Game:

Skeleton Warriors (1996)

Category:

Let's Play

Duration: 1:18:46

130 views

4

What an intriguing game with such terrible difficulty pacing! But I'm getting ahead of myself... So, what is this game about? The game is based on a cartoon show and action figure line with the same name. The story is about a crystal which grants great powers and the evil Baron Dark tries to steal it. While doing so, the crystal splits in two and Baron Dark becomes a skeleton lord while you become Prince Lightstar by absorbing the "good" aligned part of the crystal. You're the only one powerful enough to stop Baron Dark's skeleton army!

That's all the reason we need to set out and re-claim the other part of the crystal. It's a 2.5D action game that somewhat reminds me of Golden Axe. The pre-rendered graphics don't look that dated in my opinion. Somehow it fits the game well and feels like a lost He-Man spinoff from the 80s. By the way, the music is bombastic! It's epic, but not over the top.

The stages are also varied with lots of different backgrounds for each stage in the four worlds. In each of the worlds there is also a 3D hoverbike level. I believe this is based on the show. The execution of these levels is not good though. You don't lose a life if you die in these bonus stages, but you also don't gain a lot. You can fire missiles, but they use crystals which you want to preserve for the 2.5D stages and there are even fewer health pickups in the 3D stages.

There is just one major gripe I have with the game: The difficulty of this game is nuts in many spots and there is even a hard mode! No continue, no checkpoints within the level and way too few health drops. It's very arcadey with a matching punishing difficulty, but not in a way that motivates you to get better. It's usually just an overwhelming clusterfuck of things attacking you at once with not enough health pickups to compensate. It's a shame because it could have been a much more fun game with better balancing.

I still recommend this game, but don't punish yourself with it. If the difficulty is not for you, just lower it to easy or use the invincibility cheat that you can find on the internet. I think it's worth seeing the game.

00:00 - Start / Intro
02:40 - Crystal Mine (Stage 1-1)
07:10 - Ursa (Stage 1-2)
07:48 - Mountain Top (Stage 1-3)
13:00 - Mountain Run (Stage 1-4)
15:14 - Crystal Cave (Stage 1-5)
18:14 - Dagger (Boss)
20:00 - Araculan Temple (Stage 2-1)
25:51 - Araculan Assault (Stage 2-2)
28:01 - Mudu (Stage 2-3)
32:24 - Deeper Temple (Stage 2-4)
36:13 - Aracula (Boss)
38:07 - Simiania (Stage 3-1)
45:03 - Simian Strafe (Stage 3-2)
46:53 - Gorgon Airship (Stage 3-3)
50:54 - Gorgon Tunnels (Stage 3-4)
54:25 - Shriek (Boss)
56:43 - Luminicity (Stage 4-1)
1:00:49 - Darkcity (Stage 4-2)
1:06:01 - Dark Infiltration (Stage 4-3)
1:06:48 - Baron's Manor (Stage 4-4)
1:09:55 - Boss Rush
1:13:03 - Baron Dark (Boss)
1:15:53 - Ending
1:16:06 - Credits

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