Taste-Test: Darkened Skye

Rated: T for Teen Developer: Boston Animation Publisher: Simon and Schuster Players: 1 Saving: 6 Blocks per Save

I first heard of this game a few months ago when Kevin wrote his preview and since then it has intrigued me quite a bit. I really didn’t know what to expect from it when I turned it out, aside from a few complaints Kevin spoke about in the chat room. So aside from those two things, I had no clue what I was getting into. I mean honestly, how good could a game based on the commercials for a tasty, rainbow colored snack be?

The first five minutes of the game are easily the most impressive moments I’ve seen on a GameCube title to date. The opening FMV even tops the Resident Evil Remake and Resident Evil 0 in realism and the voice acting was superb. Within the first few minutes you get a great idea of how detailed and impressive the storyline is. As well as how much work was put into it. I would have included this FMV here, but it ended up being a massive 26 MB compressed as a Windows Media Video file. Unfortunately the actual game play graphics and cut scenes aren’t near as impressive, but are GameCube quality none-the-less.

When the FMV is over and I got to the actual game play I wasn’t sure what exactly to expect. You’re only weapon is a staff with a gargoyle looking thing attached to the top of it. By default, the controls are set as using the control stick to move forward and back, and to strafe left and right, whereas the c-stick is used for looking up and down, and turning. I personally prefer the Goldeneye type controls so I switched strafing and turning around. This made moving around the vast levels a lot easier. As for the rest of the buttons, R is used for Jumping, Z to use the selected spell, X to use the selected item, A to attack, its fairly straightforward and totally customizable, which is an extremely nice touch. Fighting is also fairly straightforward. Just swing your staff and smack the evil baddies around with it. You can strafe, turn, and jump to dodge attacks, and also to attack the baddies from above.

One thing that I simply love about the game is the sense of humor. The main character, Skye Lynlora, and her sidekick Draak, constantly drop quick one-liners about their situation and the creatures they meet along the way. I haven’t laughed so hard in a video game for a long time. The sarcasm is so thick you could cut it with a steak knife.

However, that is where some of the appeal to this game ends. One of the biggest faults of this game is the camera. As with just about every 3D game in history, camera is a slight problem that hinders your ability to play the game. Darkened Skye revolves around a LOT of jumping and with the default camera angle (you see from Skye’s knees and up, directly behind her head) it is almost impossible to judge jumping. Fortunately you can tilt the camera down to be able to tell where you are landing which makes things a hell of a lot easier.

Another minor fault is the level design. This may only be because of my lack of knowledge about the game before I started playing it, but the levels are somewhat confusing to travel around. It is helpful that a mini-guide of the first 3 areas of the game is included in the instruction manual, but if you remember my Home Brew about this matter, I do not like using guides to beat games. I will admit that I used the maps a couple of times, as it is extremely easy to get lost and end up running in circles. I wish that an in-game map had been included so you wouldn’t have to rely on a cheap drawing in the instruction manual, not being able to tell exactly where you are at on it. Lastly, there are a few places, especially in the first level, where the path you need to follow is hard to see. However, this does make the game somewhat more fun, giving it a mixture of a Zelda and a Metroid feel of exploration to it. You aren’t told very much of what to do, aside from a few tiny hints here and there, and those usually don’t tell you where to go, just give you an idea of what you have to do.

The last fault in Darkened Skye is the difficulty. Now, I am all for a difficult game, but there is a difference between difficult and frustrating. There are times in which you are surrounded by several creatures, all of which being faster then you are, and you have to smack them with your staff as well as cast numerous spells to slow them down so you stand a chance. This wouldn’t be near as annoying if your health lasted longer, which brings me to my next point. A great feature of Darkened Skye is that health is replenished on its own. This happens very slowly, but if all else fails just stand around for a few minutes until you are full on health again. If health didn’t replenish itself, this game would be a million times more frustrating.

The last thing I have to say for now, is that I love the ability to save whenever and wherever you want. Unlike games like the Ocarina of Time, where if you saved at one point, you’d be put back to a designated starting point instead of where you saved at, Darkened Skye allows you to save exactly where you are at and start there again. I know those of you who use emulators to play old NES and SNES games exploit the saving feature in order to beat an extremely hard jump or difficult boss. Well the same goes for this game, however if you DON’T save all the time you are basically screwed. I recommend using 2 save files, one to save where you are 100% certain you are safe from harm and another for the more active areas. I have already been caught screwing up my save file once and being trapped out on an island with no way back to shore. Fortunately, if you die you get put back at the beginning of the level so all is not entirely lost.

That is all I have to say for now, but expect a full review soon. As of right now, I definitely recommend this as a rental at the very least, just for the storyline and comedy thrown throughout. You can tell that a lot of thought and hard work was put into this game and it’s deserving of praise for that, regardless of the few flaws. I sincerely hope that a sequel is made with these flaws fixed, but that keeps the great storyline and sense of humor.

Matt Schraeder