Skullgirls: 2nd Encore (NSP, XCI) ROM + v1.0.6 Update

Skullgirls: 2nd Encore immerses players in a captivating Dark Deco world, offering a stunning and fast-paced 2D fighting experience. With its 14 distinct and inventive characters, the game showcases diverse gameplay mechanics and vibrant personalities. This is a 2D fighting game developed by Reverge Labs and published by Autumn Games. In Skullgirls, players fight each other with teams of one, two, or three characters, attempting to knock out their opponents or have the most cumulative health when time runs out. The setting of the game revolves around the “Skull Heart”, an artifact that grants wishes for women. If a wisher with an impure soul uses the Skull Heart, she is transformed into a monster known as the “Skullgirl”. The game was released through the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade in April 2012 and received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised the animation and gameplay mechanics, while criticizing its initial roster size and online multiplayer features.

GAMEPLAY

Skullgirls is a tag team-based fighting game in which players control characters, each with unique attacks and fighting styles, to engage in combat. Players must damage the opponent and completely drain their health, thus knocking them out. A player wins when all opposing characters are knocked out. If time expires before then, the player with the most remaining health is declared the winner. Players may select a single fighter or choose to form a team of two or three.

A solo character possesses more health and deals more damage. Larger teams, while weaker, gain the ability to recover health when tagged out and perform “assists”, also known as “ensemble attacks”, where the on-screen character summons an off-screen teammate to perform a move. Players can assign custom assists in Skullgirls, further enhancing team customization. The gameplay for Skullgirls was modeled after Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes, incorporating the latter’s tag team mechanics, assists, and control scheme.

The control scheme utilizes six buttons, consisting of light, medium, and hard punches and kicks. These basic attacks can be chained together to form simple combos. Using a combination of button presses and directional inputs, players can also perform “special attacks”, which are slightly stronger than normal moves, and “blockbusters”, which are cinematic super moves that deal heavy damage and can hit multiple times. Blockbusters require players to build and expend meter, known in-game as “dramatic tension”. As the fight progresses, the players’ dramatic tension gauge will fill. Up to five bars of dramatic tension can be stored, with more powerful blockbusters requiring more bars of tension to execute. Dramatic tension can also be used to perform other universal techniques, such as “outtakes”, which force the opponent to switch characters, and “blockbuster sequels”, which allow the player to use multiple blockbusters consecutively.

Skullgirls includes technical features to address system and balance problems common in fighting games, such as “infinite combo” detection and protection against “unblockable attacks”. Infinite combos occur when a player can create a repeating, inescapable loop of attacks as an exploit. When the game detects an infinite combo by monitoring a player’s actions, the opposing player can break free from it by hitting any button. Unblockable attacks occur when a player, for example, uses a low-hitting move and a high-hitting assist at the same time, making it impossible for the opponent to block. The game attempts to remedy the issue by offering a brief grace period after blocking which will guard against other hit types.

MODES

Skullgirls has a variety of single-player and multiplayer game modes, including story mode, arcade mode, versus mode, tutorial mode, training mode, and online play. The story mode features small, non-canonical vignettes for each playable character, detailing “what if” scenarios playing out across alternate timelines. A canonical story mode has been teased, however, with the developers citing the inclusion of downloadable content (DLC) characters from the first season pass as necessary to tell their “true” story.  The arcade mode lets players fight against waves of AI-controlled opponents before reaching the final boss character, Marie. The tutorials section teaches players the gameplay fundamentals of Skullgirls, in addition to covering concepts underlying the fighting game genre as a whole. Seventeen tutorial courses are available, explaining both basic and advanced topics. The training room allows players to practice combos against an AI-controlled dummy, as well as access to advanced data, such as hitboxes.

