It looks like Lab Zero Games' new role-playing game Indivisible is going to be including a handful of playable party members from popular indie games. The developers have already promised a pretty big cast of characters to begin with, with protagonist Ajna being able to team up with 25 different "Incarnations" throughout her adventures.

But on top of all that, players can look forward to the following familiar faces:

• Shovel Knight, from Shovel Knight
• Juan, from Guacamelee
• Annie, from Skullgirls
• The Drifter, from Hyper Light Drifter
• Zackasaurus, from Super Time Force Ultra
• Lea, from Curses N' Chaos
• Calibretto, from Battle Chasers

It'll be fun for fans of these indie franchises to see their favorite characters adapted into the RPG and it's unique battle system. Lab Zero announced that they're working hard at making the characters fit properly into the world of Indivisible and that they hope to have more guest characters to join up with Anja in the future.

Indivisible is a hybrid game, featuring both platforming and RPG elements. The combat system is reminiscent of the system found in Valkyrie Profile, which released back in 1999. Each member of your four-person party is mapped to one of the face buttons on the controller, allowing for the group to function as a customizable fighting game character. Different weapons and abilities will allow for directional inputs on the controller for combos, also letting you hit multiple enemies at once. 

You can help fund Indivisible by checking out its Indiegogo page.

Software piracy has been something that developers have been combatting for years.  Whether it is including invincible characters like the pink scorpion found in Serious Sam 3, freezing and deleting on reset like with Earthbound, or posting a tweet proclaiming your crime such as with Tweetbot game developers have their ways to try and punish those who take the easy (read: free) way out.

However, if you do decide to pirate software, maybe you shouldn't mention anything odd that may occur in your pirated copy on social media sites.  

Apparently, Dan Hibiki didn't get this memo before he went to Twitter and asked the game developers what his error message "What is the square root of a fish? Now I'm sad" that popped up at the end of Skullgirls meant. 

//@Skullgirls So I got this message after beating story with both Para and Cere and I have no idea what it means... pic.twitter.com/Nv5bH1vqkV

— Dan Hibiki (@SaikyoChamp) July 8, 2014

 

Without missing a beat, Skullgirls developers responded with 

@SaikyoChamp Oh that? It means you should probably buy the game instead of pirate it. o:)

— Skullgirls (@Skullgirls) July 8, 2014

Hibiki quickly backtracked claiming that he had already bought the game after doing a "try-before-you-buy thing" for the PS3 and intended to purchase it for the PC but couldn't because "GAMESTOP DOESN'T SELL IT DIRECTLY ONLINE AND I DON'T WANT TO LEAVE MY HOUSE!!!" but not before receiving an array of angry responses and retweets (to the point where Hibiki asked how to make it stop).

The good news that came out of all of this, though, is probably how it was handled by Skullgirls developers:

@SaikyoChamp It’s all good, man. Well... I mean, it isn’t really, but I get it. Just try to do the right thing eventually.

— Skullgirls (@Skullgirls) July 8, 2014

It reassuring that they can come out on top without degrading their image in the process.

We all know that software piracy is a thing, but perhaps other pirates can take notes on how not to handle a situation like Hibiki's.

All fighting games essentially boil down to the same thing: hit your opponent with various combinations of attacks until their health meter drops to zero and they stop fighting back.

However, different fighting franchises use gimmicks to differentiate themselves from the rest of the genre and keep players hooked. Mortal Kombat has copious amounts of violence, Marvel vs Capcom lets you make teams out of all your favorite Marvel and Capcom characters, and Dead or Alive throws the anatomy of its well endowed cast in your face every five seconds.

The hook for Skullgirls is its art style. It is like a mix between anime and an Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoon. It has an Art Deco aesthetic to it as well, that really seems to tie it all together into a package that is a delight to feast your eyes on.

The mix of smooth jazz and opera that accompanies the visuals matches so well that it’s difficult to describe as anything other than perfect. The whole package is quite wonderful and it’s very obvious by the amount of detail that a lot of love went into crafting this game.

The attention to details doesn’t stop at the surface; it also manifests itself in the gameplay. The controls are tight and responsive and they feel great, though they aren’t very well suited for a standard controller, as due to the lack of buttons some punches and kicks will have to be relegated to the trigger and shoulder buttons. The game was clearly crafted with a fighting stick in mind, and I highly recommend it to get the most enjoyment out of the game.

When picking characters you can choose between one super powered character or two or three lesser powered characters that can call in assist attacks from one another and can heal when they aren’t the ones fighting. This changes up the established 2D fighting formula quite a bit as each match can be as simple or hectic as you want. Each character has been balanced perfectly, so whether you have a team of one or three it never feels unfair. It’s a good system and I’d love to see it implemented in more games.

There is plenty to do in Skullgirls. You can hit up arcade mode or challenge a stranger online. There’s even a story mode where you can follow each character as they attempt to claim the wish-granting Skullheart for themselves and become a titular Skullgirl. The story isn’t spectacular and really just gives the characters reasons to bump into each other and get into spontaneous brawls, but it’s still entertaining while it lasts.

