Skull Island: Rise of Kong

Skull Island: Rise of Kong
"He has no style, he has no grace! This King Kong has been f**king disfaced!" - DK Rap (Gorilla Version)
Protagonist(s): Kong Genre(s): Action-adventure Fighting Platform(s): Microsoft Windows Nintendo Switch PlayStation 5 PlayStation 4 Xbox Series X/S Xbox One Release: October 17, 2023 Engine: Unreal Engine 5 Developer(s): IguanaBee Publisher(s): GameMill Entertainment Country: Chile

Skull Island: Rise of Kong is a 2023 action-adventure video game developed by IguanaBee and published by GameMill Entertainment, the game is based on the King Kong novels by DeVito Artworks.

Plot

The story, which takes elements from Kong: King of Skull Island, features Kong, an orphaned member of a race of giant apes, as he tries to survive on Skull Island with its numerous dangerous animals, all while seeking out Gaw, the monstrous dinosaur who killed his parents.

Why The King of Apes Got Tired of Fighting

1. Awful graphics that look outdated and hideous as it truly looks like an Unity Asset game despite running on the Unreal Engine 5. This is also laughably bad because another King Kong game that came out in 2005 titled Peter Jackson's King Kong: The Official Movie of the Game came out on 6th generation consoles, Xbox 360, and PC. It looks miles better than this game and is one of the best King Kong games of all time.
   • It also looks worse than most games released in 2023, and the graphics are on par with the awful Nintendo Switch version of Mortal Kombat 1. In fact, even some PAW Patrol games, such as Paw Patrol World, look better than this, making this a huge problem.
   • The character models are very blocky and look like they came from a 2003 PlayStation 2 or a shovelware game rather than a PS5, PS4, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S game released in 2023. Even games such as Hogwarts Legacy, Marvel's Spider-Man 2, Just Dance 2024 Edition, Mortal Kombat 1, Super Mario Bros. Wonder, Pikmin 4, The Legend Of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom (despite the graphics, it is much more pleasant to watch than this trash), Sonic Superstars, Baldur’s Gate 3, NHL 24, MLB The Show 23, EA Sports PGA Tour, F1 23, and NBA 2K24 (while a mediocre game, but still way better than this game that this article is talking about), look better in comparison.
   • The game literally uses the weak "it's for kids" excuse, since kids' games, such as Pikmin and Pikmin 2, Super Mario Sunshine, Super Mario Galaxy and its sequel, the three of which were released two decades ago, had better graphics than this garbage, even though both Pikmin games are more polygonal than that, while Super Mario Sunshine and Super Mario Galaxy and its sequel's graphics have aged rather well. Many licensed Lego titles, including those based on other popular media, look far better than this game.
   • Kong and enemies, for example, look like cartoon characters, or worse, Fortnite animals, which shows that developers don't even know how to model these types correctly, despite the video game cover representing a Kong with a lot of detail.
   • The graphics are also so bad to the point of making some 2000s games looking much better, such as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: Battle Nexus, Naruto: Clash of Ninja along with it's sequel, Kirby Air Ride, Sonic Heroes, Pac-Man World 2 along with it's sequel and predeccesor, Castlevania: Curse of Darkness, all of them look better than this game and they we're all released in the 2000s, showing how bad the graphics of this game are.
   • Even some 2000s games with awful graphics look better than this game, such as Naruto: Uzumaki Chronicles, Bruce Lee: Quest of the Dragon, SpongeBob's Truth or Square on PSP and even the DS version, Mega Man X7, The Grinch on PS1 and Super Monkey Ball: Adventure all look better than this and these games as said before have mediocre to downright awful graphics, showing how bad the graphics of this game are.
   • Not only that but the game sometime even look like an early PS1 game, or even a Sega Saturn game that was released in 1997.
2. The cutscenes are terrible, with awful animation and short length, and they don't explain that much about what's going on in this game. They are so bad that it's makes the cutscene animations of Sonic Adventure look great in comparison.
3. Speaking of the cutscenes, there is an infamous cutscene showing Kong's flashback, but it's not even an animation and is just a screenshot, which shows how lazy the cutscenes are. It's so bad that in a short time, it's become an internet meme.
4. The Xbox One/Series S/X versions have very poor sound quality, especially the voiceovers in the cutscenes, in which they sound like they were recorded from a GBA game, which is absolutely unacceptable for both consoles, as it's can produce much better sound quality than this.
5. The level design is very awful and lazy as it just uses lazy assets, and due to that, the game is repetitive very quickly, not to mention that due to how horrible the controls and how much glitchs there are in this game, it's make everything worst.
