Skullmonkeys

Skullmonkeys for PlayStation is a 2D platform game released in 1998 by The Neverhood, Inc. and published by Electronic Arts. It returns to the clay-built world of The Neverhood, but changes direction from that game's puzzle-adventure format to a single-player side-scrolling action game. Klaymen again takes the lead, with creator Douglas TenNapel's characters and the series' handmade stop-motion look carried into a PlayStation game built around running, jumping, and surviving a series of eccentric obstacle courses.

The story begins after Klogg, Klaymen's enemy from The Neverhood, reaches the planet Idznak. There he takes command of the Skullmonkeys and works toward a new threat to the Neverhood: Evil Engine No. 9. Klaymen is brought into the conflict to stop Klogg before the machine can be used. The premise gives the game its unusual enemy roster, as Klaymen crosses environments filled with Skullmonkeys and other bizarre clay creatures on the way to confront Klogg and the bosses placed along the route.

Play proceeds across horizontally scrolling stages. Klaymen can move, jump, crouch, look upward, and use objects or temporary weapons found during a level. Enemies can be dispatched by jumping on them, while collectible items and projectile tools add other ways to handle hazards. Clay balls scattered through the stages contribute to the score, and collecting enough of them earns extra lives. The game also uses a password system so players can resume their progress, an important feature for a demanding platformer of its era.

Skullmonkeys mixes straightforward platform challenges with secret bonus areas, oversized set pieces, hazards, enemies, and boss encounters. Its individual screens emphasize timing and positioning, whether Klaymen is clearing gaps, avoiding attacks, or reaching items placed off the main path. The focus remains on the platforming route rather than the exploratory puzzle solving of its predecessor, yet the game retains the Neverhood universe's comic tone through its animation, odd props, enemy designs, and short movie sequences.

Its defining presentation comes from models sculpted in clay and animated through stop motion. Rather than aiming for the polygonal 3D style common on late-1990s consoles, Skullmonkeys presents its characters and backgrounds as a flat, animated sidescroller with a deliberately handcrafted appearance. The animation team turned Klaymen, the Skullmonkeys, and the game's machinery into photographed clay figures, while the cutscenes extend that approach between stages. Terry Scott Taylor composed the music, contributing another recognizable part of the game's offbeat identity.

Skullmonkeys is directly connected to The Neverhood: it continues Klaymen and Klogg's conflict while offering a different genre and a PlayStation-specific follow-up to the earlier PC game. The Japanese edition arrived in 1998 as Klaymen Klaymen 2: Skullmonkey no Gyakushuu and was published there by Riverhillsoft. For players exploring PlayStation platform games or the Neverhood series, it stands as the series entry that translated its clay animation and surreal characters into a level-based action format.