While teleporting after your own skull sounds like the basis of a puzzle platformer, that’s not what Skul is. Unique to your hero is their ability to remove and throw their actual head at enemies, before either running after it to collect it or teleporting to wherever it landed. It’s an early access rogue-like, in as much as you respawn back at a big demon temple whenever you die, holding a pocketful of purple currency you may use to improve some of your attributes before trying again. After all, we’ve long since hit peak pixel, reaching the stage in society where lovely chunky squares are the mainstream rather than the exception, and aliased edges and bezier curves have to cower and beg in the street for hovering roast chicken sprites.ĭoes that make any sense? I’ve got a touch of fever this evening and I’m writing this introductory paragraph in a state of delirious hypochondria, so my usually astute and cutting edge observations have reverted back to PC gaming circa 2007.Įarlier however, back when I wasn’t careening ass-first down a greased-up slippy-slide to my almost certain demise at the gaping maw of a global pandemic, I was very much enjoying playing a little game called Skul. This week, he's losing his head in skeletal action platformer Skul: The Hero Slayer.Ī side-scrolling roguelike with a pixel art style and an adorable little skull person protagonist, Skul: The Hero Slayer could easily be mistaken for about seven thousand other early access games. Premature Evaluation is the weekly column in which Steve Hogarty explores the wilds of early access.