Skullgirls (2D Fighting Game) Announced for XBLA, PSN

tiff said:
I can't imagine why anyone would want to play as a man or a spaceship when you could play as a cute girl.
TaDFM.png
 
A downloadable fighting game featuring anime (but not "lolimoe bullshit") girls, nice animation, and GGPO

This'll be one to watch.
 
TheOGB said:
A downloadable fighting game featuring anime (but not "lolimoe bullshit") girls, nice animation, and GGPO

This'll be one to watch.
As a fan of fighting games, I see no reason to not pick it up after what I saw today. It's going to be inexpensive with good online play and solid fighting mechanics. They're trying to replicate MvC2 style gameplay without some of the bullshit that game has. I had a good time playing it today, for sure.
 
Dartastic said:
As a fan of fighting games, I see no reason to not pick it up after what I saw today. It's going to be inexpensive with good online play and solid fighting mechanics. They're trying to replicate MvC2 style gameplay without some of the bullshit that game has. I had a good time playing it today, for sure.
Good to hear, then.
 
Dartastic said:
As a fan of fighting games, I see no reason to not pick it up after what I saw today. It's going to be inexpensive with good online play and solid fighting mechanics. They're trying to replicate MvC2 style gameplay without some of the bullshit that game has. I had a good time playing it today, for sure.
How did ya play it?
 
I plan om writing more about this game when I have access to a computer but, uh, the game knows when you're trying to pull 360's with a grappler. When it detects this, your character won't jump. :D RAH
 
Dartastic said:
I plan om writing more about this game when I have access to a computer but, uh, the game knows when you're trying to pull 360's with a grappler. When it detects this, your character won't jump. :D RAH

hooray for dumbed-down fighting games.
 
akachan ningen said:
hooray for dumbed-down fighting games.
On the contrary, hooray for a fighting game actually making grapplers more viable for the majority of people. Even as someone who plays fighting games, I never play grapplers. Partially for this very reason. There's more to it than just that. Like I said, I'll type up more later.
 
Dartastic said:
On the contrary, hooray for a fighting game actually making grapplers more viable for the majority of people. There's more to it than just that. Like I said, I'll type up more later.

it's not that hard to pull a quick 360 without jumping. Especially since most fighting games let you do a 270 or even 225. stopping your character from jumping in a heated situation where you're doing a motion then change your mind is just going to lead to frustration.

you can't make a fighting game that's all things to everyone. look at sf4. it doesn't work.
 
Ashkeloth said:
I love 2D games.

I love fighting games.

I am somehow still not sick of anime art styles, and in fact still enjoy them.

But the one thing that is putting me off this game, is not the western-anime/webcomic style (which at least does not look as bad as Blade Kitten), nor the fact that it looks slightly incomplete at the minute, but the fact that it has an all female, relatively young looking cast.

It just seems crazy to me. Why on earth would you do something like this?

Maybe because they... you know... like the idea of an all-girls fighting game? It's still an indie project, thanks god not every dev have to decide everything by running focus groups. I don't even like the art style of Skullgirls, but it's good that they went with what they liked, regardless of marketing problems.
 
danmaku said:
Maybe because they... you know... like the idea of an all-girls fighting game? It's still an indie project, thanks god not every dev have to decide everything by running focus groups. I don't even like the art style of Skullgirls, but it's good that they went with what they liked, regardless of marketing problems.

it's sexist


why can't the men fight? why are they stuck at home, cooking, while the women go out and skullfight?
 
Gravijah said:
it's sexist


why can't the men fight? why are they stuck at home, cooking, while the women go out and skullfight?

My explanation is that in the skulluniverse men are pussies and can't fight.
 
This uses GGPO? So a tiny little downloadable fighting game will have vastly better online play than fucking Capcom's fighters?

Bwahahaha!
 
Wow at all the 'animu' and 'moe' comments. This is about as moe as the female characters in Darkstalkers were, it's hardly Arcana Heart is it? I guess the all-girl cast doesn't help but is that really a big deal?

Hopefully this plays as good as it looks. Capcom will never make a HD 2D Darkstalkers so with any luck this will be the next best thing. A lot of the animators on this are extremely talented people, and they have some balls competing with the Japanese developers.

akachan ningen said:
Sound the bad art alert.

7gbtl.jpg

lol this is on the screen for like 1/30ths of a second. Ever heard of the animation technique of smearing? It was a technique pretty much perfected by warner brothers. 2D capcom games used it quite a lot too. I agree with the chunky thighs comment though, I can see how that'd be off putting style wise.
 
