• Staff
• ·
• Advertise
• ·
• Privacy
• ·
• Tips
• ·
• Contact

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

PSM Quick Play: Super Skull Smash GO! & Still Life

Posted by Chris K on January 29th, 2013 | 1 Comment | Tags: quick play , Still Life , Super Skull Smash GO!

‘PSM Quick Play‘ are impressions from newly released PlayStation Mobile titles and are based on roughly 45 minutes or more of playtime. Full reviews may be available at a later date.

Super Skull Smash GO!

$3.29 / £2.59 – Tested on PlayStation Vita (Game was purchased)

Super Skull Smash GO! is the latest game from Thomas Hopper and TACS Games. In it you have to get rid of some skeletons and zombies that are haunting towns across a group of villages. To clear them out you need to stomp all over these guys and toss their skulls into what look to be crosses. Once you do that a level is cleared and you can move on to the next. But it isn’t as easy as it sounds.

First off all of these levels are puzzles. You can only carry a skull if you have room above you, so much of your time playing will be finding ways to transport the skulls across the map. You will be jumping around, flinging these skulls into reflective tiles, catching it, placing it down and kicking it, and then running to a different part of the map so you can catch it. It is a real challenge to figure out how to solve each screen. The game also does a really good job of slowly adding in new obstacles. World 3 where I am now has added switches that turn barriers on and off. So know you have to juggle switching barriers when throwing the skulls.

While the simplest way to complete each stage is to just smash all of the skulls, there are also coins placed around the level. To get a full clear you must also grab all of these before you smash the final skull. Some stages make this easy while others are a real brain teaser. If you do happen to get all of the coins in all 27 stages you will unlock a special ending. This is something I need to see.

One thing that is frustrating is the time it takes to get back into a level after dying. After you die it does a slow wipe back to the world map and then once you select the level again, it slowly wipes back into the level. I wish you could just reset quickly and be back at it. Sometimes I would die just before completing a stage and then would have to do all of it over again. The extra time it took to get back into the game was a little off-putting.

But I am having fun with the game. After about an hour or so I am 20 levels deep and can’t wait to finish up the remaining levels. The game could easily be expanded upon and I hope there is more in store for the title post-launch.

Hot:

• Catchy tune that plays
• Puzzles are a challenge
• I do like the look of the game
• The way elements get added in each world

Not:

• Not really a fan of some of the visual styles
• Some difficulty spikes
• Long transitions between restarts
• Not much replay value after completing all 27 levels

Still Life

$0.49 / £0.40 – Tested on PlayStation Vita (Game was purchased)

Still Life is not a game if you were wondering. It is an interactive “sound toy” as the developer puts it. Just so you know that before you purchase it.

Basically you are given three different scenes to interactive with. Each time you tap a certain part of the screen a sound will play. Also depending on what you touch something may happen to the “still frame” as well. This can be anything from lightning crashing to objects pulsating. Each of the different drawings has a different tune and a different set of sounds that will accompany it.

At anytime you can touch to top left corner and it will go back to the main menu. From there you can select a different scene or just chill out. I do wish that you could swipe between scenes however. It would make for an easier way to change up what you are doing.

It is fun to mess around with for a few minutes, but you will probably get bored shortly after that. It just goes to show that not everything on PlayStation Mobile will be a twitch arcade game or retro remake. I am kind of glad to see something like this come out on the platform.

---