SkullyDodge: Avoid the fires of hell – Review

SkullyDodge is the mobile game equivalent of the ‘bullet hell’ games that many of you might be familiar with. The player controls an adorable skull character to dodge hellfire that rains upon it. Obviously, longer it survives, the higher the score. However, because the skull isn’t able to fight back or reflect the hellfire flying at it, the game gets very challenging from the beginning. The players will quickly be overwhelmed and taunted by the barrage that this game throws at them right from the start.

Luckily, it isn’t all bad for the players. Apart from being disarmingly cute, the skull moves extremely responsively and smoothly. Although the game tells the player, or I would say it misguides the player, to swipe left and right with one finger, I found out I had much better luck by tapping on the side of the screen which direction I wanted the skull to move. This way, the skull glides rather gracefully and it is so much easier to make a sudden direction change.

Otherwise, the little skully really has no chance surviving out in this hell, as the challenge level of the game gets not gradually, but rather hastily, more difficult. Within a mere 30 seconds into the game, hellfire starts raining in rather tricky fashion, with a different speed and pattern. Because we have to get used to the curtain fire very quickly to survive the first 30 seconds of the game, the slow moving ember will very likely to sneak upon us and bring us to our doom.

The perky background music, which reminded me of classical electronic or house music builds up tension so incredibly well as the skull dodges and weaves through the raining fire. It almost feels like the lack of bass on the music was a clever tactic of the developer to mess with the player’s rhythm while playing and get us hypnotized by the background music.

If I may make a few suggestions, I would like to ask for more variety in the main character’s animations. Skully is cute but he remains rather expressionless throughout the play unless it meets untimely death involving some fire on its face. It would have been much more enjoyable if Skully was more frightened or stressed out through the stages so that we could see the intensive gameplay.

Apart from this little downside, SkullyDodge provided me with a good distraction for some time. It even provided the daily dose of adrenaline and challenge I need to survive in this cold cruel world! If you are looking for your next free-to-play game that will make you want to shake your phone in anger but yet go back to it right away, SkullyDodge might be the answer to your evil prayers.

This has been a sponsored review.