REVIEW

Skylar and Plux: Adventure on Clover Island Review

by Jake Stewart, January 30th, 2018

After a dry spell for the standard 3D platforming titles of old, 2017 saw a fairly significant influx of the titles. Even in a year of so many competing titles for the genre, Skylar and Plux still manages to stand out among the rest and offer a unique experience.

Many of the other 3D Collect-a-thon styled games this year took this influences from Rare’s Banjo-Kazooie series, but Skylar and Plux deviates from this norm by taking inspiration from both Jak and Daxter, and Ratchet and Clank.

You take up the role of feline heroine Skylar, who has escaped from the clutches of the mysterious CRT, an evil overlord with a fantastic maniacal laugh. After escaping, Skylar meets up with the witty Plux and thus our standard buddy-protagonist relationship is born.

The setting of Clover Island is a mixed bag of quality. The starting location sports a very stylized somewhat minimalist art-style. For the most part, the quality leans more on the better side, but some aspects such as running water can look out of place and unappealing. Luckily, the locations stand out from one another enough that most of the experience will be spent marveling at the next pretty view, rather than nitpicking the smaller details. From grassy islands, frozen peaks, and sandy deserts, S&P always has a beautiful sight to show.

The movement is similar to that found in Ratchet and Clank. When first starting the game Skylar can occasionally feel a bit heavy and cumbersome to control. But, I found that as you get used to the weighted controls and unlock new forms of movement, jumping around Clover Island can be an absolute blast.

Similar to the style of Ratchet and Clank, Skylar will unlock different gadgets to help in your liberation of Clover Island. From Jetpacks, Time-Modifiers and giant magnets, there is plenty of interesting ways to interact with the environment. These gadgets will frequently be used to solve puzzles as well. None of the puzzles are much more than a minor head-scratcher but their inclusion is appreciated.

The combat style is very similar to Jak and Daxter but often feels like it misses more frequently than it hits. The range of Skylar’s attacks are extremely short and will often cause a situation where you’ll take damage simply because it’s difficult to get in range for an attack. Every enemy can be defeated in a single hit, so combat isn’t particularly difficult as much as it is an annoyance. This isn’t to say there isn’t any enjoyment to be found in the combat, pulling off a spin attack in a crowd of enemies just to see them all go flying can be extremely satisfying.

Taking it’s inspiration from the days of old, all moves and gadgets are ultimately used to collect different items across Clover Island. There are giant colored balls that need to be collected and these can be considered the “power stars” of the game. Aside from those, there are small orange crystals dotted across the map that can be collected as well. These are used to free the trapped inhabitants of the island, which in turn is used to expand your health meter. There isn’t quite as many items to collect as some other games in this genre, but it gets the job done.

Don’t go into Skylar and Plux expecting a long and expansive game like you might’ve found in Super Mario Odyssey, because the entire experience will last you around 3 hours. This is both a good and bad thing. On the good side, I never felt that a particular mechanic or area overstayed it’s welcome, and gave the game a nice sense of pacing. On the bad side, I just didn’t want it to be over yet, which I suppose is also a compliment to the game as well.

The only real notable issue is unfortunately a pretty big one, and that’s performance. Even if you’re not a stickler for frame-rates, the drops that you experience in some situations makes the game practically frozen in place. This only worsens as the game continues, as the first location had no issues, but the final boss fight felt like watching a power-point presentation on what I should be seeing. Which is a shame, because the final boss was essentially the only boss of the game and felt very exciting, but lost the impact due to consistent freezing issues.

Ultimately, Skylar and Plux is not the longest game, nor is it the most polished one. But if you’re looking for an experience similar to what was found in the classic 3D Platformers, this game will give you a very satisfying dose of nostalgia. From a beautiful soundtrack, a pleasant minimalist art style, and smooth movement, Skylar and Plux feels as if it could’ve been brought back from the PS2 era, performance issues and all.

Skylar and Plux is a very short, yet very enjoyable experience. If you can get past the myriad of performance issues, there's a lot to love in the adventure on Clover Island.