Gagaman said:
lol this is on the screen for like 1/30ths of a second. Ever heard of the animation technique of smearing? It was a technique pretty much perfected by warner brothers. 2D capcom games used it quite a lot too. I agree with the chunky thighs comment though, I can see how that'd be off putting style wise.

351zdjr.gif


Seriously though, it's not the smearing that bothers me, it's the stupid pose. That one that somebody else posted with the headstand and the sword coming out of the shoe looks even worse. And yes, the horse legs.
 
Gagaman said:
Wow at all the 'animu' and 'moe' comments. This is about as moe as the female characters in Darkstalkers were, it's hardly Arcana Heart is it? I guess the all-girl cast doesn't help but is that really a big deal?

I think the majority of comments with those words are saying it's either not animu or moe enough, it's stuck in a kind of yucky mix of western and japanese style. That's what I meant at least. I agree though, if people want to make games with all girls or boys, more power to them... but..


Izayoi said:
If I owned the gaming industry there would be no male characters in games.

Just saying.

You have my vote. :>
 
danmaku said:
Maybe because they... you know... like the idea of an all-girls fighting game? It's still an indie project, thanks god not every dev have to decide everything by running focus groups. I don't even like the art style of Skullgirls, but it's good that they went with what they liked, regardless of marketing problems.

I'm fine with that. It just won't sell as much as it potentially could, even if it is the best fighting game ever.

It's still better to have a spirit of adventure and experimentation when it comes to game design than them making something like a bald space marine fighter or another twin stick shooter, though.

This just seems like the most opposite of that ideal though, making it intolerable to all but the most hardcore of Japan-lovers. Whatever happened to the middle ground?
 
akachan ningen said:
351zdjr.gif


Seriously though, it's not the smearing that bothers me, it's the stupid pose. That one that somebody else posted with the headstand and the sword coming out of the shoe looks even worse. And yes, the horse legs.
Haha thought that might get quoted.

Ah fair enough, I get what you mean about the pose. All the panty shots are a bit off putting too, kind of like how Dead or Alive is an excellent fighting series, but sometimes you just wouldn't want to be seen playing it. :P

As someone that hates 'moe' pretty much with a passion the style doesn't bother me too much, mainly because the moves are so surreal and freaky, what with all the monsters and that. Eh, we'll see, we've only seen two characters so far and we know at least one of them isn't quite as thunder-thighs-and-panty-shots like:

char_peacock.jpg

Looking forward to seeing this character in action. She looks like a twisted 1920's cartoon character :D
 
Dartastic said:
I plan om writing more about this game when I have access to a computer but, uh, the game knows when you're trying to pull 360's with a grappler. When it detects this, your character won't jump. :D RAH

Why even use 360 motions in the first place, I wonder? It seems to antiquated, in a way. I've always prefered grapplers in SNK games, as they often just used half-circles, and their throws we're comboable for the most part... will be happy to see how this game's "360 detection" system works though, yet I'm more concerned about what kinda potential glitchy exploit-ish tactics this could lead to... I wonder if this situation will apply only to grappler characters, or to all character in the game?

Gagaman said:
Ah fair enough, I get what you mean about the pose. All the panty shots are a bit off putting too, kind of like how Dead or Alive is an excellent fighting series, but sometimes you just wouldn't want to be seen playing it. :P

At least DoA had some balance. Lots of males in the cast, hidden costume for Ein with him just in a pair of ripped jeans + chains on his wrist, big burly dudes like Bass right alongside old men like Gen Fu... oh yeah, and then those bouncy females. Which normally offered a wide variety of outfits; you could choose the skirts and fanservicey stuff, or things like the Tecmo's deception 3 outfit for Helena, the Full body ninja outfit for Kasumi, or Ayane's purple Ninja suit...

char_peacock.jpg

Looking forward to seeing this character in action. She looks like a twisted 1920's cartoon character :D

Yeah, I remember seeing a few other characters from this game a few years back... really would be nice if the whole cast ends up fairly varied, though all the recent videos staring the same 1 or 2 characters really makes it easy to see the game in only 1 way ATM.

I like the idea that they seem to be very open to DLC for the game as well. Who knows what kinda additional cast the game could end up with?
 
Ashkeloth said:
I'm fine with that. It just won't sell as much as it potentially could, even if it is the best fighting game ever.

It's still better to have a spirit of adventure and experimentation when it comes to game design than them making something like a bald space marine fighter or another twin stick shooter, though.

This just seems like the most opposite of that ideal though, making it intolerable to all but the most hardcore of Japan-lovers. Whatever happened to the middle ground?
Why choose the middle ground when you can go all the way?
 
Ashkeloth said:
I'm fine with that. It just won't sell as much as it potentially could, even if it is the best fighting game ever.