The real meat of the game is in its training mode where you can learn the basics as well as more advanced tactics that all carry over to any other 2D fighting game on the market. It’s perfect for those new to the genre as well as veterans looking to refine their skills.

One major complaint I have with the game is that there isn’t any place to view a list of attacks for each character. The Skullgirls website contains a list you can download to your desktop, otherwise, if you want to learn how to use each character, you’ll just have to go through some trial and error. It’s odd and frustrating that such a staple in modern fighters wouldn’t be included as part of the initial release of the game.

Before you dive in to the world of Skullgirls be warned: the entirety of the all-female cast is hyper sexualized. Each character’s proportions are outrageous and you’ll constantly be seeing absurd amounts of cleavage and upskirt shots. It’s enough to make Dead or Alive blush. However, if you can see past all that you’ll find a fighter that is well worth the price of admission.

If you’re an enthusiast of fighting games or then Skullgirls is an obvious must buy. And with a slew of new characters coming soon as free DLC thanks to a crowdfunding campaign earlier this year, there’s never been a better time to hop on the bandwagon. 

Sometimes contests have happy endings even for the side that loses.  EVO held a contest to decide what the eighth and final game of the Evolution Championship Series would be for 2013, and for the month of January two games both donated tens of thousands of dollars.  Super Smash Bros. Melee eventually won the donation race, but Skullgirls stayed neck and neck with them, even passing them several times until the finish.

While Smash Bros. may have won with its total donations adding up to $94,683, Skullgirls did still donate an impressive $78,760 for the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.  As a nod to the huge amount of money that the second-place finishing game did manage to raise, over double what the next-highest donating game managed, EVO has decided to go ahead and host a side tournament for Skullgirls anyway.

The side tourney will have a top prize of $1000 and EVO will be streaming the top eight matches live.  Congratulations to everyone who donated to second place, your generosity has been noted.

At the start of the year, EVO announced the first seven games of its competitive lineup for the Evolution Championship Series for this year's event.  More immediately relevantly, they announced a charity fundraiser for the final game, stating that the game that had the most money donated in its name would find itself as the final game chosen.  They announced that the winner would be decided at the end of the month of January.

Now that it's February, the official announcement has been made.  While for most of the month it was a close race between Skullgirls and Super Smash Bros. Melee, in the end Smash Bros. pulled well ahead with a dominant lead, becoming the eighth and final game of this year's EVO.

The final totals had the donations from the two games at $94,683 for Melee and $78,760 for Skullgirls, with the total donated across all of the games in the running reaching an astounding $225,744 for the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.  Look forward to the coming gaming this July!

Xbox 360 Skullgirls fans have been left in the dark after the release of the massive Slightly Different Edition patch on the PlayStation 3 back in November. The update, which contains a ton of tweaks, fixes, and features completely revamped the game for PS3 owners -- so why are Xbox 360 owners being ignored?

According to a tweet on the game's Japanese Twitter, Microsoft has some issues with the size of the patch. The tweet reads (translated by myself):

"Sorry! According to Microsoft's rules, 4MB is the maximum for an update. But Skullgirls' update is about 590MB. We've asked for an exception, but it's pretty hard. We're doing our best, we promise!"

This isn't the first time Microsoft's update limitations have put a hamper on a game's plans for future development. Hopefully the team over at Lab Zero games will be able to work something out to get the patch to Xbox 360 Skullgirls players. If not, well.. that's a pretty big bummer.

Source: SkullgirlsJP (Twitter, Japanese)
Via: XBLA Fans

Skullgirls players were left confused when there was no actual patch to go with the patch notes that were released earlier this year. It turns out there's a reason for the prolonged silence of Reverge Labs: The team behind Skullgirls was no longer with them. So where did they go?

According to the new studio's site, Reverge Games laid the team off in June. The team, in turn, went on to create Lab Zero Games in order to continue supporting Skullgirls.

Wait... What? How?

The Lab Zero Games site goes on to say that the lay off and the circumstances surrounding it have "delayed the resumption of work on the PC version, and indefinitely delayed the first DLC character". They also say they are working to bring both of these things to players.

Those confused about how they can take the Skullgirls intellectual property from one studio to another: Autumn Games, the publisher, owns the game. There is no reason to worry about fights over the IP, thankfully.

So what does this mean for Skullgirls?

Well, it looks like we're going to be seeing the dev support behind the game that fighter fans have expected since day one. Skullgirls was left largely ignored by many fighting game fans because of the lack of support, and many of those who really got into the game were left without a real scene to turn to.

All in all, the creation of Lab Zero Games is good news for fans of Skullgirls. We can assume that the patch released today is only the first of many surprises Lab Zero has in store. The game spent too much time in limbo, it's time to let it shine.

Source 1: Skullgirls Team Forms Lab Zero Games
Source 2: Lab Zero Games