Skullgirls doesn’t deliver on its promises of a newcomer friendly training system and its raw content is pretty light, especially in terms of single player.
Even on the lowest difficult setting if you are either relatively new to the fighting genre or like me just not good at these types of games the AI will utterly destroy you using so many combos and spamming so many powerful attacks you won’t know what happened. So unfortunately a lot of what hinged on my excitement for Skullgirls simply isn’t present in the current version of the game. I can only assume the imbalanced difficulty will be addressed at some point with a patch but for now this is as unapproachable as any Capcom fighter.
What still remains true however is the incredible presentation with its vibrant personality rich look and feel, Skullgirls is certainly one of the most visually enjoyable 2D fighters in many years. Multiplayer functions very well with lag being minimal at worst but unless you are a veteran of the genre or somehow can decipher the deeper nuances of the games various mechanics you won’t be enjoying yourself often. People, just like the AI are unforgiving and will beat you in to the ground mercilessly if you aren’t skilled enough to perform at the high level of demand these games require.
To give an example of just how overwhelming high-speed fighters like Skullgirls can be for someone like me simply entering a basic attack such as a half circle move proves daunting as getting use to the speed and precision one must master moving the physical stick of a controller itself without having to actually think about the process feels near impossible. I am clearly biased in reviewing games of this nature, I understand why fighting games are the way they are and why so many cling to the gameplay and design traditions of many years past but by remaining so entrenched in these things they continue to remain absolutely unapproachable to newcomers or people who don’t want to play these games the way they still require to get even a base level of satisfaction from them.
As a result I really can't commentate on the game to any lengthy degree outside of repeating how gosh darn pretty it is. I do hope to see Reverge Labs work on other games outside the fighting space as their art style and beautiful animation would look tremendous in a side-scroller action title or platformer. If they instead go ahead with another fighter if not a sequel to Skullgirls or continue to evolve the current game with DLC then that'll be fine as well but unless that comes with a vastly improved training system that includes things like actually putting the characters moves lists in the game my interest will remain at mild curiosity at best.
If you are great at fighting games and enjoy them regularly then Skullgirls is well worth your attention but if like me you were hoping to finally get one that teaches you how to play and doesn’t kick in you the shins while doing so then unfortunately I cannot recommend this one.
