Raskulls – Review – Xbox 360

Microsoft’s Games for the Holidays is now in full swing with the release of game two of three, Raskulls. Is Halfbrick’s oft-delayed Xbox Live Arcade game a smash hit, or a swing and a miss?

Gameplay:
Raskulls combines elements from several genres, yielding a 2.5D platforming puzzle racer. The primary game mechanic is platforming against AI characters or human players in a race to the finish line. Characters are limited to jumping one block high, so getting vertical only happens with the help of boost arrows or by swimming in blocks of water that are inexplicably suspended in air. Magic I suppose. Each character carries a zap wand, which leads into the puzzle element of the game…

Raskulls borrows a bit from namco’s Mr. Driller here. Blocks of different colors frequently block your path (that’s what blocks do afterall), whether it be horizontally or vertically. Zapping these shapes leaves temporary gaps before the blocks above fall, so the path of least resistance is the name of the game. Your wand can also be used against your opponents as a passive weapon. Zapping someone will push them away from you a tile height or width, which can come in handy when you are defending your lead. It’s most handy if you can knock them back under falling blocks, buying you some actual time to get ahead. You will also encounter Frenzy boost bottles and gifts spread out through the courses. Frenzy speeds you up but runs out quickly, while the gift boxes can give you various items that help you cut through blocks faster, steal someone’s item, or ghost out so you can’t be seen.

Normally facing off against opponents is the hardest part of a game. Not so for Raskulls. I found the solo challenge-levels to be extremely frustrating, while the regular races were won in two or three tries at most. The problem with the solo frenzy and puzzle levels is that they demand absolute perfection. One tiny mistake and you might as well start over, there is no room for error whatsoever, especially in the levels that require you to beat them without running out of boost. Mix in iffy controls and you get the picture.

When you do finally beat these levels, sometimes they add a new level with more restrictions, putting a brutally close time limit on the level you just barely beat, or require you to repeat the level without running out of boost. Thankfully these levels are mostly off the main path and will not keep you from finishing the Mega Quest, which is a world map similar to Super Mario World.

Graphics/Sound:
Despite being rendered in 3D (at least the characters are), Raskulls has a flat cartoonish style, reminiscent of the 16-bit era, but some elements have sharp edges that look more like 8-bit (Take a look at the corners of the lava flows if you are wondering what I mean). The colored blocks look just like Cheez-Its when they are 2×2 or bigger. Anyone that has played Halfbrick’s previous Xbox Indie Games (Echoes, Blast Off, and Rocket Racing) will notice visual cues relating to those games spread throughout Raskulls. The cutscenes are usually pretty funny, and are one of the highlights of the game.

As one of the Games for the Holidays games, Raskulls has crossover support in A World of Keflings and the upcoming (but already available) ilomilo. Ultimately the feature is purely cosmetic, but it is a cool evolution of the XBLA experience nonetheless.

Multiplayer:
Besides the singleplayer Mega Quest, Raskulls also features 4-Player local and online multiplayer through single races or one of four Grand Prix Matches that bundle together four courses at a time. Unlike most character-based racers (Mario Kart, Sonic All-Stars, etc), the Raskulls are all identical as far as their abilities. There are no variations other than what costume surrounds each Raskull’s identical skull. Any fairly-decent game is better with friends, so if you have a group of competitive buddies the game will have a lot more to offer you once you gulp down the Mega Quest.

Overall:
Raskulls feels like an unbalanced game. You can stumble to victory in many levels, and pound your head against the wall repeatedly in others. This doesn’t follow a natural learning curve like most games, as I found many levels in the later Chapters easier than some from the first. The Mega Quest can be gotten through very quickly despite the inconsistency, leaving only a few problem levels to grind away at for the King Mask Avatar Award and the All-Medals “King of Bling” achievement. These problems are surprising given that Raskulls was originally supposed to come out over 6 months ago. Unfortunately Halfbrick didn’t use the time delays to polish this game, but to work on some of their iPhone games like Fruit Ninja instead. Raskulls does feature one of the coolest Avatar Awards so far, along with funny cutscenes that will have you cracking smiles while the King is cracking skulls.

Pros:
+Cutscene Humor
+Avatar Awards
+Games for the Holidays tie-in

Cons:
-Inconsistent Difficulty
-Characters lack character (MP)

Score: 6/10

A Review Copy was provided by the publisher for Review Purposes.

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