Darkened Skye
Skye is the typical hero destined for great things. She is a shepherd by trade, and has little awareness of her place in life. Her homeland Lynlora is a place where bright colors are banned, and those who are seen with them will be punished. It is here that magic no longer exists. And when I say magic, I mean the power of Skittles. You read that correctly, there was an after it, meaning the candy you can go buy at your local corner store.
By harnessing the power of Skittles, you will attempt to bring back the rainbow that once swept over the lands. To do this you need to activate the five prisms in the five lands of this world. On her quest, Skye befriends a small gargoyle named Draak, and they quickly set off on their journey to find the Skittles.
Features
- Dual analog control
- Different magic and attack combos
Jason Nuyens: Oh boy, did this game ever get messy in a hurry. Upon booting it up for the first time, I was greeted with a delightful intro video. Here I got to see some masterful animation (all in FMV form). At this point I was stoked, and couldnt wait to jump head first into the adventure. Unfortunately, aside from that one opening video there was absolutely no excitement, fun, or even adventure to be had.
The first thing I noticed was that the animation and movement is extremely clunky. When you jump in the air, it seems very mechanical in that there are no physics. If you jump one direction and then pull back, you get no resistance. The dual analog controls mean the game controls like a first person shooter, except you can see you character. By pressing R you can swing your staff wildly. The funny thing is that the combos really might as well not have been there. When an enemy is on screen, they will march at you like zombies. Once they are within 15 feet of you they start flailing their weapon mindlessly even though you are not even close to them. When you beat on them, they just keep flailing all the while damaging you. Frankly, the game just didnt get much more complicated than that. Even though you could try and side-step your enemy, it just seemed so robotic in nature that the enemies felt like drones more than virtual foes.
If this wasnt enough, the Skittles implementation brings about a cheap feeling like I havent felt before. When I saw the big Dole logo in Super Monkey Ball, I was a bit surprised. But never have I seen such blatant use of product placement and sponsorship in a game. Is the score lowered because of this? Certainly. Is that the right thing to do? Of course. It cheapens the entire feel of the game every time you hear someone talk about using the power and magic of the skittles. Heck, they even show images that look straight out of the taste the rainbow campaigns. This is kind of endorsement is unacceptable, and will not be embraced by myself in any way. It just leaves a bad taste in your mouth knowing that the entire game relies on one gigantic advertisement.
The hurting just doesnt stop there though. The humor in this game is painful. I asked myself many times what is the real joke here? because you cant tell if you should be laughing at the game or crying because its so sad in its delivery. And really, if a game is well made, then it really would have the leverage to get away with cracking a joke or two. But when the game itself oozes with that rushed feeling, you just know that joke is really on itself.
Beyond all the intensely lacking designs, graphics, controls, gameplay mechanics, puzzles, and more, you are even left with bugs. You kill someone and their body rests in mid-air. Trees are sticking out of the ground, hovering. You will even get stuck in the geometry sometimes. Im not even sure if I should be disappointed at the developer, or disappointed at Nintendo for allowing this to hit the shelves. This is a prime example of a game that should have used two-dimensional gameplay instead of three dimensional. There is no excuse for using a three dimensional engine just because its the current standard, and it will help to make a quick buck. If thats all this game was made for, then perhaps its best to leave the cutting-edge games to the big boys.
Jason Nuyens