Game of the Day 3/20/2016: Darkened Skye

[celerystalker]

Hope you're ready to taste the rainbow, because Darkened Skye for the Gamecube is an action/adventure game centered around perhaps the most dubious product placement that has ever been attempted; the entire game is built around the premise that Skittles are magical. Nobody tell Trale Lewous.

This is an odd game, both to try and start a discussion on and in and of itself. It starts with a seemingly serious premise, with the young heroine Skye, full of wanderlust, pondering the meaning of a mysterious talisman left by her mother while debating her meager existence as a shepherd in an oppressive kingdom. Out of nowhere, she finds a magical orange Skittle, meets a smart-ass gargoyle, and starts mouthing off while fighting the minions-in her own words, "I LOVE minions!" of the evil Necroth.

The actual gameplay is not bad at all for a 3D Zelda-style game, moving at a good pace, solid jumping controls... the combat's pretty bland until you get magic attacks from the Skittles, as it's at times difficult to tell whether you're hitting your opponents or not. Still, its atmosphere is on point both graphically and musically, and the character designs work pretty well for a fantasy experience of the era. Plus, the ability to save on the spot anywhere helps the game stay enjoyable even in some unfair segments.

Let's get real, though, anyone playing this is just super curious about the Skittles shit, and it doesn't disappoint. The characters go on about the magic of Skittles and the rainbow enough that it becomes obvious parody, almost as if the developers quietly resented that their game concept was being hamstrung by such a licensing agreement. They put such care into designing a world and characters, and even secured some actual quality voice acting, so it's almost as if they were told about the Skittles tie in and just said "Fuck it." Everything quickly becomes a mockery of adventure game tropes, and even outright mockery of the corporate sponsorship. Playing it again last night, I have to admit that while some of it falls flat, for video game writing and acting, it's surprisingly funny. The game knows it's a shill vessel, and just steers into the skid.

Darkened Skye is not incredible, but it is enjoyable, and you can almost feel the disbelief of the developers in the script. It has great character art, good music, and some good ideas, all chained to a thousand pounds of Skittles... and it actually plays pretty well. No one part is amazing, but the way it all comes together is bizarrely amusing.

Skittels is... really good. Played it?

[Steve W]

I believe I passed on this game multiple times in the past, but I was totally unaware about the Skittles tie-in until I read about it in a magazine recently. I will definitely need to track down a copy now.

[celerystalker]

I believe I passed on this game multiple times in the past, but I was totally unaware about the Skittles tie-in until I read about it in a magazine recently. I will definitely need to track down a copy now.

Yeah, the weird thing is that it isn't mentioned in any of the promotional language on the packaging. The only tip about it is in the fine print, where they mention the Skittles trademark. I think that's part of what makes it so weird; had this been advertised as such, it'd probably have been pretty notorious, for better or worse. Such insane product placement... it's not like Skittles are a health powerup or characters eat some in a cutscene... the entire game revolves around Skittles and their magic rainbow powers. The colors of Skittles mixed together are literally the basis for the spell system, and the writers really hammed it up.

[Emperor Megas]

I bought this game dirt cheap early into it's generation because I liked the cover art, played it once, and being completely unmoved by the experience sold it at a garage sale for about as much as I originally bought it for.

I didn't even realize that there were Skittles in the game until I watched review (I think it was Classic Gameroom) for the game almost a decade later. Now I want to reacquire it just for the novelty of the product tie in.

[armonigann]

Why do these game of the days have to be in Classic Gaming? Although, they are cool..they are completely cluttering this section, so where some people are avoiding it.

[celerystalker]

They were initially in one thread, but it was requested that each game receive its own thread for individual discussion. I'm more than happy to stop posting them if that's what folks would prefer.

[Emperor Megas]

I think they're awesome. I'm not sure if people are avoiding the Classic forum because of them as there wasn't much activity that wasn't about the Coleco Chameleon in the past few months. One topic a day about a classic game isn't really that much.

I was the person who asked celerystalker to give each game it's own thread, for posterity, and to make games and dates easily searchable. If more people are bothered by daily topics then not, I'll concede they're unwanted and won't complain if they're (re)consolidated or moved.

[Cornelius]

I like it this way, too. Why not, there isn't anything else being discussed these days. If this page had new topics being pushed off the front each day, that'd be different, but that is very far from the case.

[celerystalker]

Well, I'll keep posting them, but if a mod wants to move them somewhere I'm fine with it. I don'r want to ruin anyone's experience or anything... just want to talk games. I'm glad people are having a good time with it.

[tom]

You gonna do some stuff on Coleco, Intellivision, VCS, 7800, Atari Lynx or so?

[celerystalker]

You gonna do some stuff on Coleco, Intellivision, VCS, 7800, Atari Lynx or so?

Yep! I've kinda just skipped around at random based on what I'm in the mood to play that evening, but I'll definitely get some more of those systems in soon.