I’ve always sucked at rhythm games. I can barely play most of them. As a lifelong gamer, it’s almost embarrassing to be virtually unable to play something like Guitar Hero on anything but the easiest settings. And Dance Dance Revolution? Forget it. Basically anything rhythm oriented is a wash for me. I simply don’t have the skills. Skybolt Zack from Devs Must Die and Green Man Gaming is no different. It’s billed as a rhythm platformer, but it’s not really either one exactly. And either way, my skill level is embarrassingly low on it. That being said, Skybolt Zack is absolutely frantic, awesome, and well-crafted in pretty much every way, but you’d better have some serious reaction time to play it!
Skybolt Zack starts out with a minimalist cinema that establishes that you’re in some sort of dystopia and your body has been partially replaced with cybernetic implants. You are left for dead and that’s where the fun starts. There’s no real plot in the game, just a series of interconnected levels that become more difficult depending on which exits you reach. Needless to say, I didn’t really manage to reach the higher difficulty levels because they’re damned hard and I have virtually no skills. But that didn’t stop me from having an absolute blast!
The basics of Skybolt Zack remind me vaguely of Radiant Silvergun as it uses a similar tri-color configuration, though in a very different manner. You have to connect your button presses to the colors of the enemies. In doing so, you rocket towards them at frantic speed and must immediately press the button of the next closest enemy’s color to chain your attacks. While they say Skybolt Zack is a platformer, it really isn’t, since you barely even touch the ground and are unable to jump very much or climb. Miss a button press, dash, or jump, and you’ll likely plummet to the lower section of a stage and miss being able to rank up both score and difficulty. It’s hard to really explain in words how fast the game feels too. It’s like you’re constantly rocketing along at such high speeds that by the end of the level, I could feel the tension in my shoulders!
On top of basic attacks, there’s jumping, color switch bonuses, dashing, directional jump dashes, and more. Everything is constantly moving at that breakneck speed too. You don’t have a gun at all. Instead, you are the weapon. As levels progress, enemies get more and more complex, requiring multiple colors to destroy or other variations, and color patterns become more difficult to hit. Windows of time to reach the next enemy dwindle and it becomes harder and harder to reach the upper sections of the game. In addition, you have a life bar, and hitting the wrong button can easily lead to taking a hit. Recovery boxes are located throughout levels, but if you have the hands of a Lego figure like I do, chances are you’re going to die a lot. More than a few times, I felt like someone had replaced my fingers with spaghetti and tied them in knots.
Sure, Skybolt Zack is a hard game, but it’s also a great looking game. The colorful, cartoonish designs of the enemies are fantastic, the robots are creative, the level designs are clean and well-thought out. Honestly, I was quite impressed by the whole structure of the game, as it lent itself well to the gameplay. The music is powerful, fast, and unrelenting as well, continuously driving a sense of frantic urgency. The more chains you get, the more powerful the music becomes too, until it’s driving you along like a whirlwind. It’s a very unique melding of music and gameplay and it feels fresh and new.
There weren’t many problems with Skybolt Zack for me, other than my apparent lack of bones in my fingers. On Steam, I initially encountered a loading issue where the game would hang and not boot up entirely, but I suspect it was my system, as when I updated Windows 10, it seemed to vanish entirely and run smooth as silk. Oh, did I mention that this game is also virtually unplayable without a controller? I mean, you can try, but good luck. I use an Xbox One controller with a micro-usb cable to play on the PC, and it worked extremely well with Skybolt Zack. I was also surprised by the lack of major boss fights. Maybe there are some on the higher levels of difficulty, but I haven’t seen any. Honestly, Zack would lend itself well to some wildly creative boss fights, and I’m a little disappointed that they are missing, even at the end of each world. Maybe in a sequel or DLC update? I can’t even imagine how awesome a Skybolt Zack boss rush mode would be!
Skybolt Zack is definitely a game where you’re going to get out of it what you put into it. It’s not easy and it requires practice and a lightning fast response time, but if you have those, it will be a pure joy. This is gaming distilled down to its essence – pure twitch reflex action. Skybolt Zack is a sleeper hit that will wow you with its crisp gameplay and excellent visuals. I had a blast with it, and chances are good that you will too!
This review is based on a digital copy of Skybolt Zack for Steam provided by the publisher. It was played on an I7-8700K with 16 GB of DDR4-3000 RAM, an Asus GeForce GTX 1080 ROG Strix graphics card, and an Xbox One controller connected via USB. Skybolt Zack is available on Steam and Nintendo Switch.