Skeleton Krew
Skelton Krew, developed and published by Core Design in 1995.
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Player's Review
"SKELETON KREW
Wanna pack a BIG GUN with enough ammo to level a city? You got it...!!
Wanna massakre seriously psykotic Psykogenix mutants and get paid? You got it...!!
Wanna blast your way through the savage secret zones, deadly Krewtraps, mad n' bad buildings and hideous end-of-level Psykos comprising 6 HUMUNGOUS levels of 3D isometrik karnage - and wear a spectacularly sexy, hyper-hi-tek, Big Ordanance Neutralising Exo-skeleton, to boot? Well you got it all-but only if you join Spine, Joint and Rib, otherwise known as the SKELETON KREW, in their first outRAGEous blastfest!!"
Skeleton Krew was released for both the Amiga 1200 on floppy disk and on CD for the CD32 which included audio tracks as well a version for the Sega Mega-Drive. The game is quite short with just 6 areas but there is plenty of challenge to stop you rushing it, mainly the controls more than the enemies. I don't know which is the primary version but the Amiga game is missing content found in the mega-drive game.
The mega-drive game is short and feels unfinished with most levels not having a whole lot in them. For CORE, it was probably a game that was good on paper but didn't turn out so great during development and was wrapped up before it was finished. This seems especially true of the Amiga game with missing content and the ending does not work! I get the impression that a deadline had been reached and they had to ship whatever was ready, after all the team wanted to crack on with Tomb Raider!
The Amiga game is notable missing any kind of intro explaining the story or any info of the characters you play so were not off to a good start although you do have the comic intro in the games manual. Level one is probably the best level in the game from an artistic perspective, its all gets a bit rough as the game progresses. The goal is simple, blast everything and reach the end of the stage. In this level we have a boss to fight but it is possible to walk right past it and I'm not sure if it always appears unless killing enough enemy first. You have two weapons, laser and a bomb. Jumping is via a double button tap and shooting forward requires holding two buttons with the joypad setup. There are two fire buttons that spin you upper body left or right. Moving and aiming where you want can be a real mind bender and no doubt looks weird throughout this video.
Level two is a bit of a pain as with the isometric view and elevated enemies, aiming is difficult yet all too easy to take enemy fire. At the end of this level should be another boss fight but again, missing content in the amiga game. The rest of the levels are more of the same, walkthrough the levels shooting any enemies and destroying machines. A lot of the levels are empty with maybe some items to find in a corner. Once the final level is reach we go right to the boss fight. Another level missing and even the boss fight is missing a couple of stages and as already noted the ending doesnt load. Amiga owners really were short changed with this release.
In the longplay, I show all levels playing as Spine. It's a very linier experience, the levels are not large enough to get lost. On the final level I allow my self to lose all lives in order to show the continue screen (pretty much the same as game over) . I then come back to get it done!
Overall, it's not a bad game but for a full price release, you might have felt short changed especially if you had seen the mega-drive game in action. Little effort went into the presentation and the music is not all that fitting to the game. If you can get your head around the controls, its a nice shooter but it's no alien breed. The missing elements and especially missing ending really let it down.
Note: The ending would not work using the ipf disk images and two crack versions. I have recorded it here using the WHDload install which has fixed the ending.
Bonus: An additional video is available showing an early Alpha / Demo build. It's rough barely holding together but shows a couple of levels still in development and especially the last one that didn't make it into the game. Notable however is that the character bio;s are included here and not in the full game.
00:00:00 Titles
00:02:22 Monstrocity
00:09:00 Lift Shaft
00:16:30 Jungle
00:25:25 Mars
00:31:45 Venus
00:42:20 Kadaver
00:44:36 Kadaver (Continue)
00:48:17 Ending
Wanna pack a BIG GUN with enough ammo to level a city? You got it...!!
Wanna massakre seriously psykotic Psykogenix mutants and get paid? You got it...!!
Wanna blast your way through the savage secret zones, deadly Krewtraps, mad n' bad buildings and hideous end-of-level Psykos comprising 6 HUMUNGOUS levels of 3D isometrik karnage - and wear a spectacularly sexy, hyper-hi-tek, Big Ordanance Neutralising Exo-skeleton, to boot? Well you got it all-but only if you join Spine, Joint and Rib, otherwise known as the SKELETON KREW, in their first outRAGEous blastfest!!"
Skeleton Krew was released for both the Amiga 1200 on floppy disk and on CD for the CD32 which included audio tracks as well a version for the Sega Mega-Drive. The game is quite short with just 6 areas but there is plenty of challenge to stop you rushing it, mainly the controls more than the enemies. I don't know which is the primary version but the Amiga game is missing content found in the mega-drive game.
The mega-drive game is short and feels unfinished with most levels not having a whole lot in them. For CORE, it was probably a game that was good on paper but didn't turn out so great during development and was wrapped up before it was finished. This seems especially true of the Amiga game with missing content and the ending does not work! I get the impression that a deadline had been reached and they had to ship whatever was ready, after all the team wanted to crack on with Tomb Raider!
The Amiga game is notable missing any kind of intro explaining the story or any info of the characters you play so were not off to a good start although you do have the comic intro in the games manual. Level one is probably the best level in the game from an artistic perspective, its all gets a bit rough as the game progresses. The goal is simple, blast everything and reach the end of the stage. In this level we have a boss to fight but it is possible to walk right past it and I'm not sure if it always appears unless killing enough enemy first. You have two weapons, laser and a bomb. Jumping is via a double button tap and shooting forward requires holding two buttons with the joypad setup. There are two fire buttons that spin you upper body left or right. Moving and aiming where you want can be a real mind bender and no doubt looks weird throughout this video.
Level two is a bit of a pain as with the isometric view and elevated enemies, aiming is difficult yet all too easy to take enemy fire. At the end of this level should be another boss fight but again, missing content in the amiga game. The rest of the levels are more of the same, walkthrough the levels shooting any enemies and destroying machines. A lot of the levels are empty with maybe some items to find in a corner. Once the final level is reach we go right to the boss fight. Another level missing and even the boss fight is missing a couple of stages and as already noted the ending doesnt load. Amiga owners really were short changed with this release.
In the longplay, I show all levels playing as Spine. It's a very linier experience, the levels are not large enough to get lost. On the final level I allow my self to lose all lives in order to show the continue screen (pretty much the same as game over) . I then come back to get it done!
Overall, it's not a bad game but for a full price release, you might have felt short changed especially if you had seen the mega-drive game in action. Little effort went into the presentation and the music is not all that fitting to the game. If you can get your head around the controls, its a nice shooter but it's no alien breed. The missing elements and especially missing ending really let it down.
Note: The ending would not work using the ipf disk images and two crack versions. I have recorded it here using the WHDload install which has fixed the ending.
Bonus: An additional video is available showing an early Alpha / Demo build. It's rough barely holding together but shows a couple of levels still in development and especially the last one that didn't make it into the game. Notable however is that the character bio;s are included here and not in the full game.
00:00:00 Titles
00:02:22 Monstrocity
00:09:00 Lift Shaft
00:16:30 Jungle
00:25:25 Mars
00:31:45 Venus
00:42:20 Kadaver
00:44:36 Kadaver (Continue)
00:48:17 Ending
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