Hey all (wow it’s been forever since I’ve posted here),

Recently I’ve been into a little game called Skullgirls, and have been looking around finding more about the series and its development. About a month ago, I found out about a post around this time announcing a Neo Geo Pocket Color port of the game, titled Skullgals. Unfortunately, it never saw the light of day, but by browsing through Skullgirls’ Endless Beta game files, there appears to be a full-fledged PC build of the game, just sitting there, waiting to be discovered. So, I pulled it out, made it a little folder, and fired it up to try it out!

(I’ll be posting my findings under the cut. Come have a look!)

Right at the beginning, we’re greeted with the same title screen shown in the announcement post. However, this time, there appears to be a note dignifying its state, being in early Alpha, and the copyright now reads “TM/© 2015 Autumn Games,” the time when this was most likely being worked on before it was cancelled. It’s interesting to note that the original announcement was back in 2014, suggesting this was possibly being developed on the side with Skullgirls 2nd Encore and/or Indivisible.

The build only supported Xbox controls, so, naturally, I grabbed my 360 controller and pressed “A.”

Once you press A, you’re brought to a simple, most likely WIP character select screen, reminiscent of Skullgirls’ character select screen. There are no added effects, the podium is rather bland, and only 2 characters are playable: Filia and Cerebella, with a random button in place. It’s important to notice that while there are only the two characters playable, there are a total of 20 slots for characters (excluding the random slot), bumping up the roster from 14 characters. What this means is unclear, but it’d be nice to see some new faces and some fan-favorites.

While this screen does seem to be in beta, I tend to like this looks. It’s enough to grab your attention, but it’s not too cluttered.

After selecting your character, it moves to the 2nd part of the select screen where the second player chooses his or her character. Not much else to say here, but this screen made me find out that a second costume was available, as I chose Cerebella on the previous screen and there can’t be two of the same color in a match.

Also, going to point out how much detail is in the UI and portrait here. Whoever did these is awesome, and should be recognized for it.

I soon found out on this screen that a second player was needed to choose a character, meaning I needed to find someone to play with me. Thankfully, I tested this last week while on vacation with my cousins, so I pulled one of them over to give this a shot.

Moving on to actual gameplay, the match starts with simple intros before going into…

Wow. Okay. Where to start.

First off, the detail in these animations and sprites are on-point. Every movement looks just like it does in Skullgirls, and honestly it’s awesome to see something like this happen. Some animations are a bit wonky and unpolished, but it’s an alpha build, so you can’t complain too much.

Next off is the stage. It’s fully detailed, down to every corner of the stage, and it looks great. There are parts that are a biiiiit sketchy, but again, the game was in alpha, so there’s not much complaining here.

The UI also got a major revamp from the original announcement post. It looks much more detailed and similar to the PC counterpart. It also stands out very well when compared to other Neo Geo Pocket Color titles. This may be because a different engine is used, or maybe the title was never intended for the NGPC at all.

And the music! I never knew I wanted “Moonlit Melee” as a retro track until now. A part of the song is missing, which probably means the song was being worked on before launch. Still, the song is amazing, and whoever made it also deserves some recognition. Here’s what I got from the game files (click me).

Moving on, perhaps the biggest part of the game we all know and love is the gameplay. Suffice to say, it stands up to its original brethren. Almost every move, combo, and super is there, but the way to execute them is rather different. You see, the NGPC only had a joystick and 2 buttons, which worked with SNK’s titles because their original titles needed only 4 buttons (light and heavy punches/kicks), so you could tap or hold the button to determine the move’s strength. With Skullgirls, there are 6 buttons, and each of those buttons is required for at least 1 special/super move. I was worried about this as this could have meant that some moves were deleted.

Thankfully, this wasn’t the case. Only the medium punches and kicks have been discarded, leaving the light and heavy punches/kicks in the vein of the SNK titles. As for special or super moves, they have all been assigned or changed differently. For example, Gregor Samson requires TWO double circle backwards plus a punch, like how Street Fighter handles supers.

One last thing is that the super meter only goes up to 3 bars. While this doesn’t effect the two characters available, it’d be interesting to see how someone like Double or Big Band, who have Level 5 supers, would function.

Anyway, that’s all for now. I’ll see if I can get anything else from the game files, or if I find a secret. Thanks for having a look at this piece of Skullgirls history! Enjoy the holiday! ;)

(Note: I am not affiliated with Lab Zero Games or anyone behind Skullgirls. I just made this for the heck of it. This post does not mean Skullgals is being developed as of this post. Take this information and do what you will of it.)