Skeleton Warriors is a 1998 Hack and Slash side-scrolling action game developed by Neversoft made for the PlayStation and Sega Saturn, based on the Saturday-morning cartoon of the same name as well as old-timey Medieval-fantasy action games.
Following closely to the cartoon's plot, the player assumes the role of Prince Lightstar, hero of the Legion of Light, in his continuous battle against Baron Dark and his army of skeleton warriors (well, no doy). Prince Lightstar gets to take on hordes and hordes of skeletal mooks as well as blob monsters, savage monkeys, wolves, giant floating jellyfishes, and all kind of enemies in twenty levels as he takes on Baron Dark's minions — Dagger, Aracula and Shriek — one at a time before confronting the Baron.
Skeleton Warriors (the game) contain examples of:
- Airborne Mook: Vultures in the wilderness, floating jellyfishes in the caverns, Jet Pack skeletons in the city. Make sure Prince Lightstar's sword is charged with energy bolts or they'll be a serious headache to deal with!
- Bears Are Bad News: The first boss of the game, Ursa, is a bear that towers over the Prince, and can even enlarge itself when it's health is halved. Subverted that he's a Warmup Boss which goes down without too much trouble.
- Blob Monster: Yellow-brown blobs are a minor enemy type in the caverns.
- Boss Rush: Before facing Baron Dark, get ready to face the previous skeletal bosses (which, in the cutscenes shown after previous battles, have them rearranging themselves and then fleeing), which will challenge you to a rematch. Thankfully they're only just as tough as their initial encounter, but Prince Lightstar would have far better equipment and more power-ups by that point.
- Ceiling Cling:
- The Temple stage has Prince Lightstar climbing to the underside of various platforms to reach the higher levels. Said level contains numerous killer monkeys which will impede the Prince repeatedly, in addition to the already-present skeleton enemies.
- The airship stage has the Prince getting around by clinging on the underside of catwalks while facing spider-skeletons who does the same.
- Degraded Boss: The previous skeletal bosses fought by Prince Lightstar shows up in the final level, but this time they're merely Baron Dark's personal guards and a lot easier at this point. Shriek and Aracula is notably fought together as a Dual Boss, followed by Dagger who is a repeat of his initial encounter, before the Prince confronts Baron Dark.
- Dem Bones: In a game titled "Skeleton Warriors", it's definitely no surprise that 75% of enemies encountered are skeletons. It comes in a variety of flavours too — lightly-armored fist-fighting skeletons, swordsman skeletons, pistol-wielding skeletons, spider skeletons, scorpion skeletons, miniature skeletons, animal skeletons, jetpack skeletons, bazooka skeletons, machine-gun skeletons...
- Familiar: Shriek is backed up by her skeletal mini-dragon familiar during her boss fight, which assists it's master by firing stray fireballs on Prince Lightstar. Said familiar cannot be killed, although attacking it will gain points, and the skeletal mini-dragon disappears after Shriek is beaten.
- Floating Platforms: The entire game has plenty of these, notably in the airship stage and city stage. Although unlike other games of it's type, missing a jump won't result in an instant death — rather, Prince Lightstar simply bounces right back up to the nearest platform, losing quite a bit of health in the process.
- Flying Seafood Special: Giant jellyfishes are a recurring enemy in the cavern levels, and attacks by floating above Prince Lightstar and dropping their poisonous spit.
- Foul Flower: The underground caverns has acid-spitting flowers.
- The Grim Reaper: Shriek, one of the last skeletal bosses, is meant to invoke the Reaper in her appearance, what with her confronting Prince Lightstar near a waterfront (a stand-in for River Styx) and armed with a Sinister Scythe.
- Hover Bike: Between levels on foot, there are occasional stages where Prince Lightstar gets to commandeer his hoverbike to get to the next area, while being pursued by the Baron's minions. (skeletons on hoverbikes? Yep.)
- Losing Your Head: After defeating Aracula, what follows is a cutscene where the skeleton general tries reforming... only for Prince Lightstar to pick up his head. Aracula's headless body then fumbles around for his cranium before the Prince kicks Aracula's skull into a corner. Cue the headless Aracula chasing after his skull and comically running into a wall.
- Maniac Monkeys: The Temple level is full of hostile monkeys who can throw projectiles at Prince Lightstar. There's also a King Mook monkey (who behaves more like a Killer Gorilla despite it's monkey-like appearance) who is fought at the temple's exit, having his own giant life-bar only reserved for bosses.
- Mini-Boss: The caverns stage has a short battle against a floating Living Gasbag enemy, whose attack consists of trying to sting the Prince with it's external spikes and lay multiple Blob Monster enemies around the area. So that's where all the blob creatures in the caverns are from...
- Mirror Match: Before the confrontation against Baron Dark, the Baron will summon a clone of Prince Lightstar to fight him. After defeating the clone, cue the Final Boss.
- Multi-Armed and Dangerous: There are eight-limbed spider skeletons whom are faster and tanks more hits than regular skeletons, some of them capable of using guns. And of course, Aracula the skeleton boss whose multiple arms allows him to scale walls and attack from above.
- Pulling Themselves Together:
- The skeleton mooks (all of them) can reform after their defeat, although the process will take several seconds — by collecting their souls (which manifests into power-ups or health) the skeletal pieces will then explode.
- And then there's the bosses, Dagger, Aracula, and Shriek. After Prince Lightstar defeats them the first time, the following cutscene will have them reforming whole and leaving. They can only be killed in the final level before facing Baron Dark.
- Roofhopping: The Luminicity Levels, where the Prince battle enemies on the city's rooftops. Beware of Jet Pack skeletons!
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Dagger, Aracula and Shriek, after being defeated twice by Prince Lightstar, quickly fled from the area. There's no way to kill them for good in the first encounter — they will come back in the finale.
- Sequential Boss:
- The skeletal bosses needs to be fought twice, with their second form gaining a new attack (such as Dagger throwing explosive projectiles or Aracula using his Wall Crawl to move all over the arena).
- Baron Dark will sic a clone of Prince Lightstar which he must defeat, before facing the Prince directly.
- Sword Beam: Prince Lightstar's sword can fire bolts of blue energy capable of taking down skeletons from a distance. It has limited capacity but can be recharged by collecting blue or red crystals, and later on it can be upgraded to fire three spread-out shots at once, or red bolts that can home on targets.
- Teleport Spam: Baron Dark's primary schtick in the final level. He'll port all over the damn place during the fight, and the battle is as difficult as it sounds.
