Did your Christmakwanzakah suck? Grams get you a new sweater instead of something you could really use..? Like a good game? Well my friend, you are in luck. Raskulls has been released on XBLA and I can guarantee you it’s better than your new socks. The best description I can give you of Raskulls is that it’s a fast paced action puzzle platformer. To simplify things, you move your Raskull through an obstacle course to reach your objective. There are many different types of challenges and the objectives vary based on those.
Each level has Tetris style blocks which are usually an obstacle to you. You can get rid of blocks by using your wand to zap them. This is where a bit of strategy comes in. The blocks are intertwined together and usually support other blocks. When you zap one, you may make another one unstable and fall. Depending on the challenge type you can use this to your advantage by blocking an opponent with a falling block or perhaps clearing a more effective path for yourself so you can reach your objective faster. On the flip side of that if you get hit by a falling block it will knock you down and you will lose all of the frenzy you built up.
Frenzy allows you to move and zap faster. Using Frenzy at the right time is clutch in winning races. You build up Frenzy by collecting Boosties that you get from zapping blocks, jars of Boosties, or moving through yellow Boostie zones. Once you get a certain amount of Boosties you can activate Frenzy which will burn through until you run out; no off switch. In just about every level you will also find presents which give you power ups, most of which allow you to plow through blocks more effectively but some that affect your opponents by doing things like slowing them down, freezing them, or taking their Boosties.
There are three single player modes; Mega Quest, Grand Prix, and Single Race. There is also local and XBL enabled multiplayer where you can play with friends or get a game of random players. Mega Quest is the main game mode for Raskulls; mainly because it has a story. Pirats have crash landed on your planet and plan to steal your Shiny Stone to power their ship back up. You will need to quest through the world to take them down. While the story is quite simple, I have to admit that much of the dialog is pretty funny and kept me entertained. You will come across quite a few characters, each with a personality of their own. For the record, my favorite Raskull is Ninja; he’s bad ass.
Mega Quest has an abundance of challenges for you to face. The challenges you face on each level are distinctly different, and even though you will eventually begin to repeat challenge types, the challenges rotate regularly so it will be difficult for you to get bored. On one level you may need to race to the finish line, while on another you will need to destroy all of the blocks before time runs out or finish a level without running out of Frenzy (harder than it sounds).
As you move through Mega Quest you will find extra challenge levels that you don’t need to complete to progress. These challenges are usually a bit more challenging than your standard challenge. One of the more difficult ones I can remember is where the finish line is at the top of the level and you are at the bottom. You need to strategically zap blocks so you can make your way to the finish line by climbing the blocks that are left. Did I mention you usually need to do these in less than 20 seconds? I have to say my rage meter built up quite a bit when I would just barely miss the finish line by a millisecond. Some challenges can only be unlocked after you get a certain amount of medallions; you get these by completing levels. If you’re competitive, some of the levels and challenges in Mega Quest have leaderboards enabled between yourself and friends.
Grand Prix gives you a bit of a break from Mega Quest, as it only consists of racing. There are four cups, each with four courses to race through. Depending on how you place you will get golden skulls at the end of each race. The Raskull with the most skulls at the end wins. Single Race is just that, a single race. Use this for a quick fix if you want to have just a little Raskull fun. The multiplayer works the same way Grand Prix does. I really wasn’t expecting to find anyone playing multiplayer, but to my surprise it was very easy to get a game going. I did notice some lag issues which made players appear to be behind me only to find out they were actually in front of me, but this wasn’t a constant so it could have just been those players.
The main appeal of Raskulls for me is that it’s not just a game about mashing buttons until you reach your objective. There is quite a bit of strategy involved when choosing which blocks to zap. You can mash your way through ten little blocks, or you can pay attention to the block configuration, hit one or two blocks, and clear the space in less than half the time and go on to win the race. Clearing the wrong blocks can cause other blocks to fall on you or block your path, but you can use strategy and use those other blocks against you opponents.
Another thing I thought was cool was that when blocks of the same color touch, they form a new block. In some of the levels where you only have a certain amount of zaps you can use this to minimize the amount of zaps you use. Most of the levels are against other opponents or timed so not only do you need to think, but you need to think fast. This is especially true in multiplayer. Raskulls is a very good balance or action, puzzle, and racing. There is enough of each aspect to make the game challenging, but at the same time remain very fun. Overall, I am very pleased with Raskulls and was surprised by how much fun I actually found myself having. I would highly recommend it to any player that likes a challenge and fun; and who doesn’t like fun? Oh, that’s right… The terrorist.
