Quick Review: Skullgirls 2nd Encore

That’s gonna be a tricky one… Full disclosure, this game’s history is extremely complex and though it’s fascinating, I wouldn’t do it justice due to the limited space, nor do I want to cover controversies around video games during my Quick Reviews. This video explains some of it, including developments as recent as last year. So pardon me if I try to review this title on its own merits only.

That girl's hat is RIPPED!

Skullgirls is a 2D fighting game that was originally released on PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade in 2012, with a release for PC (including Steam) on August 22, 2013. Its current version, subtitled 2nd Encore, came out a few years later and replaced the previous versions (yes; plural), with Hidden Variables Studios developing and Autumn Games publishing respectively, at the time of writing. It is inspired by several fighting games that came before it, but has extra flair points for featuring art and sprites that were entirely hand-drawn.

If that already looks cool to you, wait until
you see her - and everyone else - in combat.

Ominous.

In a mysterious world full of supernatural happenings exists the Skull Heart, an entity with the ability to grant the wishes of women. However, a wisher without a perfectly pure heart will be twisted by its influence into a Skullgirl, a being of immense dangerous power. This story picks up at the rise of a new Skullgirl with an axe to grind against the omnipresent Medici crime family. Multiple women adorned with backstories and abilities that range from heartbreaking to downright bizarre try to get to it, each with their own wish – but that means defeating the current Skullgirl, and that won’t be easy.

At the end of most Story Modes: Marie, the
new Skullgirl. Every bit as strong as her role
says she is.

Kick, kick, and keep kicking!

This being a fighting game, many folks will prefer to use a controller to play it. For those like me who foolishly stick to keyboards, each character has six buttons for attacks: One weak, one medium and one strong punch, and then the same for kicks (mapped by default to A, S, D, Z, X and C). All of these can be influenced by the arrow keys, leading to an immense amount of possible moves and combos for each character (such as high moves when jumping, or low moves to hit close to the ground). Characters can jump, some can double jump, and some can even remain in midair for a moment. To block, you can simply press the direction opposite of the attack that’s coming. There’s a lot more to say, but those are the basics. The game responds quite well to my n00b tactic of “push any button, try everything, and stick to what works best” but was built with fighting game professionals in mind, hence the wide range of options and moves.

I'd do a "hello nurse" joke about Valentine,
but she'd kill me.

A living cartoon, a catgirl with detachable limbs,
a detective made of jazz instruments, a zombie
with a dragonlike parasite... yeah, these characters
are all kinds of weird.

Of the characters (originally 8, now 14, with new characters made available this year with a season pass and more on the way), only two are men. Every single character has their own, fully-voiced Story Mode. In those, they’ll take part in multiple fights roughly 4 to 8, usually culminating in a boss battle against Marie, the current Skullgirl. Other single-player modes include arcade and survival modes as well as a Quick Match option. Single-player modes are available in six difficulties: Sleepwalk, Easy, Normal, Hard, Ridiculous and Nightmare. In some single-player modes and in multiplayer, you can choose to play as a single character or as a tag team of two or three fighters, with the power levels adjusted accordingly.

By the way, that jazz detective? He's a
friggin' music-themed Inspector Gadget.

They say "don't bring a knife to a gun fight";
the jury's still out on Bullet Bill machetes.

I’m not too good at it (I can barely manage anything at a difficulty above Easy), but I loved this one! I don’t yet know all the little details and possible moves, but I had a lot of fun trying out characters in their respective Story Modes to see how they play, and their arsenal of attacks. I love how each storyline is fully voiced, and keeps characterization consistent even if the stories themselves contradict each other. The music is excellent, and the animation and art style… your jaw is going to drop if you’ve never seen it before. Every character, every move is brimming with style and creativity. Most importantly, the game is a lot of fun. It’s squarely in the “simple to play, hard to master” category, where the basics aren’t out of reach and playing without strategy will get you to a point, but there’s a threshold where things will become very tough unless you know very well who you’re playing, how to play them, and what the most effective moves are. That checks out, it’s a fighting game.

And yeah, the cutscenes are also
amazing to watch.

My copy (and, I assume, every copy) came with the Skullgirls Endless Beta, which is where new tweaks and changes are rolled out and tested by players before they’re incorporated into the main game. I definitely recommend this one, it's worth a try if you like fighting games and never gave this one a shot before - but it's interesting to try and awesome to watch even if you aren't the best at that genre.

Skullgirls 2nd Encore is available for 24.99$.