Darkened Skye

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Darkened Skye

Developer(s)	Boston Animation
Publisher(s)	Simon & Schuster Interactive
Release date(s)	^NA October 9, 2003
Genre(s)	Third-person action-adventure
Mode(s)	Single player
Rating(s)	ESRB: Teen
Platform(s)	PC, GameCube
Media	1 × GameCube Optical Disc, DVD-ROM
Input	Game controller

Darkened Skye is a third-person action-adventure shooter video game for the PC and Nintendo GameCube whose developer Boston Animation programmed it primarily in Russia. Its title character is a young woman named Skye who lives in a fantasy realm searching for her mother. She does not use firearms, but can perform magic.

The game was devised for the purposes of advertising Skittles candy. This was done by having its magical spells become castable only by collecting candies of the appropriate number and flavor.

1 Characters
2 Gameplay
3 On-screen Gameplay Aids
4 External links

[edit] Characters

Skye is the only player-character. Besides her, the characters who appear in several settings are a man who intermittently appears to Skye in magical visitations and a little wisecracking monster who accompanies Skye throughout her adventures, floating above the ground by beating its tiny wings.

Necroth is the name of the villain of the game.

[edit] Gameplay

The game begins on a path in the forest of Lynlora near a village and moves to many settings, such as the gloomy Ogmire Archipelago and the drowned city and dungeon of the same name; Tikniki Swamp, which has a maze and a scene of riding shotgun on a giant turtle which you cannot steer; a fleet of balloons called the Sky Pirates' Camp; the Chinese-style land of Zen'Jai with lava rivers and the Warlord's Palace, which is like a maze; Stone Heath, with three combination-lock puzzles located in ancient stone circles; three dragon lairs, of various elemental affinities; a multi-story dungeon called the Goblins' Lair; the Bone Lands, which surround a lava lake; a vampires' necropolis called the Gargoyle Cemetery, which leads to a Cathedral taken over by the enemy and a giant collapsed staircase in the Bell Tower; and a skyfull of floating stones leading to Necroth's Realm and his Lair. There is a short puzzle in a miniature village along a stream, called Twell Country.

Skye's overwhelming debility is drowning, so the game involves much jumping over water hazards. There are also many puzzles of avoiding falling from great heights. It has an arcade sequence of riding a fantasy beast through underground chambers without falling into lava pits.

So that it can be played by children, the game maintains a healthy sense of humor about itself and its design. For example, defeated creatures melt away and it contains no morbid plot elements whatsoever (even though various creatures are killed throughout the game). The vampires merely whisper meaningless taunts and never act like merciless monsters.

[edit] On-screen Gameplay Aids

One of the aids that the game provides the player is that past dialogue is accessible. Also, it contains a notebook which keeps track of what the player is searching for at any given point in the plot.