Highlights
- Playable skeletons have become a popular choice in indie games, allowing players to take on unique roles and explore different genres.
- Games like Super Skelemania and After Death offer fun and short experiences in the Metroidvania genre, with interesting skeletal protagonists.
- Grim Fandango stands out as one of the best games that allow players to take on the role of a skeleton, providing a captivating adventure in the land of the dead.
The common video game protagonist has really gone out the window in modern times. The huge variety in today’s gaming industry has made it a lot more challenging to be unique and to have an interesting protagonist who doesn’t feel too similar to the heroes of other games. On occasion, making a protagonist who isn’t even technically alive can make for a fascinating character.
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Famous skeletons have featured prominently in movies over the years. These examples are some of the most iconic.
However unusual this idea is, there have definitely been a surprising number of games that let players take on unusual roles such as these. Often found in indie games, playable skeletons have found a home today across a variety of genres, with some of them turning into iconic characters.
8 Super Skelemania
Metacritic Score: N/A
- Skeleton: The Acrobatic Skeleton
- Genre: Metroidvania
The Metroidvania genre has been mostly taken over by indie developers, creating their own takes on classic side-scrolling franchises. Super Skelemania is in the vein of something like Castlevania, taking place on an unknown planet and giving players control of an unnamed skeleton referred to merely as “an acrobatic skeleton”.
This indie one-sitting Metroidvania allows players to make good use of being a skeleton, including letting them roll their skeletal head like a bowling ball. Available on several platforms, this fun, short game is a brief look at an extremely fun style and allows players to get the exact sort of skeleton gaming experience that they’d expect.
7 After Death
Metacritic Score: N/A
- Skeleton: Unnamed
- Genre: Metroidvania
Another indie-developed Metroidvania game, After Death, is a mixture of the styles of both Castlevania and Metroid and made for a fantastic indie game in the genre. Taking control of an unnamed skeletal warrior, players have to try and open a mysterious gate that will allow them to escape the horrible world in which they find themselves.
Filled with exploration elements, plenty of combat, and platforming, After Death is a simplistic but beautiful Metroidvania. The graphical style is a mixture of modern and retro styles, giving the feeling of a Castlevania game with some nice twists and turns on the normal setting and style.
6 The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie’s Revenge
Metacritic Score: 65
- Skeleton: Jack Skellington
- Genre: Action-Adventure
There have been various attempts to make a Nightmare Before Christmas game, but only one of them really attempted to further the story of the film in any way. Oogie’s Revenge was an action game released in 2004 for consoles and served as a sequel to the Tim Burton animated film, letting players take control of the infamous Jack Skellington.
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The plot involves Oogie Boogie returning and taking over Halloween Town, and Jack having to fight to take it back piece by piece. The action was enjoyable, the story was a great addition to the style of The Nightmare Before Christmas, and this game remains one of the better-licensed games of the era in which it was released. It could be time for a remaster.
5 Skelattack
Metacritic Score: 65
- Skeleton: Skelly
- Genre: Action-Platformer
From the name, this one immediately sounds like it is filled with skeletons, Skelattack is set in Aftervale, the land of the dead. When the land is attacked and the Blue Flame, which allows the land to exist, is stolen, Skelly the Skeleton must go on an adventure to save both the Flame and the elder skeleton who guards it.
A fun action platformer with a great retro side-scrolling style and wonderfully relaxing art, Skelattack is a good choice for all gamers. Without being one of the best games in this style, Skelattack does enough to make it worth playing, and it is available on almost every major platform.
4 MediEvil
Metacritic Score: 67
- Skeleton: Sir Daniel Fortesque
- Genre: Hack & Slash
Managing to turn a fun idea into a franchise, MediEvil was based on ideas taken from The Nightmare Before Christmas. Set in the world of Gallowmere, MediEvil follows a skeletal knight as he attempts to stop the evil Zarok from taking over the kingdom using his undead army.
With a humorous plot about Sir Daniel Fortesque having failed in life attempting to stop Zarok, and an extremely fun hack-and-slash style of combat, MediEvil is an interesting and enjoyable adventure that managed to spawn two sequels and a remake from this fun premise. Players take control of Sir Daniel Fortesque in his skeletal form for the entirety of the game.
3 Killer Instinct
Metacritic Score: 73
Killer Instinct
- Platform(s)
- Arcade , Nintendo Game Boy , SNES , Xbox One
- Released
- October 28, 1994
- Developer(s)
- Rare
- Genre(s)
- Fighting
- Skeleton: Spinal
- Genre: Fighting
One of the more recent additions in the fighting game world, Killer Instinct has always sought to compete with the likes of Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter but isn’t generally considered as popular. Nevertheless, as with every fighting game series, Killer Instinct comes with its fair share of signature characters.
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One of the major characters who has been around from the beginning is Spinal. This reanimated skeleton of an ancient warrior is a great choice and gives players the chance to fight all kinds of other characters while taking on the role of a skeleton, and he can be played in the upcoming anniversary edition of the original game.
2 Divinity: Original Sin 2
Metacritic Score: 93
- Skeleton: Fane
- Genre: RPG
Considered by many to be one of the best RPGs of all time, Divinity: Original Sin 2 is just one of the many different RPGs that will allow players to take on the role of a skeleton. In this case, they get to control Fane, the last member of an immortal species that has, over time, taken on a skeletal appearance.
Fane is a fascinating character. His lore, as with most of the world-building in Divinity, is fantastic. Whether players choose Fane as their pre-made option when building a character or make one from scratch, Fane will be available to be recruited into the player’s party later. When the player washes up on a beach, he can be found eating a corpse in a hidden area.
1 Grim Fandango
Metacritic Score: 94
- Skeleton: Manuel “Manny” Calavera
- Genre: Adventure
From one of the best RPGs of all time to one of the best games, period. This LucasArts production is definitely the best game that allows players to take on the role of a skeleton. Set in the land of the dead, Grim Fandango is an adventure game that takes place over four years, following the skeletal Manny as he attempts to help people cross over into the Ninth Level of the Underworld, the land of eternal rest.
Working as Manny and following the fascinating and intricate story, as well as seeing the beautifully-designed world around him, made for one of the best gaming experiences of the late 90s. Unfortunately, it wasn’t well received enough at the time and was one of the last major adventure games released as the genre started to decline, though there are some games similar to it.
