Skybolt Zack delivers a unique gaming experience - all the fun and excitement of an arcade platformer married with the feel of a Japanese rhythm game. Ditching the pixel perfect precision of traditional platformers, Skybolt Zack introduces new mechanics that are equally challenging but fresh and exciting. Players will have their dexterity and quick thinking tested in equal measure. Reacting to the enemies on screen, players must Dash and Rocket Punching and Charge Attack their way from enemy to enemy by colour matching the buttons on the gamepad to the enemies on screen before bouncing off of them to reach new heights.

The higher the player climbs, the more difficult the game gets, but the more rewarding it becomes... 

Skybolt Zack is designed to prioritise gameplay above all else, featuring 48 frantic, colourful and challenging levels. The player is always in control of their success or failure, testing their fortitude with every failure and rewarding every success with intense euphoria! 

Originally imagined as a final year student project at ISART Digital Paris, the Parisian video game school, Skybolt Zack draws inspiration from classic platformers and Japanese rhythm games like Pop’n Music, then mixes them like no other game before. Take the speed and the homing attack of Sonic the Hedgehog, add a system based on colour and the way the patterns are read from rhythm games and you have the essence of Skybolt Zack!

“Why hasn’t anyone made a game like this before? That was one of the first questions we asked ourselves when we set out to make Skybolt Zack,” commented Ugo Rosini: Lead game designer, Developer and Chairman of DEVS MUST DIE. “I’ve always been a huge fan of arcade gaming and especially love rhythm games and platformers so I’d always wanted to add the satisfying feeling and peculiar flow of rhythm games to other genres”.

Starting out as a PC only game in its early showings, Skybolt Zack not only marks DEVS MUST DIE’s first full release but also Green Man Gaming’s first foray into the console market as the game will launch on PC and Nintendo Switch later this year.

On the move to console, David Clark, Managing Director of Green Man Gaming Publishing, had this to say: “It has long been an ambition for Green Man Gaming to expand our horizons and extend our reach beyond PC gaming.  When we first saw Skybolt Zack it was almost immediately apparent that this was the game for us to make that jump! The work that DEVS MUST DIE have done with Skybolt Zack in a relatively short time have impressed us tremendously.They are incorporating options for players which we’re not seeing in products from much larger, long standing studios and we can’t wait to show more to the community at various events across the summer”.

Key Features:

• A new genre of arcade game: Skybolt Zack’s gameplay is the result of a new way of mixing platformers and rhythm games mechanics. It’s a platformer where you don’t jump, and a musical game where there is no rhythm involved. No other game feels the same!
• Different routes: Discover multiple routes through each level, allowing for tons of replayability. There are no difficulty settings in Skybolt Zack - beginners will take the easier lower routes, whilst the best of the best will climb to the highest, toughest areas of the game delivering the highest scores and unlocking the hardest levels.
• Fully customisable controller support: The game not only supports a variety of controller options, matching the colours of the enemies to the colours of the buttons on the various supported gamepads, but also allows the player to fully customise the colours to their preferred setup regardless of the controller being used.
• Superplayer modes: In addition to the story mode, Skybolt Zack offers two additional gameplay modes for extra challenge.
  • Time Attack - dedicated to those in search of the best times, providing them with tools to work on their run.
  • Score Attack - ideal for those wanting to focus on delivering the possible highest score.
• Leaderboards: The game fully supports leaderboards to encourage players to go back and not only beat their top scores or best times but also allow players to compete worldwide with the rest of the community. 

Skybolt Zack will launch for Nintendo Switch and Steam PC Q3 2019.