You're an acrobatic skeleton in colorful platformer Super Skelemania

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Skelunky.

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Skeletons are time-honored videogame enemies. Countless games are filled with the things, from Diablo to Minecraft to Dark Souls to Divinity: Original Sin 2. So when you think of skeletons, you probably have a pretty concrete picture. You might think "spooky" or "dungeon" or "for god's sake just stay dead." You probably wouldn't think "acrobat," but thankfully developers like Ben Allen are here to push the envelope with games like Super Skelemania, a 2D platformer with a focus on exploration that happens to star an acrobatic skeleton.  

It feels inherently absurd to see a skeleton flip gaily through the air, but Super Skelemania's smooth animations do a good job selling it. Beyond bouncing off enemies and diving over gaps, our skeleton hero can also ball himself up and roll his head through gaps, which is a flavorful, Metroid-esque ability, the logic behind which I choose not to question. 

Naturally, if you're flexible enough to work as an acrobat (and lack skin and tendons), you can also hurl your still-attached head to damage enemies. It's another cool example of Super Skelemania's abilities being an extension of its characters, not to mention a nod to the Sega Genesis classic Decap Attack. 

Super Skelemania will release later this year, but in the meantime you can sample its colorful abilities and early levels for yourself in the free demo available via GameJolt. 

Austin Wood
Austin Wood
Staff writer, GamesRadar

Austin freelanced for PC Gamer, Eurogamer, IGN, Sports Illustrated, and more while finishing his journalism degree, and has been a full-time writer at PC Gamer's sister publication GamesRadar+ since 2019. They've yet to realize that his position as a staff writer is just a cover-up for his career-spanning Destiny column, and he's kept the ruse going with a focus on news, the occasional feature, and as much Genshin Impact as he can get away with.