Skull Cracker
1996 video game
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Skull Cracker is a 1996 supernatural beat 'em up video game[1] developed by American studio CyberFlix and published by GTE Entertainment on Macintosh and Windows. It is sometimes considered a spiritual successor to the 1991 title Creepy Castle, which the game's head of technology William Appleton had previously written for Reactor Inc. Skull Cracker was conceptually designed by Ben Calica.[2]
| Skull Cracker | |
|---|---|
| |
| Developer | CyberFlix |
| Publisher | GTE Entertainment |
| Director | Rand Cabus |
| Producer | Robb Dean |
| Designer | Robb Dean |
| Programmers | Don McCasland Bill Appleton |
| Artists | Eric Whited Anthony S. Taylor |
| Writer | Mark Cabus |
| Composer | Scott Scheinbaum |
| Platforms | Windows, Mac OS |
| Release | 1996 |
| Genre | Beat 'em up |
| Mode | Single-player |
Development
After the release of Titanic: Adventure Out of Time, Cyberflix released this old project which had been sitting in the vaults for a few years.[3] The game was demoed on October 28, 1995 at the Double Tree Hotel (Crowne Plaza) in Rockville.[4] It also previewed at the 1994 Summer Consumer Electronics Show along with other Cyberflix games, presented by Paramount.[5]
Plot and gameplay
The developers described it as an "old-fashioned side-scrolling arcade game".[3] The game sees the player battle through 16 levels of the undead and monsters.[6] The game contains 50s-style monsters and 90s-style urban grit.[7]
Critical reception
GameSpot offered a scathing review, panning the title's "bad art, poor animation, limited controls, no decent action, lame gameplay".[8] MacLedge felt the game was a letdown from Cyberflix's previous work.[9] Inside Mac Games praised the title's intriguing storyline, witty humor and exciting gameplay.[10] Cyberflix head Scott Scheinbaum would later say "Every company makes mistakes, and that was ours...It should have come out a year and a half before it did", noting that 1994 technology seemed stale by 1996.[3] World Village noted the game was a departure from the history-based title Titanic.[11]