By Nathan Grayson on November 30th, 2012 at 11:00 am.
I do not enjoy the musical stylings of Skrillex. I fully acknowledge that some people do, and that’s awesome. Music is wonderful in all its various forms, so good for you. (On the other hand, I don’t particularly enjoy his hair stylings either, and if you do, you’re irredeemable.) At any rate, in spite of his probable sky palace held aloft by glorious golden chains tethered to god’s toenails, Skrillex now has something that could be considered an “independent videogame.” Here’s the weird thing, though: it’s kind of good. Created primarily by Jason Oda, Skrillex Quest is a fairly ambitious (at least, in terms of scope) effort that mashes up bits of old-school Zelda, Swords and Sworcery, and trippy glitch visuals. Oh, and a Skrillex song, naturally.
I played through the whole thing in about a half-hour or so, and it left me legitimately surprised. The gist is that its entire world exists inside an old game cartridge, and a few stray flecks of dust threaten to scramble the entire place into a patchwork jambalaya of jagged pixels. It’s up to you, then, to save the day and rescue a random princess and stab a giant floating Skrillex face to death for some reason.
No, Skrillex Quest doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, but it doesn’t some pretty neat things along the way. The world, for instance, feels vast and riddled with secrets (I only found 38 percent of them, apparently), and its tendency to dissolve into chunky pixel stew creates quite an interesting look. Meanwhile, it doesn’t take long to get incredibly meta, with increasing “glitchiness” overtaking quest-givers, store-owners, and the like to create some bizarre, oddly chilling moments. Also, I managed to maneuver my silent protagonist so that he walked right up to the screen in a dungeon once, and – to my surprise – he immediately said, “Hello, player of this game. Please don’t let me die.”
I wouldn’t declare Skrillex Quest dark horse GOTY or anything ridiculous like that, but – for what it is – there’s an impressive deal of substance to the proceedings. Have a quick look around and see what you think. Oh, and maybe turn down your volume. No, further. Further. Actually, just unplug your speakers. There you go. That’s better.
30/11/2012 at 11:07 Hammers says:
The game doesn’t look like it uses impressive tech,no doubt it plays well though.
30/11/2012 at 11:28 Vurogj says:
Well played sir, at least you would be a sir on receipt of a dub,step forward and receive one.
30/11/2012 at 11:42 Savage Henry says:
The subtlety of your puns nearly left me in the dark; wave them around a bit more obviously next time, please.
30/11/2012 at 12:28 goettel says:
Wob is this I don’t even
01/12/2012 at 00:34 Versipellis says:
Typical prole! Witch House are you in, Hufflepuff?
30/11/2012 at 19:49 Baines says:
Unless comma separated puns become a new meme. War, face?
30/11/2012 at 12:39 methodology says:
This game is the summit of game design, and if you don’t agree I will kill everybody.
30/11/2012 at 11:17 The Random One says:
Quite intriguing, I’ll check it out.
“stab a giant floating Skrillex face to death for some reason”
I’m not a Skrillex fan either but as I understand an incongruous, screaming Skrillex face is as much part of the Skrillex experience as the songs, if not more.
30/11/2012 at 11:21 Oozo says:
Apropos nothing: The other shockingly decent advergame of late is “Dikembe Mutombo’s 4 1/2 Weeks to Save the World” by Old Spice. Made by, among others, Adam “Canabalt” Saltsman.
http://www.oldspicesavestheworld.com/
The devs have a week to create the respective stages/minigames of the game, based on pitches that read like that:
“We’re going to be doing a Battletoads-style level where you’re descending down the throat of America through the use of a jetpack throwing election ballots to people dancing ‘Gangnam Style’ on little ledges in the throat while avoiding disco balls before having a boss fight with the state of Ohio. Any questions?”
And yeah, that’s the actual first stage of the game. It’s very solid!
30/11/2012 at 11:40 Henke says:
Yeah that one’s great. Can’t wait for part 3!
30/11/2012 at 16:50 Hatsworth says:
Yeah, preferred that even though this is decent too.
30/11/2012 at 11:26 Stardog says:
Seriously cool.
