Navigation |
|
| Main |
Skullmonkeys
- My favorite games are and always were side scrolling, jump/shoot/stab badguy
kinds of games. My love for these began on my sister's NES. Games like this
were no commodity back then, in fact they were probably the most common game
genre you came across back then. But as game systems advanced, things got
more complicated. When you have the capability to make a game where you can
fly around in a plane and shoot things in 3 dimensions or run in any
direction you want as you make things explode, why make a little
sidescroller?
Thankfully, there have always been a few designers who, instead of testing
the limits of a console's capabilities, take what they know it can do easily
and make a game that isn't exactly spectacular, but fun. A few good side
scrollers on PSX were Klonoa, Pandemonium, and the best one, Skullmonkeys.
Whose played Earthworm Jim? This was a fairly good game, not exactly
stupendous gameplay but it sticks in your mind because it's goddamn werid
and it knows it. This is kind of what Skullmonkeys acheives. Skullmonkeys is
somewhat of a squal to The Neverhood, a game released for the PC by the
company of the same name. The Neverhood, well I never knew what to call it.
Its one of those games where you just kind of move your character around,
pick up things, talk to people, solve little puzzles, but no actual jump,
kill things action. And if any, minimal. Anyways, thats pretty much what the
Neverhood was. I never actually owned the Neverhood, so I won't try and
explain what its about. The most I know is the main character is Klaymen,
and he has an evil borther, Klogg, who he somehow defeats in the first one.
This takes us to it's psuedo sequal, Skullmonkeys. The game opens to Klogg
falling from the sky towards planet Idznak. Idznak is home to a race of
primates known as the skullmonkeys. They're basically big gorrillas with no
flesh on their heads. Just skulls. The Skullmonkeys mostly hit eachother,
eat clay, build uselss devices, and fart a whole hell of a lot. Klogg falls
on one of them, killing him instantly. He rips off his skin and drapes it
around himself, proclaiming to be Kloggmonkey, the king of the Skullmonkeys.
This is when we're introduced to Jerry-O. He's a very smart Skullmonkey with
some sort of radio device on his head. He speaks with a British accent and
doesn't beleive the Skullmonkeys are foolish enough to fall under
Kloggmonkey's control. Seconds after he says this they're all hailing Klogg,
who stands on a rock. He presents to them his plan to make an Evil Engine,
which he will use to destroy the Neverhood. Jerry-O hears the plan, and
sends a robo-bird looking thing to the Neverhood. On the Neverhood, another
planet so to speak, Klaymen is happily eating a sandwich with his cousin
Willie, when Jerry-O's bird thing grabs Klaymen and flies him off to Planet
Idznak.
The story, like in lots of games, is absolute crap. You'd never care though,
because the selling point of this game besides oddness and decent gameplay,
is CLAY. Every full motion video is done entirely in claymation. The
character models are also made of clay, and then spilced into the game's
backgrounds, also designed in glourious, thumbprint covered clay. This
sounds like sarcasm, but this is really a unique, not to mnetion kickass way
to make a game.
As far as gameplay, Klaymen pretty much runs around across platforms,
jumping on Skullmonkeys to kill them. He uses a move called the butt bounce,
in which he uses his bum to explode the Skullmonkeys. Yes, literally,
explode. Anytime anything dies, it explodes in a mess of clay parts, head,
and what I can only assume to be internal organs. The only exception to this
rule is when Klaymen falls into a pit, where you get an animation of him
falling and waving his arms around as he screams for merciful death to
befall him quicker.
Klaymen also has other weapons to help him out. He gets halo's, which act as
one hit shields. Better still is Hampsters, who give him up to 3 hits. Then
there are the offensive weapons, like the green bullet. Little jolts of
plasma that he shoots out of his hands. Then theres the bird hand, where
Klaymen makes his hand into a little birdy that kamikaze dives the first
badguy it comes to. Then the Universe enema, that kills every badguy on
screen. Also, Willie himself pops up out of Klaymen's chest to collect all
the items onscreen. Although the most elegant of these wepons deserves its
own section.
The Phart head. One thing you need to keep in mind (this is a lot more
important than it will sound) is that Klaymen farts out of his head. Not his
ass, his head. What the Phart head does is it emits a green, Klaymen shaped
cloud of gas that runs ahead and scouts out danger for you. Fartmen's
contorls are the same and he can use all of Klaymen's weapons. You can use
Phartmen until you run out of time for him, in which case he'll turn back
into Klaymen. If you die as Phartmen you just go back to where you
"released" him, and regain control of Klaymen. This is one of the more
useful and innovative powerups I've seen in a platformer, and only about
four fifths of that opinion is supported by the fact that the guys is a
fart.
Speaking of farts, the only thing that makes this game better than average
is the cinematics. These are in claymation like I already said. Besides the
opening one, the first one of these you see is Klaymen absentmindedly
meandering about in some kind of laboratory. A sinister looking Skullmonkey
is trailing behind him, being sure to stay in the shadows. All of a sudden,
Klaymen encounters a beautiful looking can of delicious beans, pre-opened,
accompanied by spoon. Klaymen of course begins eating them in as many
different ways as he can think of, all the while the Skullmonkey gets closer
to him. The Skullmonkey is no longer concerned with attaining a degree of
stealth. Klaymen finishes his meal and picks at his teeth, all of a sudden
emitting a noxious fart from his head that lingers in the air. The
skullmonkey is upon him now, and Klaymen runs away in fear. The monkey
pursues, wandering headlong into the lingering fart. His face melts, and he
dies. Pure genius.
Other wonderful moments include Klaymen breaking out into painful, itchy
sores for eating of the sacred root, destroying a monkey's crotch in a bear
trap, watching a monkey blow himself up with the help of a gattling gun and
several crates of dynamite, and losing all the flesh on his arm in an
attempt to snatch a sandwich from a tricky Ynt. Oh, and the masterfully done
"Skullmonkey with hampster in head".
This game can be very hard at times, but fun too. Excpet for the last couple
of levels, those are a bitch. Its the kind of thing that kicks you in the
ass and laughs when you come back for more. It can be done, but not without
plenty of fuming and cursing. In fact I think the game requires you to die
about 80 times before it makes it possible for you to acheive the series of
jumps required to finish the level.
Anyways, this is the kind of game that never succeeded because, like the kid
in the back of your study hall wearing the Slipknot hoodie, its just too
weird. And, exactly like the hoodie kid, only a select few creeps will
appreciate this game. If you find this game, buy it. Its very old by now,
and you should be able to find it used or at a reduced price. Check around
for it, its a very good game. Then, try to get into one of the bonus levels,
and pay close attention to the hilarious lyrics of the folk singer.
And for an added challenge, try to get to the secret, 1970's bonus world.
Its the greatest goddamn thing ever, especially the bitchin' 70's Klaymen at
the loading screen. This game earns a perfect 10 score, and Maruchan's
personal thumbs up of approval, soon to be added.
|
|
| Score |
|