   • In fact, sometime navigating in some levels is hard and extremely confusing, it's even comparable to Balan Wonderworld but somehow even worst than that game in the level design.
6. Kong appears much smaller in-game than the box art would imply, appearing less intimidating than his 2005 movie and tie-in game counterpart. In fact, he's about the size of a regular ape. Even UFO Robot Grendizer: The Feast of the Wolves has better size than this.
7. The controls are stiff and too complex; one example is that you have to hold a certain button to grab a log as a melee weapon; not holding it will result in Kong dropping it.
   • The jump is also very stiff and feels like you will have trouble with the platform section due to how horrible the jump controls are. It's so bad that it's making the Agent Hugo: Hula Holiday controls look tight in comparison.
   • Even the more simple mouvements are extremely stiff and clunky, with them being so clunky to do that the game is completly unplayable, as a result, the game is a nightmare to play.
   • The controls are also extremely unresponsive and we're made even more abysmal than what you would expect, this is especially true with the already abysmal jump controls, as said before.
8. The boss fights are repetitive and terribly designed, as most of them are just mashing buttons till they die and dodge their attacks.
9. The fighting is also repetitive, as Kong's only attack is mostly just punching and grabbing a log as a melee weapon, in fact this can even be compared to the earliest beat em up games but somehow even worst.
   • Sure, some games have poor or at least clunky but decent combats system, such as Naruto: Uzumaki Chronicles from the Naruto series, The Great Battle VI from The Great Battle series, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow from the Castlevania series (despite being decent, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: Battle Nexus from the 2003 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series all have poor or clunky combats system but this game take this flaw to the extreme, as a result, the combats in this game is downright awful.
10. The hit detection is also bad, as there isn't any impact or satisfaction that you are hitting an enemy, which make the game even more boring, the hit-detection with the platforms is also extremely terrible due to the many atrocious glitchs in the game.
11. There's a lot of bugs and glitches, such as the one where some textures disappear randomly, making the kids scared, what is inappropriate to have scary bugs in children's games, kind of like Doraemon: Nobita to Fukkatsu no Hoshi on PS1, or when Kong can even get stuck in a wall or platform!
12. The story is extremely bland and uninteresting, especially for a King Kong game, as it's just the Skull Island movie story but is much worse than the said movie.
13. The ending is incredibly unsatisfying and terrible, which is unacceptable for a 2023 game.
14. There's barely any music in the game, and most of it that is there is rather bland.
15. The map is incredibly useless as it doesn't feature any single guidance whatsoever.
16. The game has a huge amount of performance issues as the framerate will constantly dip down, especially on Switch.
17. The reason why the game is the way it is, is because the publisher GameMill Entertainment told the developers that they had only 1 year to develop the game.

Redeeming Qualities

1. The box art looks incredible, despite being misleading, and it's got a very cool background and drawing.
2. Despite how awful the game is, it is still nice to see another King Kong game after 18 years of having no games.
3. Making a platformer out of the King Kong license was a great idea, but unfortunately, the game got an awful execution.
4. The game has a so bad it's good vibe due to how terrible the game is.

Reception

Upon release, the game received negative reception both critics and gamers alike. It was criticized for its boring combat, generic gameplay, poorly designed levels, and dated graphics.

In one particular cutscene that was spread online via Twitter, King Kong has a flashback to his past while encountering an enemy, with a poorly edited image being presented on screen to represent the flashback before Kong leaps at the enemy.

When Angry Joe's listing the Worst Games of 2023, it gives rating a 2/10.

Trivia

• The game was actually published by the same company who published the rather infamous Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing, which could probably explain why the game is so bad and glitchy.
• Similiar to The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, developer IguanaBee had one year to build the game from scratch, beginning in June 2022. Unnamed sources alleged that two to 20 developers were working on the game at any given time, and that the team were required to crunch in order to finish the project. The report also stated that GameMill gave IguanaBee very few details about the game, forcing the latter to improvise.

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