POSTED 24/10/15


SKYSCRAPPERS

Ground Shatter

You can take everything I have. You can break everything I am like I'm made of glass, like I'm made of paper. Go on and try to tear me down, I will be rising from the ground – like a skyscraper!

That may work for you Demi, honey, but not so much for this fab riff on Super Smash Bros. In this love letter to the classic stylings of early 1990s arcade games, that skyscraper ain’t rising from the ground, it’s being razed to the ground.

You’re any of four brave demolition defiers – two chicks and two blokes, in a delightful outbreak of gender equality. You hit the battle solo against console-controlled adversaries, or go nuts with up to four humans in control at once. We use the word “control” slightly loosely.

The fabulously puntastically titled SkyScrappers is your classic two button brawler – jump and attack, but with various combos allowing a lot more depth than you might expect. We’re talking everything from ground pounds to all out lightning-show attacks. The key bit – if you hadn’t pieced it together yet - is that it all takes place on a skyscraper. A skyscraper that’s crumbling around you, spewing forth girders, fires and various other potentially hurty – for you or your adversaries, assuming that you get your timing right - chunks of detritus.

You can go for the all-out brawl, or aim to be first to the top. Be best at either and you’ll win the round. Win enough rounds and you’ll go forth and mutilate. It’s the arcade way.

It’s oh so refreshing to play a lovingly-crafted arcade throwback that doesn’t reduce the resolution to Duploesque blockitude. It’s also refreshing to find such a fun four-player couch brawler. It’s not so fun, however, seeing SkyScrappers’ price. Don’t get us wrong, it’s an ace single or multiplayer blast, but at A$32.95 wait for a PSN sale.

Otherwise, let it go, let it go...

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