Skull Cracker is a 1996 supernaturalbeat 'em upvideo game[1] developed by American studio CyberFlix and published by GTE Entertainment on Macintosh and Windows. It is sometimes considered a spiritual successor to the 1991 title Creepy Castle, which the game's head of technology William Appleton had previously written for Reactor Inc. Skull Cracker was conceptually designed by Ben Calica.[2]
After the release of Titanic: Adventure Out of Time, Cyberflix released this old project which had been sitting in the vaults for a few years.[3] The game was demoed on October 28, 1995 at the Double Tree Hotel (Crowne Plaza) in Rockville.[4] It also previewed at the 1994 Summer Consumer Electronics Show along with other Cyberflix games, presented by Paramount.[5]
The developers described it as an "old-fashioned side-scrolling arcade game".[3] The game sees the player battle through 16 levels of the undead and monsters.[6] The game contains 50s-style monsters and 90s-style urban grit.[7]
GameSpot offered a scathing review, panning the title's "bad art, poor animation, limited controls, no decent action, lame gameplay".[8] MacLedge felt the game was a letdown from Cyberflix's previous work.[9] Inside Mac Games praised the title's intriguing storyline, witty humor and exciting gameplay.[10] Cyberflix head Scott Scheinbaum would later say "Every company makes mistakes, and that was ours...It should have come out a year and a half before it did", noting that 1994 technology seemed stale by 1996.[3] World Village noted the game was a departure from the history-based title Titanic.[11]
^Hudak, Chris (2004-03-01). "SkullCracker Preview". GameSpot. Archived from the original on 2018-04-25. Retrieved 2018-04-25.
^McDonald, Tim (31 October 1996). "SkullCracker Review". Archived from the original on 25 April 2018. Retrieved 25 April 2018.
^"Skull Cracker". 15 June 2000. Archived from the original on 15 June 2000.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
^Deniz, Tuncer (November 1994). "Sneak Peek: Skullcracker"(PDF). Inside Mac Games. Archived(PDF) from the original on 2020-07-30. Retrieved 2018-04-25.
