A good-looking game that’s far too repetitive to keep players engaged.
Use telekinetic powers as you fly from island to island in Skytail.
Released on March. 26 by Coatsink (MIB Most Wanted), you’ll need to stop an evil blob who has seemingly disrupted your peaceful life.
You are an unnamed hero who wields the psychic powers of telekinesis. Armed with these abilities – and your skytail – you’ll visit various islands, wandering around until you unlock some sort of nexus that grants you new powers.
This is essentially the entire game, repeated until the end.
This game has the most minimal of stories to wrap things together, however, one can garner that the giant blob which appeared has wrought some sort of destruction and potentially stolen your skytails eggs. Anyone jumping into the game will assume that the story is to get them back.
Standing in your way are smaller blobby enemies with eyes and teeth. These enemies will appear each time you and your skytail travel to each island. To vanquish your foes, you’ll use your abilities to grab, crush, and throw energy and enemies to keep progressing forward.
It’s really this simple and aside from some excellent graphics, Coatsink’s follow-up to MIB is sort of a letdown.
Let’s talk about mechanics.
You’ll use standard buttons for the majority of the game with thumbsticks doing the usual stuff. You’ll use your psychic powers via most of the remaining buttons including grabbing with grip, “throwing” items at your enemies or the enemies themselves – isn’t actually throwing, but simply launching them away via the triggers. You can also crush certain held enemies by pushing the ‘A’ or ‘X’ buttons.
There are certain actions which require you to move your arms, however, this isn’t doing much beyond doing things like swinging in an elegant arc, to power up energy.
Since there isn’t much going on with Skytail as a game, the majority of the progression comes from your visits to each island nexus. Here you’ll gain new abilities which help you as new enemies appear during your flights.
Whether you need to bring down shields with your ability to charge, or even create your own energy blobs, these upgrades are necessary to continue making your way towards your inevitable goal.
These “action” sections are very blah, with an absurd amount of sameness – though that’s pretty much enshrined in every aspect of the overall game. Jumping back on track, the on-rails fighting sections make things feel cheap overall since there isn’t even the ability to control the beast on which you’re riding.
Let’s take a tangential detour for a second to discuss the skytail you ride. It’s a very confusing looking creating – sort of a giant duck ostrich thing, or a feathery dragon, depending on your view.
It’s obvious that the creature is meant to be cutesy, as the overall esthetics and gameplay scream made for kids. But seriously, the thing is weird.
Back to flying the dragon-bird, not being able to move it around while using your telekinesis to fight, feels cheap. It’s not the first time that a game has chosen to go the on-rails route, but here it just makes it feel like there’s a gaping hole that’s begging for more.
As mentioned earlier, the graphics are the best part of the game. Things look great, no framerate issues or blurriness, however, the world is certain lower in textures. A lot of things are blobby or flatter with nothing jumping out to claim to compete with a game like Red Matter; but for what it is, the overall esthetics are certainly the best part of being in this world.
Overall Skytail is a virtual reality (VR) title that exists. It’s certainly going to be engaging for younger audiences who will fall in love with the odd creature on which you fly, but older users will probably find it harder to be drawn in.
Considering there were no bugs or issues experienced that’s a major win in today’s VR market, but those who enjoyed the last game by Coatsink will certainly be letdown by this game – even if it’s only $15.99.
Skytail was reviewed on the Quest 3 after receiving a press key.
