Duration: 1:02:47

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4

0:00 Intro
3:23 Easy mode
16:33 Medium mode
35:44 Hard mode

How do I present this? I guess Atari Games rings a bell for you already.
1989's Skull & Crossbones was a "Beat 'Em Up" made by Atari Games that was kind of popular apparently, given the amount of ports to home consoles this had, the arcade itself? Bullshit western arcade game design keeps being the saint and sign of Atari Games's headquarters, nothing to be surprised.

As it's almost usual with the games I'm playing, there was no one who was able to beat even the Easy mode, between the "eccentric" control scheme, hitbox detection, overall speed, and many other actually intentional mechanics made to rob your ass out for more coins, this game is a real mess to get into, yet once you do get the idea of how things work and how to manage it, it can actually be consistent to beat, of course, there are several things that you need to know in order to merely survive, and it is not by any means an easy game, but what's life without a good challenge anyways?

While the video lenght may look scary (Considering I have already uploaded hellish hour long arcades in this channel) but, as the video title implies, I have cut and pasted together my three runs of this game in their respective difficulties.

My thoughts on these difficulties go as it follows:

Easy mode really is the easiest of the three difficulties, but it does have drawbacks compared to the other difficulties, for starters, bosses have to be beaten normally, as there are no magic items that give you invulnerability for their fights. Secondly, while normal stages are less scary and have less enemies, you really can't afford to get hit too much, since ship stages are shortened too, and health pickups are more scarce.

Medium mode is so much bigger than Easy mode in all senses, but if you do manage to know your fencing and enemy manipulation, you can take full advantage of the good things that come with it, such as more health pickups and actual magic items in bosses, which do come in handy, mainly against the kung fu master. This mode features the entrance of sniper type enemies, who are almost usually your utmost priority, using the default stance to block their shots is the most recommendable way to deal with them alone. On this run, I feel like my only mistake was not getting Medusa's item, as it's fairly obtainable, even if it's not necessary.

Hard mode is obviously the most demanding mode in this, with fully realized stages and all the normal mode inconveniences times three, and sneakily, getting magic items is harder too, as they are set right under big treasure chests, which take a while to dig, on purpose.
This mode, more than any other has a bunch of moments where you will get hit by unavoidable damage, so it's crucial to be fast and know how and when to eat stuff without getting hit, it's very difficult, but fairly beatable.

Funnily enough, the final stage is the exact same on all difficulties, making it once you know what to do the easiest stage in the game, and ironically it only becomes easier the higher the difficulty, as the boss rush part has the human decency to make you use the magic items you picked up during the original boss fights, making them almost trivial, if they weren't already.

Without much more to say, again, hope you enjoy the video!