A game that’s reminiscent of classic PS2 titles like Ratchet & Clank, but doesn’t quite hit the same heights.
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It’s no secret that 3D platformers have become a little bit more popular this year, with Yooka-Laylee obviously leading the way with its faithful reproduction of the Banjo-Kazooie style of gameplay, but Right Nice and Grip Digital’s Skylar & Plux: Adventure on Clover Island emulates a different kind of platformer. It’s clear when playing through that the developers were more inspired by the PS2 era of games, including Jak & Daxter and Ratchet & Clank, influences the game very much wears on its sleeve and makes no secret of concealing.
To give a bit of premise, the game opens with the silent protagonist Skylar (the tall one with the face of a cat) having her memory wiped by the evil CRT, but she manages to escape CRT’s space headquarters with the help of her talking mechanical arm. Her escape pod crashes on Clover Island, and she then meets Plux Owlsley (an owl no less), both of whom go on an adventure to save the island from CRT’s influence and defeat CRT in the process.
The first thing to note about Skylar & Plux is the visual style as, much like early noughties platformers, it oozes colour, from the verdant greens of Clover Island’s hub to the sandy oranges of the desert. It’s nothing that hasn’t been seen before, but it’s a big part of how it emulates the style of these games, and the character models are a part of this as well. It seems that, like any other similar game where there are two partners, one has to be tall and the other short, and this applies here as well.
Other than in the visual department, the characters aren’t the strongest, unfortunately. Part of the appeal of games like Ratchet & Clank is the relationship between the pair and how they play off each other, but Skylar being silent kills that. It would’ve been nice to hear Skylar & Plux exchange banter rather than hearing Plux ramble on about different things, or try to exchange insults with CRT, as it’s really only Plux that drives things on and gives some narration, making Skylar seem a mere empty shell; a vehicle with which you use to interact with the world.
Skylar & Plux is very structured in its approach, as there are three fuses that you need to activate the ‘siphon’ to save the island, and you need to travel to three different levels to get these; a grassy/icy mountain; a sandy desert; and an evil lava-filled factory. After this is a final boss fight (no prizes for guessing who it’s with), and if you’re thinking that three levels doesn’t sound like a lot, you’d be right. We’ve finished it twice, and it’s taken us 77 and 83 minutes each time to complete the game, so for those wanting a longer experience to invest in, then, it’s safe to say this might influence your decision in a major way.
Unfortunately, there isn’t much in the way of replayability either. The only collectibles in the game are cages filled with trapped islanders, and although completionists will no doubt want to find them all, their only purpose is to give you more hearts. The trouble with this is that Skylar & Plux isn’t an especially difficult game, so getting more hearts won’t be at the top of many players’ list of priorities.
Levels in Skylar & Plux are fun to navigate around though, and it’s no hassle to go out of your way to find these cages. The game leans more towards platforming than combat in these levels, with enemies being relatively sparse and coming in small clusters, and so you’ll mostly be jumping around and solving small puzzles to advance. It never becomes difficult to know where to go, however, as the gems (the currency with which you unlock the cages) are placed to form trails that guide you easily onwards which, while very useful, undoubtedly hurries the game’s conclusion.
In each of the game’s three levels you’ll find a new ability as well, so you’re not just stuck doing the same thing. The first introduces a jetpack, which behaves very similarly to Clank’s jetpack in Ratchet & Clank. In the second you get a time-slowing orb to stop rapidly spinning platforms long enough for you to jump onto them, and in the third you get a magnet to lift a wrecking ball with (leading to a horrible rendition of Miley Cyrus’ ‘Wrecking Ball’ by Plux). All of the above are used to solve puzzles in the world and are fun to use, spicing things up with new additions to the gameplay, even if they didn’t offer any significant challenge.
We’re grateful that combat is minimal in Skylar & Plux, because it isn’t the game’s strong suit. Hitting stuff in Ratchet and Clank was extremely satisfying, as your attacks transitioned smoothly between one another. A wide swinging arc meant you could hit multiple enemies at once, and Ratchet automatically locked onto enemies to ensure you weren’t swinging at thin air. Skylar, however, is the opposite, as her punch attacks are very narrow, like jabs, and since she doesn’t lock on, it can be really annoying trying to punch an enemy, especially those firing rockets at you. Her spin attack is better, but not by much, as it feels like the spin should be hitting in a wider circle than it does, leading you to wander into enemies you thought you’d be able to hit but didn’t. This is the extent of the combat, and without guns or extra abilities, we found ourselves often running past enemies rather than dealing with the hassle of defeating them.
One aspect we found pretty unusual about Skylar & Plux, we should note, is that both Plux and CRT have unresolved father issues, as Plux’s abandoned him when he was young, and CRT’s put enormous pressure on him, forcing him to become the evil mastermind he is now. This may well be emulating the father narratives seen repeatedly in Disney movies and the like, but with a game this short the references to fathers, while clear, aren’t given the space they need to be impactful, and with two of these narratives competing for significance, this doesn’t help matters.
We had a lot of fun with Skylar & Plux: Adventure on Clover Island in the time it was with us, and enjoyed exploring the colourful levels it offered with the different abilities available to us, however, this time was incredibly short and will no doubt affect the decisions of many as to whether they’d like to invest in the game, especially considering the lacklustre combat. Make no mistake, though, it’s a sweet little PS2 era-inspired adventure that didn’t frustrate us too much, and we enjoyed seeing where the paths of Skylar, Plux, and CRT led.
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Keyword: Skylar & Plux: Adventure on Clover Island