Skylar and Plux: Adventure On Clover Island
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Skylar and Plux: Adventure On Clover Island Media
Critic Reviews for Skylar and Plux: Adventure On Clover Island
This game joins the best of platforming with a "very PS2 style". A game with lights and shadows, because it is fun, but also simple, easy and very, very short.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Skylar & Plux does an exceptional job at giving us a beautiful 3D platformer with truly fun platforming sections, delightful puzzling elements and one-liners that had me laughing. The problem with the game is that it needs a bit more polish. While taking good inspiration from games like Jak & Daxter and Ratchet & Clank, it has taken on-board some pre-used traits that have become too much of a signature to those games. I feel more work on Skylar and Plux's movement and character design would be a good start to reaching its own identity going further. This could be the start of a beautiful new platform game franchise.
It's hard to talk about a game like Skylar & Plux: Adventure on Clover Island without the phrase, “garden-variety” coming to mind. To put it rather bluntly, it's a garden-variety platformer, featuring garden-variety combat mechanics and a garden-variety narrative. There is nothing especially wrong with the game in any respect. It just doesn't necessarily do anything overly special in any specific areas either. It's a perfectly fine way to spend three hours of your life, as long as you go in with tempered expectations. Remember: sometimes simply being good enough is more than enough.
Having the right expectations with Skylar & Plux is the key to enjoying it.
Admittedly, there were some genuinely fun moments – I really like using the grappling hook and the Magnetic Glove provided some fun offense.
For the amount of staff that worked on this game, they do have a good base to work from, but unfortunately there are so many issues that it detracts from being an enjoyable affair. Its sub three-hour gameplay has no replayability at all, and the consistently harsh frame rate dips heavily impact the game.
I look at Skylar and Plux as the Little Engine that Could, but it ends up being the one that just couldn't. I really wanted to like it, but with the glaring issues, it's hard to recommend without a significant price drop. The platforming and jumping works and is actually very tight. That's what kept me going. It's bland in most aspects, but there is something there behind the surface. If you can find it, you may get some enjoyment out of it. Even then, I would still wait for a price cut.
Lacking some polish in the audio and with a highly derivative story, it's hard for Skylar and Plux to stand out from the crowd. Its visuals are nice, however, and gameplay is solid and enjoyable enough. Children will love the vivid colors and silly characters, but not enough is done to appeal to the mainstream gaming crowd.
