An evil mage is running amuck after been dumped by the Princes of the Kingdom of Cubold. In his rage he accidentally resurrects you, a plucky want-to-be hero who plans on ruining his day. The only thing is, you’re a skeleton. Will I have what it takes to knock this mage down a few pegs? Find out in my Skellboy Nintendo Switch review.

To note, a review code for the game was supplied by the game’s publishers Fabraz.

Switching body parts.

When I think of Skellboy, the most unique thing I think of is how you equip weapons and armour. You’re a skeleton who switches out body parts for new ones that it finds lying around on the ground (after you’ve bashed a few baddies heads in). For me, this mechanic was my favourite in the game. It had me relishing fighting new enemies because I was so excited to see which cool weapon or amour piece I’d get next.

Each armour piece has its pluses and negatives, which you have to balance when you equip it. For example, the zombie armour tricks the dim-witted zomboids into thinking you’re one of them- meaning they’ll leave you alone. However, it has very low health so it’s a gamble to wear it if you’re new to the game. On the other hand, the Harmour set gives you loads of health but makes you move very slowly. You can mix and match to fit your play style and it opens up the game to different play throughs in different armours, which I think is great.

Wicked Weapons.

The weapons, whilst being cool, are less straight forward to understand. This is because it isn’t clear which weapon is better than the other. In some ways it’s a bonus. This is because it means you have to experiment with each new weapon and find out which one is better. However, it could mean you are walking around with a weaker weapon equipped.

Luckily, weapons (and armour) can be swapped easily in your crypt. If you’re a collector or completionist, you’re going to love the crypt. Every weapon, accessory, charm and armour piece you find is shown off in there- on rather fetching statues. It was so satisfying leafing through my collection and looking at all the cool stuff I’d found in the game. For completionists, it tells you how many of the armour pieces you’ve found (there’s 40 in total). So you know exactly how many more you need to look for. Plus, I’ve been told by the publisher that an upcoming patch will add an NPC with tips on where to find items you’re missing. So it’ll make completing Skellboy that little bit easier.

Hard to follow

Though I loved the items in Skellboy and the swapping of body pieces, I found the story a little hard to follow. There’s the angry mage who’s mad because the princes dumped him. Then there’s another skeleton you’re also fighting that complicates things. Then, it goes Zelda-like– where you have to beat three dungeons in order to break three chains, which once broken, opens up the final boss fight. Whilst playing I had no idea why I was doing these things.

Furthermore, the combat could be boring at times. Sometimes I’d be tapping X whilst watching TV and killing all of the enemies on the screen without looking. There are five different weapon classes in the game: sword, hammer, axe, spear and staff. However, they all felt pretty similar to fight with, except from the hammer that needed a charge to attack. As better weapons were introduced, the combat became more fun. However, I still felt all I was doing was pressing X.

This may vary for you because the helmet you’re wearing can effect combat. For example, the red skull-looking head fires seeds and the soldier helmet prevents you taking damage against ranged enemies. I decided to stick with the Harmour helm that didn’t seem to have any extra effect (apart from looking cool) so my combat experience was pretty standard. Nevertheless, despite these few flaws I still enjoyed playing Skellboy.

A gorgeous semi-open world

The art style is gorgeous and looks totally unique. If you haven’t seen it, it’s 2D pixel art sprites rendered in a 3D world. The buildings and environments are bright and varied, with lots of little secret areas to find. Each biome in the game is stunning from the castle, to the swamp and to the beach- it was a pleasure to explore the Cubold Kingdom.

Even more so in the second half of the game where the world opens up and becomes more ‘open world’. This was extremely cool because the game went from a dungeon crawler to a traditional RPG. You could tackle the three chained dungeons in whichever order you liked. There were side quests with NPC’s, and even some backtracking to previous areas for secret weapons and armour. Honestly, I was following a very handy guide whilst playing. However, if I’d been playing the game more relaxed, I would have dived into these side quests without a second thought.

Slow down, take it easy.

I did experience slow down very often at the start of the game. I think developers Umaiki went out of their way to impress us with the stupidly stunning game early on, to draw us in and get us into the gameplay. There’s birds flying around, leaves falling from trees and it all… takes a tole.

I think it’s because of all of these particle effects, and the fact that tons of zombies are spawning all the time, that there’s so much slow down. Even so, I have been assured by Fabraz that in the release update the slow down has been fixed/improved so you may not experience it when you play the game.

Skellboy Switch Review

Despite some of its niggling flaws, I enjoyed my time with Skellboy on the Nintendo Switch. There is a story there and a cool reveal for those that want it. Though, I was too distracted searching the gorgeous world for new swords and armour to really care. Finding new items was by far my favourite part of the game and experimenting with them to see how they effected my very skinning hero was always a joy. Even if the combat could at times become robotic, I nevertheless was satisfied by chopping down zombies with some of the end game items. If you’re looking for something a little different on the Nintendo Switch, then you should give Skellboy a go.

Therefore, I give Skellboy by Umaiki Games and Fabraz my rating of

What did you think of my Skellboy Switch review. Will you be picking up Skellboy on the Nintendo Switch? What other pixel art games do you like on the Switch? Let me know over on Twitter or come and say hello on the SIF Discord server!

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