It's still better to have a spirit of adventure and experimentation when it comes to game design than them making something like a bald space marine fighter or another twin stick shooter, though.

This just seems like the most opposite of that ideal though, making it intolerable to all but the most hardcore of Japan-lovers. Whatever happened to the middle ground?

Actually, I think the most hardcore japan-lovers will hate this game because it looks like a "fake anime-wannabe". I know it wasn't the intention, but this is what many will see.

Aside from that, I don't understand why Skullgirls should be the opposite of the indie ideal. The devs didn't choose the middle ground simply because they didn't want to. They don't have to please the shareholders, so they don't need to accept compromises in order to reach a wider audience. I can't see this as a flaw. This also means that many people could miss a great game, I agree with that, but it happens all the time. Bayonetta had the same problem: many hated it, but it's their loss.
 
Looks pretty cool to me. I'm always up for some nice HD 2D action. And I can't stop shaking my head at the cynical nonsense going on in this thread.
 
Hmmm, here's a 2006 Interview with the Skullgirls Devs, back when the game looked much different:

http://www.siliconera.com/2006/10/12/dreaming-of-making-a-game-spotlight-on-skullgirls/

And an image from the demo from long ago (2007):
http://www.indiegames.com/blog/2007/05/skullgirls.html

An old animation frame for the game, on Pixeljoint (when the calves were even skinnier!)
http://www.pixeljoint.com/pixelart/40218.htm

And here's an illustration of the 8 main characters from back in March 2010 + descriptions, along with a lengthy blog post:

http://goborobo.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=43
Character Pic (pretty big): http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3550643/skullgirls_main_8_and_bosses.jpg

Going to be quite interesting to see all this come to life!
 
I dont like the art and gameplay style but its pretty awesome to see a small studio working on fighting games.

^__^-d
 
Kintaro said:
This uses GGPO? So a tiny little downloadable fighting game will have vastly better online play than fucking Capcom's fighters?

Bwahahaha!

At this point I'm leaning heavy on Japan just being techno-xenophobic.

Having incredible internet connections there doesn't help us as that just enables crap netcode. They're winning the water gun fight with a fire hose. :\

Thanks for digging those pics up SAB CA! :D
 
I see all the complaints about this game's artstyle, saying they don't like it because it looks like a poor American-made anime wannabe. I disagree.

The art's not bad because it's a poor anime knock-off, it's bad because it's a poor Bratz knock-off.

Honestly, the character design looks like it belongs on a bootleg Goth version of those wretched pedo-fashion dolls that soccer moms buy their six-year-old daughters to play dress-up with. Now, with added panty shots and bouncy-bouncy!

Yeah, it's the doll-like proportions more than anything else I'm...well, not complaining about, but certainly not enthused by, either. It just looks...creepy, far more so than stuff like Vanguard Princess or Arcana Heart. Plus, it doesn't help that the lines are so thick and the colours so subdued, making the whole thing look dark and muddy IMO.*

Mind you, this is a Mike Z co-production, with some nice animation care of one of the Scott Pilgrim devs, using GGPO, and on PSN, so GETTING HYPE! cautiously regardless.

*Please bear in mind that I've only seen the trailer and the obviously alpha footage, and am basing my criticisms on those.
 
SAB CA said:
Why even use 360 motions in the first place, I wonder? It seems to antiquated, in a way. I've always prefered grapplers in SNK games, as they often just used half-circles, and their throws we're comboable for the most part... will be happy to see how this game's "360 detection" system works though, yet I'm more concerned about what kinda potential glitchy exploit-ish tactics this could lead to... I wonder if this situation will apply only to grappler characters, or to all character in the game?
That's the other nice thing I was gonna mention. They're not going to use many 360 motions. Instead, they're using qcf style motions plus lp and lk to do most command throws. I'm also not too worried about glitchie stuff...
 
The Take Out Bandit said:
Thanks for digging those pics up SAB CA! :D
Glad to help! I followed the breadcrumbs laid by your comments on seeing more about the animation... still didn't find that, but that GOGOROBO stuff is very interesting (Even showing some male character designs. Would love to see "Big Band" in action!)

Dizzy-4U said:
I'm sold after watching the quick look. It seems that these guys know what they are doing.
Aye, thanks for linking that! Really liked that first stage shown there (The elevated town with blue skies) and it's full of usefull info overall. Cerebella looks pretty awesome there.

Very good to see things like shadows in dark areas, and some lightsource trickery similiar to KoF XII / Asuka 100% stuff of old. Good to see the game with a decent U.I. too, even if it and the effects are all apparently temporary / WIP.

Dambrosi said:
*Please bear in mind that I've only seen the trailer and the obviously alpha footage, and am basing my criticisms on those.

