Skelemania

Retro platformers seem to get more popular by the day, since there are dozens of them released by a variety of indie developers. Not all of them are very good, but it’s always nice to have variety. You can sometimes hit the jackpot and find a nice game where you least expect it. Still, there are many experiments and abandoned projects out there.

Skelemania is a retro platformer in which you have to explore basic levels, avoid the traps and find the keys required to open the way forward. Sometimes, there are enemies you have to deal with as well, and it is mandatory that you display fast reflexes in some cases. The game may look like it was released thirty years ago, but that shouldn’t stop you from having a good time.

There’s not much of a plot to get excited about, although there is a mini story going on in the background. You are a skeleton that woke up underground one day, and he decides to go on an adventure and get to the surface once more. The road there is riddled with traps and inconveniences, on the other hand, so it may take more than just will to make it out alive. Well, not alive, technically.

There are more than one hundred rooms and levels to explore, some of which have to be revisited to access previously locked areas. Hence, there is more than enough content to keep you happy for a long time. As far as the gameplay is concerned, your sole job is to jump and find the required keys, with no other kind of missions to break the routine. That may be a disadvantage in the long run, but not a very big one.

The controls are responsive and very accurate as well, which means that you should be able to complete most difficult jumps with ease. Naturally, that only holds true for the first couple of stages, because it wouldn’t be too much fun if things remained simple all the way to the end. Plus, the graphics are quite interesting, even if they are usually just a huge sea of pixels of the same color.

When it’s all said and done, Skelemania is obviously not a revelation in the industry, but it can be the right answer to your particular needs and preferences. The controls are responsive, the levels challenging, and the music really sounds like something you might have heard back in the old days.