The training room was later updated in Skullgirls Encore to include online functionality, allowing players to practice with friends instead. Online multiplayer features ranked and unranked matches using the GGPO networking library, providing a smoother online experience. Skullgirls Encore added “The Typing of the Skullgirls”, a mode inspired by The Typing of the Dead. When enabled, teams automatically generate dramatic tension and all basic attacks deal negligible damage. Blockbusters give timed typing prompts to the player, awarding damage for typing accuracy. Skullgirls 2nd Encore introduced several new game modes, including challenge mode, where players fight against computer opponents under unique battle conditions; trials mode, which tests players’ skills by having them perform combos under a button-by-button instructional system; and survival mode, which pits players against endless waves of enemies.

SETTING

Skullgirls takes place in the fictional Canopy Kingdom, a country reminiscent of the 1940s post-war United States, which is ruled by the Renoir royal family and plagued by the Medici mafia. The kingdom is populated by humans, anthropomorphic animals, giants, and other species. Magical items, creatures, and entities exist that grant their users and hosts various superhuman abilities, such as “Parasites” and “Living Weapons”. A large part of the kingdom follows the religion of the Trinity, a trio of extraterrestrial goddesses consisting of Venus, Aeon, and their mysterious Mother. Numerous individuals and organizations seek to obtain the Skull Heart, a sentient artifact with reality-warping powers created by the Trinity. The Skull Heart appears once every seven years and grants a woman a single wish. If the woman’s wish is impure, she is transformed into an undead monster known as the Skullgirl.

The Skullgirl and Skull Heart are devices used by the Trinity to wreak havoc on the world. Humanity has fought against many Skullgirls throughout history, establishing agencies to build weapons to confront them, the most notable of which is Canopy Kingdom’s Anti-Skullgirl Labs, a black-ops research institution spearheaded by the scientist Brain Drain. During the Grand War, a battle fought between the Canopy Kingdom and two neighboring nations, Queen Nancy Renoir nearly brought the world to ruin when she attempted to use the Skull Heart for the sake of peace. The three countries allied to bring down the Skullgirl, signing a peace treaty thereafter. Seven years later, a slave girl named Marie Korbel emerged as the newest Skullgirl and began to terrorize the Canopy Kingdom to exact revenge against the Medici. The game’s story mode follows several fighters and their journeys to confront Marie and claim the Skull Heart. Each fighter has their own motive for seeking the Skull Heart, whether to destroy it or use its power for their interests

CHARACTERS

The Skullgirls roster initially consisted of eight playable characters: Filia, Cerebella, Peacock, Parasoul, Ms. Fortune, Painwheel, Valentine, and Double. Following the conclusion of the game’s Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign in 2013, an additional five DLC characters were developed: Squigly, Big Band, Eliza, Beowulf, and Robo-Fortune. In 2014, a clone of Filia, named Fukua, was added in a free update. Fukua reuses assets from Filia and was designed as a nod to palette-swapped characters in fighting games. She was originally intended to be a temporary inclusion for April Fools’ Day but was kept in response to fan feedback. From 2021 through 2023, four more playable fighters were released as part of the Season 1 Pass: Annie, Umbrella, Black Dahlia, and Marie.

DEVELOPMENT

Skullgirls 2nd Encore is an enhanced version of Skullgirls Encore which was released exclusively for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita on July 7th, 2015. It was also released on April 13th, 2016 as a DLC upgrade to the original Skullgirls on Steam. The game was not released on the Nintendo 3DS, Wii U, or Xbox One due to a Nintendo platform port lacking a publisher and because of Microsoft’s parity policy at the time. However, at the Anime Expo 2018, it was revealed that the game would be coming to Nintendo Switch. It was released on October 22nd, 2019 by Skybound Games. An Xbox One port was announced at the same time as the Switch port.

Skullgirls 2nd Encore includes all of the DLC characters and stages funded by Lab Zero Games’ Indiegogo campaign, as well as “All Play” multiplayer lobbies and an extensive art gallery. The PS Vita version is playable on a PlayStation TV and supports up to two local players with DualShock 3 or 4 controllers, as well as any PlayStation 3 compatible fight sticks. Online is Cross-Play across the entire PlayStation family, letting you fight opponents who own either the PS3, PS4, or PS Vita version. The game also supports Cross-Buy, meaning purchasing the PS4 version of the game will grant you the PS Vita version for free and vice-versa.