30/11/2012 at 11:30 ginzoo says:
very good game, slight trip down memory lane having to blow on the connectors in the cartridge :). depending if you like skrillex’s music (i do) decent soundtrack, Well done Jason Oda
as Stardog says , seriously cool
30/11/2012 at 11:32 DrScuttles says:
The game was just long enough, quite interesting and generally fun to play. But the music…. uh, the music. And I keep reading it as “Skillrex” which makes more sense for a game to my mind.
30/11/2012 at 12:00 end0rphine says:
Warning: may cause seizures
30/11/2012 at 13:38 Jackablade says:
Mm. Those cycling tiles started hurting my eyes pretty quickly.
30/11/2012 at 12:01 Orija says:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0A0K59IFRJI
30/11/2012 at 12:14 leQuack says:
Funny game, short enough to check it out and certainly trippy enough
30/11/2012 at 12:42 SonicTitan says:
wubwubwubwubwubwubwubwubwubwubwubwub
30/11/2012 at 12:43 SonicTitan says:
I find this game hilarious for some reason, and it is of course the only game Skrillex could make – self-aware, self-referential, self-aggrandizing. Made my morning.
30/11/2012 at 19:14 Techercizer says:
I believe it was made by these talented blokes here: http://jasonoda.com/
Whether it was commissioned by Skrillex or merely designed around his music is something I do not know.
30/11/2012 at 13:20 paranoydandroyd says:
This is a brilliant little number. It makes me smile.
30/11/2012 at 14:06 rampofdeath says:
I played through it a couple of times last night. At one point a man in a hut informed that, no, I could not have any food as it was all poisoned; he followed this up by letting me know that “all the children have cancer”.
Whallopping the incandescent cubes and Skrillexeses was jolly good fun, while the npc chats were often inexplicably disturbing and melancholy.
30/11/2012 at 14:36 rampofdeath says:
Oh, also! I was playing in parallel with my friend as we exchanged live updates over im. He claims to have met a hut-man who transformed his screen into an enormous collage consisting solely of the word “diarrhoea”, so yeah, keep an eye out for that.
30/11/2012 at 19:13 Techercizer says:
Well, I think it’s somewhat understandable given the setting. It’s the video game equivalent of the black plague, except it’s ten times quicker and it effects everything from people to landscapes. So the Melding Plague, if you’re a Reynolds fan, but without being limited to implants.
30/11/2012 at 14:30 InternetBatman says:
Did anyone get all the items? Does anything change?
30/11/2012 at 15:15 JimmyBlanka says:
Pretty cool, reminded me of the Glitch room in Fez ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQp2zJi2vI0 )
30/11/2012 at 16:09 Brun says:
Stay tuned for the sequel! The Legend of Skrillex: Wub Wub of Time, coming 2013!
30/11/2012 at 16:13 Dr I am a Doctor says:
all the food is poisoned
All the tree§ are dead/
all the children have cancer
you’re next
30/11/2012 at 18:49 Rikard Peterson says:
What’s a Skrillex?
30/11/2012 at 18:50 Techercizer says:
I liked this game quite a lot, actually. It brought back a lot of nostalgia in the simplicity of its base game, and the themes were reminiscent of .hack://
It felt like a modern take on the classic formula. I don’t know any of Skrillex’s* music or work, but I didn’t mind the in-game music. I thought it was appropriate to the setting and that it did a good job of setting the mood.
Edit: Apparently the chap’s name is “Skrillex”. Huh.
30/11/2012 at 20:37 Brilhasti says:
The screenshot is of the last castle in Dragon Warrior, is it not?
30/11/2012 at 23:47 edwardoka says:
Can’t abide Skrillex, he is at least indirectly responsible for WUB WUB WUB SKREE SKREE on every second or third game video.
I was most pleased to smash his voxelly hipster chops with an equally voxelly sword.
Bloody great game, too.
01/12/2012 at 04:26 Laephis says:
Complaints about Skrillex’s music regarding this game are way overblown. The main theme (“Summit”) is pretty “dubstep-lite” and damn catchy, too. — and that’s coming from someone who dislikes 95% of Skrillex songs . If you generally enjoy electronic music, this game has a great vibe.
01/12/2012 at 06:14 amishmonster says:
Is this a loot-driven game? I would expect a Skrillex game to be full of drops.
01/12/2012 at 06:26 edwardoka says:
Well played, sir. Well played.