Ancient prophesies? I'm a skeleton?! All in a day's work when you're living in the world that Skelly Selest paints!
Skelly Selest is a pixelated arena shoot-'em-up, straight from the dark depths of the underworld. Filled with fiendish characters and diet-macabre imagery, this title is sure to keep you busy with a fair bit of content retailing on Steam for £3.99.
Playing a bit like an arcade game, racking up a fine score is going to be your main goal. If you're new to the overwhelming nature that is wave-based arena shooters, you might have to sharpen your chops and die your way through a few times; Skelly Selest takes no prisoners, and it won't take long to find that out.
Controls are a bit of a tough one at first, but when you adjust to the pacing of your actions, you can really sink your teeth in. You come equipped with a sword that has a tidy close range, a projectile throw that depletes and refills with kills, and a smart dash that will just about get you out of trouble by the hair of your skeletal chiny-chin chin.
Visually, it's fantastic, but I did find that playing it windowed on my PC was a much easier way of looking at it with my aging eyes. I highly suspect it would be a perfect game to play on something like a Nintendo Switch in that respect. Just like a bullet hell, the screen will quickly fill up with all sorts: enemies and their projectiles alike. Couple that in with whatever is lying around in the board and you have a recipe for potentially losing sight of where you are on the screen. Luckily, there's a neat feature of grabbing up collectible hats, which in addition to making you more fashionable, do help you stand out from the crowd a bit.
I'm not going to lie here: it's a difficult and unforgiving game. There is something very addictive about the gameplay though--the rewards after the boards beaten are fun to play around with. You'll have various options to choose from to change the way battle goes (hopefully in your favour!), which is always a solid option in my book. There's also a neat card game thrown in (for those niche folk that enjoy both Final Fantasy and skeleton-based main characters) and the option to customize your stylish little dude to give the content some good, sturdy legs.
If you're into these types of bloodbaths, then Skelly Selest will no doubt be a winner for you. It's well thought out, will keep you coming back for more, and very robust for its price point. I would absolutely LOVE to see a speedrun of this was well; and bow down to those that would even attempt such a thing!