Skull Monkeys

by neverhood

Product Features

• 7 worlds with 90 stages
• Variety of moves, weapons and power-ups
• Detailed high resolution 2D characters and environments

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00002STK3
• Media: Video Game
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #18,376 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)

Product Description

GameSpot Review

Designed by a large portion of the original Earthworm Jim team, SkullMonkeys is an attempt to return to the classic side-scrolling tradition. There's no Z axis here - just a healthy dose of lateral moving, platform jumping, and head bonking in the tradition of Donkey Kong Country and Super Mario Brothers. Unfortunately, SkullMonkeys doesn't follow the conventions closely enough. Sure, there's some interesting level design, but it's overshadowed by a few design decisions that come close to ruining the game.

Most of SkullMonkey's problematic areas won't become apparent until after the first few levels. In the beginning, the game is a little frustrating but fun, and the novelty of the art design - the game is composed entirely of claymation sprites and clay-molded scenery - makes it easy to deal with the somewhat sketchy controls and hit detection. (The game will be even more enjoyable if you just can't seem to get enough fart jokes in your life.)

But once you make it past the first few worlds, the troublesome controls become a major problem. The vulnerable areas of enemies are unclear. Often, you'll land directly on an enemy's head, only to be killed. Other times, you'll run directly into an enemy without jumping at all and still emerge the victor. This gets more than a little frustrating, but after a while it's only the least of your worries.

The fact that SkullMonkeys is more of a technical showcase than a game is proven by the reliance on huge scrolling objects in the foreground. There are objects that literally take up half the screen - with enemies residing behind them. While these are few and far between, a few large objects sometimes obstruct your view. Sure, it's pretty, but it doesn't add much to gameplay. Still, the technical elements are noteworthy. The game looks really nice, the music is great (especially the bonus-room song), and the levels are diverse - at least visually.

Unfortunately, the visual diversity doesn't translate to playability. Each level - and each world - is just part of a constant string of similar ideas, with nothing to break up the monotony save for a few hard-to-find bonus levels. And the bosses are, for the most part, pretty boring.

But what is most frustrating about SkullMonkeys is that it just wears you down after a while. There are no saved games (only passwords at the beginning of each world - which can be several levels apart). There are infinite continues, but if you choose to continue you lose all of your hard-earned power-ups. Worse still, power-ups don't regenerate in a level if you perish. Say there's a one-up at the beginning of a level, and you get killed about halfway through; in any other side scroller ever in the history of the world, that one-up would be there when you came back. Not so in SkullMonkeys. While this may seem like a petty complaint, it isn't. Side scrollers are inherently repetitive. One of the genre's strengths has always been the ability to make it easy to keep playing until you get something right. With SkullMonkeys, you either have to continue and lose all of your stuff or go back to the beginning of a world and play innumerable levels you've already mastered. It gets old fast.

SkullMonkeys holds a lot of promise, but the designers' attempts to make the game challenging (which is the only possible explanation for some of the design quirks) will only make you feel as if they truly don't want you to continue playing. And after a while, you'll be more than happy to oblige. --Ron Dulin
--Copyright ©1999 GameSpot Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of GameSpot is prohibited. GameSpot and the GameSpot logo are trademarks of GameSpot Inc.

Product Description

Kogg wants to destroy the planet, and he recruits the Skullmonkeys to help him. The only person who can save the world is Klayman, who must travel through seven worlds composed of more than 90 stages to defeat the evil simians. You play the role of Klayman as you defeat any enemy by jumping on its head or shooting it with projectiles. Save the world from Kogg and his minions in SKULLMONKEYS.

See all Product Description

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Grooooovy, August 7, 2003

By 

Scott Boland (Woodridge, IL United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Skull Monkeys (Video Game)

My favorite game since I was a smaller version of myself was Skullmonkeys. I missed it so much, I had to buy it. But, oh no, $$$ on Amazon? Well, I got it from a zshop anyway (very grateful) and I was very happy to see all the madness again. The music keeps our minds from laughing at the 2d side scroller game play, the claymation movies leave us begging for more, and the 70's come back to life in this once in lifetime (well, ok, there was the neverhood I guess, but I havn't played that yet) opportunity to get a little weird.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The game that won 1000 stars, September 1, 2001

By 

"dianamarie13" (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Skull Monkeys (Video Game)

This game is AWESOME. It has great design and music. The Claymation really works well with the computer animation. Some of the highlights are:
Universal enimeas (kills everything on screen)
Slappy the Hampster (not approved by the humane society)
Farting your clones
1970s Level, compleate with shag carpets and disco ball
Skull Monkey Brand Hot Dog Factory
Joe Head Joe
Claymation mini-movies
The silly things Clayman does when he thinks you aren't watching
Sound effects are great. I'd buy the cd of just the music, if i could!

Over all, I suggest if you liked 2D adventure games, you will love this game. It will keep you entertained for months, and well, years, if you are like the guys I know.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Look ma , I'm a skullmonkey!, November 14, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Skull Monkeys (Video Game)

Goofy, great sound effects, CLAYMATION interludes, fun easy playing 2-D game play. Very funny to watch