Video Game / Raskulls

aka: Magic Brick Wars

"Splice the mainbrace, swab the decks,
And hoist the colours high
Come rain or storm or gloom of night
We're Pirats 'til we die!"

— Pirats 'Til We Die, the game's credits theme and a Villain Song.

Raskulls is a 2010 Xbox 360 Arcade game by Halfbrick Studios that combines both quick platforming and block puzzles.

A band of vicious Rat Pirates called the Pirats crash lands on the mysterious planet they've never been to before. Forced to postpone their search for Cheese Planet, they find a reliable source of fuel for their ship in "Shiny Stones". However, they are also important to Raskulls, a cast of skeleton creatures inhabiting this planet. After Pirats fail their first attempt at stealing the stones, The King decides to host a tournament to capture the thief. Thus begins Raskully quest to keep and retrieve those Shiny Stones, before Pirats can get away with them.

Another game starring Raskulls, titled Magic Brick Wars was soft-launched in 2018 and released globally the next year. However, the game is a multiplayer-focused real-time strategy game with no plot to it. Think Clash Royale, just without Archer towers but King Tower being able to withstand multiple attacks, with more simplistic maps and the ability to put "Magic Bricks" on your half of the battlefield to form your defence. The game was discontinued in early 2021.

Not related to the line of children's bicycle helmets that resemble animals and monsters or the 1986 game Robot Rascals.

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Raskulls provides examples of:

• Bait-and-Switch: Before the last chapter begins, King makes a long speech, made to sound like he's going to send Knight to retrieve one of the Shiny Stones... only to reveal that he was talking about himself and he will be the one to get it back.
• Bragging Theme Tune: "Pirats 'Til We Die", the game's credits theme, has Pirats bragging how trying to fight back or hiding from them is pointless and threatening to steal all the treasures around. In the game proper, they are more comical, especially Scurv and Barney.
• Brick Joke: Literally. A Running Gag of the game is King using half bricks, all of which appear to hit Dragon. In the ending, Dragon returns the favor and pelts him with one back.
• Butt-Monkey: Dragon. Throughout the first chapter, he is constantly hit by King's bricks, gets dumped by Ridinghood, and after he ends up winning the Shiny Stone from the tournament, it immediately gets stolen by Captain J. Turncoat.
• Cheaters Never Prosper: Koala (Captain Turncoat in disguise) cheats at the tournament, using his own powers to zap and temporarily stun his opponents and using some assistance from Scurv and Barney. He defeats Pompous and Wizard this way off-screen, but fails when it's Dragon's turn to face him. Beating him also gives you an achievement named after a trope.
• Chekhov's Volcano: Dropping Shiny Stones here is enough to make it erupt. It's actually full of cheese.
• Company Cameo: King has a pile of literal half-bricks, which he often ties messages to and uses them as a means of delivering letters to his servants.
• Donut Mess with a Cop: Police Raskull loves donut... milkshakes.
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": All the Raskulls are named either after their occupation (King, Ninja, Wizard) or a thing they're dressed as (Angel, Dragon, Koala).
• Fission Mailed: In one of the cutscenes, as the tournament is about to start, Dragon is dumped by Ridinghood for Pompous. This triggers a game over screen, except the options are "Wallow in self-pity" and "Get on with life". No matter which one you pick, Dragon then gets a message from King wishing him luck in the tournament, and the game continues as normal.
• Frothy Mugs of Water: In second chapter, Wizard asks Ninja for "Jungle Juice".
• Fun with Acronyms: Super Nuclear Ultra Gem Grabbing Laser Extraction System. (S.N.U.G.G.L.E.S.) There's also C.U.D.D.L.E.M.U.F.F.I.N., but it isn't revealed what that stands for — the full name is so long, Scurv is interrupted before he could say it.
• Guest Fighter: Mr. Destructoid, Ilo, Doug from A World of Keflings and Barry Steakfries are among the playable characters in Multiplayer mode.
• Heroic Mime: Dragon and Ninja are the two Raskulls who don't talk at all.
• It's All About Me: King is extremely narcissistic and always ready to take all the credit for himself, though he's ultimately good-natured and willing to save the day.
• MacGuffin: Shiny Stones. The only explanation given for their importance to Raskulls is that they are "important to the plot". They seem to have enough power to be used as a fuel for Pirats' ship and allow Raskulls to activate "Frenzy Mode" without having to rely on Boosties, as demonstrated by Bonesaw in the tutorial.
• No MacGuffin, No Winner: In the middle of their Big Ball of Violence, King and Captain Turncoat accidentally drop Shiny Stones they were fighting for into the volcano. The following eruption still allows Pirats to leave the planet (but not before they realise this was meaningless), while Raskulls aren't shown to be too bothered by the loss.
• Meaningless Villain Victory: An eruption from the volcano allows Pirats to leave Raskulls without the Shiny Stones and continue their search for the Cheese Planet. Pretty much what they wanted, aside from the fact that they don't have the stones either... Then Turncoat is told that the volcano that allowed them to escape is full of erupting molten cheese. Turns out Pirats already found the Cheese Planet without even realising it, making their attempts to steal Shiny Stones from Raskulls and leave their planet pointless. Cue a Big "NO!" from Captain Turncoat.
• Pixellation: Played for Laughs in one of the cutscenes, where Scurv and Barney get all their clothes stolen by Ninja without them noticing, with their groins being comically censored by pixellation. Barney notices this, and Scurv treats this as something that happens to him every time he has no pants.
• Rock–Paper–Scissors: King suggests to play this game with Turncoat to see who gets both Shiny Stones. You even get to pick which of the three should he play. No matter what you selected, Turncoat chooses "Ship with lots of cannons", starting the final boss battle.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: In chapter 3, King sets out on a quest to retrieve one the Shiny Stones from the Pirats. He's the fourth and last playable character in the main campaign.
• The Smurfette Principle: Ridinghood is the sole female Raskull. Lampshaded by Wizard, who wonders why that is the case and feels that their creators "overlooked the whole gender balance thing".
• Space Pirates: Captain J. Turncoat, Scurv and Barney are a group of space rat pirates.
• Tertiary Sexual Characteristics: Ridinghood is the only Raskull with hair and eyelashes.
• Tradesnark™: Trademarks are occasionally used in dialogue, which include Wizard's NotLovePotion™ energy drink, Turncoat being Captain of the Pirats™, and King's Kinging Time™. The last one is just him jumping into action, if you are curious.
• Villain Song: "Pirats 'Til We Die" is a Rotten Rock & Roll example of one. It is sang by Pirats, who threaten Raskulls to give up all their treasures or walk the plank while gloating how they do it not just to live and eat, but also for their own pleasure.

