Skyscrappers is a two button arcade-style platform fighter set in various sky scrapers crumbling around the world. The goal being the last player standing from a frantic brawl or to be the first player to reach the top of the sky scraper that’s collapsing around you.
The game offers a brief single player campaign pitting you in 7 locations around the world trying to reach the summit of a collapsing high rise building built in a style to suit the host country. Between each level there are brief character interactions but there is no in depth story to be had here, it’s just generic character chit chat prior to the start of the fun. I found the character interactions and the travelling between levels very reminiscent of an all time arcade classic, Street Fighter II Turbo, so in good company with that regard.
The single player mode varies in the number of characters taking place in battle as it progresses, starting you off with just 1 on 1 duels to eventually all characters participating. There is no difficulty setting in the single player, so once you become comfortable with the game-play it can become rather simple to win.
The fighting itself is a two button style, one for jumping and one for attacking. You can perform special attacks or jumps once you have filled a special meter from standard attacking. You can also melee falling items into your opponents which can disrupt their attempts at scaling the sky scraper. The move-sets however are the same across all 4 characters, so don’t expect any special smash bro’s style finishers.
As the game is going for the classic arcade approach, visually the game is spot on in that respect. Some simple but effective character designs and character interaction screens that work perfectly, and the visuals while in combat again tick the box for the arcade effect. However I have found that it at times can be tough to keep track of your character on the screen as they are quite small and can be lost at times with the falling debris. There are also occasions when you think a platform or ledge is there to be jumped on, but it’s just a background ledge that isn’t part of the collapsing environment, resulting in your character hurtling back down a level or two.
Where the game shines the brightest is the multiplayer, Sadly however there are only 4 levels to choose from. The game features up to 4 player battles. You can play 1 vs 1 up with friend or you can include 2 bots to increase the carnage. The AI bots have a difficulty setting that can be applied to make it more challenging than just the human players storming to the top or wiping the AI out with ease.
While it has some similarities with Smash Brothers, it won’t keep you and your friends captivated anywhere near as long as that game would. But that doesn’t detract from the fact that this game with 1 to 3 other players can be good fun. It’s a simple enough game to pick up and play and if you were to throw some beers into the mix, it could provide some great laughs.
If you were looking into this game as primarily a single player gamer, then this isn’t perhaps something to be pick up, but if you have friends over frequently or share a house or console with others that are up for some multiplayer gaming sessions, then this would a nice little pick up for any multiplayer gaming night.