It's funny, as much as people complain about being tired of seeing "generic anime" styles in games, anything that's different always gets a heavy amount of detractors... :lol:

Bratz look more like Trollz of old to me, though... At any rate, that doll-feel might also be intentional. They seem to want to merchandise the stuff from this game, so giving it such an appearance is probably a good idea for that end.

I can see alot of the bother with the style going away as we see more of the characters unveiled, though... Fila and Cerebella seem to be among the most "samey" looking of the cast, so it'll probably feel very different when character of more varied designs enter the fray.

Dartastic said:
That's the other nice thing I was gonna mention. They're not going to use many 360 motions. Instead, they're using qcf style motions plus lp and lk to do most command throws. I'm also not too worried about glitchie stuff...

Well, that's good to hear. A couple of 360's to give the grapplers a larger variety of moves then, I suppose. I just hope a lot of the systems don't lead to detrimental effects, like the shortcuts and vast amount of option select stuff of SFIV. Hope we see some good stuff from PAX!
 
Alright, I just watched the Quick Look, and that's sold me on it...somewhat.

Is it just me, or have they changed the (presumably) main character's animation to not have so many panty-flashes from the alpha version? They've also changed up her moveset, she looks far more complete now.

The other character, Cerrabella, looks like she's all cheesecake fodder with some of Tager's moveset and an impossible amount of jiggle. Not much else to say about her, tbh. I await footage of the other characters with semi-baited breath.

I love the catwalk stage, with the 3D high-rises in the background. Reminded me of some of the backgrounds from SFIII: Giant's Attack, or a higher-res version of some of SNK's background art. The other two stages...still meh. The overall art style seems much cleaner now, though - I can actually make shit out now!

No more three-on-three tag mode? Looks like it's now a 1-on-1 fighter with MvC mechanics, which could be interesting in and of itself. For the record, I was never a huge fan of MvC2, though I liked MvC1 a lot. If this game is more like the first MvC, that'll be cool.

Overall, my impression of the game now is far more positive than it was a mere 30 minutes ago. They should have never shown the game in alpha, it made for a bad first impression, and that's important for anything, never mind a new fighter. Nonetheless, I'll definitely check SkullGirls (...ugh) out when it comes to PSN. Should be good stuff.

And yes, TToB, Sugeno needs to get his finger out and bring Vanguard Princess out on XBLA at the very least!
Maybe with VP Prime?
 
Thanks for the links to the samples outside of the game, I am on board now. The first vid I saw seemed too anime-esque, but it's a little more unique than that, thankfully.
 
Dambrosi said:
No more three-on-three tag mode? Looks like it's now a 1-on-1 fighter with MvC mechanics, which could be interesting in and of itself. For the record, I was never a huge fan of MvC2, though I liked MvC1 a lot. If this game is more like the first MvC, that'll be cool.

Naaa, they definitely still have the tag system in. But the game will allow you to combat, ratio-style. (1 strong, 2 middle of the road, or 3 weaker charas) They've also mentioned the game will have 3 assit modes for your partners: Something like an alpha, a beta... and then basically a "Make your own assist" as a 3rd option, where you can input the special moves / commands you want to be your assist.

They also apparenrly want the assist tag-ins to be unique; Some character appearing from the ground, others vertically, some appearing just as they would in MvC... sounds rather ambitious.

Overall, my impression of the game now is far more positive than it was a mere 30 minutes ago. They should have never shown the game in alpha, it made for a bad first impression, and that's important for anything, never mind a new fighter. Nonetheless, I'll definitely check SkullGirls (...ugh) out when it comes to PSN. Should be good stuff.

I like their mindset of getting the game out and in front of people as soon as possible... but I think they could use a bit more planning behind it. I don't think these were the best 2 characters to make an announce trailer with, for instance. While to their eyes, there's loads of differences (Rushdown VS Grappler, School Girl outfit VS Circus Themed Acrobat, etc), I don't know if the general public sees much more than the samey surface stuff.

Might work out in the end though. Bad early impressions, but they might be able to pull a "Look how far we've come!" effect out of that, for those who stick around for the ride.

They seem to have an underlying Film/Animation motif going on (strips of film for the combos, all the "That's a wrap!" and such bumpers for rounds, characters drawing inspiration from various periods of animation, etc), I hope this gets more and more evident as time goes on. Seems like a nice spin to help give it some unique personality.
 
I really like the game's style, but some of the hair stuff is visually very confusing. I couldn't keep track of anything that was going on with the huge-arm hat girl in the GB Quick Look.
 
ridiculous amounts of assholes in this thread. like, to the point where it's physically jarring. like a fire hose of pricks assaulting you and pushing you down with reactionary bullshit.
 
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