. Be wary of this POTENTIAL when purchasing Skullgirls. There is a need for tolerance for this. The frequency of these changes are not always big and are usually not too significant, and they're growing more infrequent as the game is refined, so while I'm not saying this shouldn't be a concern, the worry and uncertainty this causes should be miniscule.

Moving on, a common (and less true with very patch) complaint is that this game is "learn your 99hit combos that 0-Death everyone". As mentioned, this game is patched actively (does not mean frequently) and this issue has grown to be less and less of concern. Compared to the initial release of Skullgirls, this version is much less laden with lengthy combos. HOWEVER, because the gameplay targets primarily a hardcore demographic, one must realize that against people who are of a higher skill level and with a lack of comeback mechanics (think MvC3 XFACTOR), that it is VERY easy to get overwhelmed and be UNAWARE of the options one has at any given moment and this game allows one to be extremely "dirty" and "out-right mean" because of said skill gap. Contrary to popular belief with the uneducated, there are infinites in this game BUT there is an infinite protection/prevention system that renders these infinites invalid/moot. The system is called "IPS (Infinite Prevention System)". Playing through the tutorial will teach you about it, and if it's not enough, there are tons of videos to help understanding.

Speaking of Online, being one of the first fighting games to officially support and integrate GGPO. Skullgirls online multiplayer is superb. It is not perfect, so please do not treat it as such or think it as such. GGPO also does not mean "Lagless Online" in the way that you may think. While it might cut down input lag (that delayed button press feeling), it "replaces" input lag with something called "Rollbacks". Look it up! Either way, the online is a great step in the right direction, and it earns my praise from that.

The tutorial, in my opinion, is the best tutorial to grace fighting games in the history of forever. With BlazBlu coming in a close second. Skullgirls tutorial equips the true novice of fighting games with a basic fundamental grasp of fighting games at a tournament level, which is invaluable for ALL fighting games. Not only that, but it teaches them about Skullgirls specific things, such as IPS, giving the user the basic amount of knowledge they need to practice Skullgirls on almost every level. From that point onwards, it's up to the user to take themselves to the next level and learn the ins-and-outs of Skullgirls so that they can compete. Unfortunately, there isnt anything like a Trials mode, (though there is an online practice/training mode. Not sure of that's in Endless Beta or both version however. Double Check this!) so outside of Training/Arcade/Story mode, this isnt much practice or practical knowledge a user is given within the game itself, and those wanting to improve have to either grind it out and find out on their own, or go to the official Skullgirls community forum and engage in research and discussion.

The gameplay itself. Ohh sweet doggie. The gameplay. Lot's of fun. On so many levels. Don't let my activity on this version or Endless Beta fool you. I own this game on PS3 and 360 and I have since day 1 on console release. This game is stupid amounts of fun, especially now. While it's a 6 button game, don't let this overwhelm you. It allows for a lot of creativity, and all the actions you think a VS fighter would have, Skullgirls has (At least, most of them). The animations are fluid. The attacks have usefulness. There is a good deal of creativity involved. The lack of comeback mechanics makes this a very skill based game. With the right team, and knowledge, you can easily overwhelm the opponent (double edge sword, but hey!). Despite the fact there are 9 (10 with Endless Beta) characters, there is still a good deal of variety to be had with the team mechanics which allow you to pick a team of up to 3 different characters. While the balance isnt perfect, it's steadily progressing there. Feel free to pick who you want, but do realize that some characters/teams will make the climb to the top a lot harder. Luckily, the mechanics within the game allow you the ability to neutralize this disadvantage if you use it better than the opponent.

Either way, this game is a great buy if you're a fan of the fighting game series. Just realize, that despite this, it's easily possible that you're just not a fan of how it plays. There are dozens of great games that people just don't like for personal taste-based reasons. Skullgirls is not immune to it. As such, while I do recommend this game with my whole being, do a bit of snooping before you buy without thinking. :V