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Magic Brick Wars provides examples of:

• Cartoon Bomb: Smoke Bomb looks like one. It makes troops invisible for few seconds.
• Company Cameo: In the Mines sections of the game, a Halfbrick logo can be randomly found on the floor.
• Fragile Speedster: Devil is the fastest unit, but also the one with a very low health.
• Guest Fighter: Barry returns as one of selectable avatars, accompanied by other characters from Halfbrick titles: Sensei, Truffles, Watermelon Ninja, Koya, Rory, Micro, Zombie T-Rex and Dan The Man.
• Heel–Face Brainwashing: Confuse Brick briefly turns any troop (Except for Mummy) into an enemy unit. Be warned that it affects all Raskulls regardless of the team and who placed Confuse Brick in the first place.
• Kill It with Fire: Fire Brick and Fireball. Witch Doctor throws these as projectiles and Dragon uses it for short-range attack on adjacent lanes.
• Kill It with Ice: Ice Brick and Cold Snap.
• Master of Disguise: Ridinghood appears on the battlefield disguised as some other Raskull unit, only revealing herself after she gets hit.
• Mighty Glacier: Viking. Mummy qualifies as well, being immune to some of the Magic Bricks.
• Mook Maker: "From the Grave", which spawns few weak troops on the field.
• Mooks: With the exception of King, all characters that return from the 2010 game are treated less like the dividuals with their own personalities, and more like disposable troops, of which there are many that look alike.
• Russian Reversal: Duck's description:
  In Raskulls, ducks feed you.
• Shout-Out:
  • Pirate's description states, that he's obsessed with pineapples under the sea.
  • Witch Doctor's description makes a reference to the famous "Witch Doctor" song:
    Old mate Witch Doctor will tell you what to do, the game will be yours when you say: Ooo eee, ooo ah ah ting tang walla walla bing bang.
  • Spiked Roller's descripton is a first lyric from Ridin’
  • Alongside Guest Fighters mentioned above, there are plenty of Emotes, Stickers and Banners that reference Halfbrick's previous games.

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