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Unfortunately, little do the bulk of TBS addicts know about this rare gem bringing a nice change of pace. Many consider it as a spiritual successor of Advance Wars, and it is in many ways yet by being a truly unique experience in the even rarer ''cartoony TBS'' sub genre. Don't get it wrong: despite its ( marvelous ) cartoony construct & hilarious dialogues ( really ), Skulls of the Shogun also shines via a lenghty campaign of well drawn maps.

Overall strategy and multiple tactics may seem basic, but ways to win versus enemies ( AI or multiplayer ) require the full attention of veteran players as well. It's not perfect on crowded bottlenecks when trying to command orders, some little glitch here and there, though nothing to alter an otherwise joyful turn based combat.

Pros: vivid cartoony construct and turn based combat mixed pretty well; lenghty campaign and multiplayer modes; hilarious dialogues; great audio track.

Cons: ordering units when crowded like sardines; some questionable unit range versus obstacle placement.

Bottom line: Highly recommended. ''OSHUDA''

Skulls of the Shogun is another indie turn based tactics game. This is a fun game to play because the levels are short and packed with action and tough decision making. It’s also easy to learn and play because there is no hex counting, no charts, and no tables. It has special objectives for completionists including a time attack trial and a developer commentary for all 20 levels.

I like this game because individual levels are short. The long levels can be 30 minutes but you can easily finish most within 15. Skulls doesn’t waste time with load outs or gear management. The only thing you need to manage is your troops and your rice (a currency to buy units). You manage your units with five orders each turn. Activating a unit takes an order. Most decisions are simple yet tough. Do you deal damage? Do you take crucial economy or troop producing buildings? Do you eat skulls to upgrade your troops? Do you provide other units protection from knock back?

Many turn based tactics games rely on special attack and armor types. In Skulls you won’t need to memorize the latest version of rock-paper-scissors. Attacks are easy to understand. Units deal damage and armor subtracts it. No long time investments studying maximum efficiency. Though it is a tactics game and so if hyper efficient decision making is what you like then you’ll be glad to know that each level is scored, even including leaderboards. Each level also has alternate secondary objectives such as winning without losing any units.

On the negative side I think knock back while intuitive often felt a bit fuzzy. An attack that I thought for sure would knock an opponent over an edge just barely hangs on and vice versa. Also while it’s fun that individual levels are short it would have been nice to have more than 20 levels to play through. Because it’s possible to play through the game in less than ten hours that means Skulls relies a lot on it’s great replayability.

Due to it's campaign length I think the $14.99 asking price might be a bit much but this is definitely a great purchase at $10.

Set in ancient japan the skulls of the shogun beckons the player to take hold of a shogun backstabbed by one of his subordinates during a battle aiming to seek revenge after being reincarnated in the afterlife. The gameplay consists of a relatively simple but unique turned-based combat system where the player and the AI each take turns commanding their units in a round to either move, attack, or perform other actions until they run out of moves (5 per side). The player wins if he/she can kill all of enemy units or the enemy general, but must protect his/her own general in the process. Three types of basic units are available from start including infantry, cavalry, and archer where they can be utilised to work together for maximum effect in a scenario. Multiple strategies come into play during each scenario which is unique in their own way such as preventing enemy units from counterattacking when they are being attacked, or positioning one's units properly before the end of a round to minimise the damage received during AI's turn--can be accomplished by either running out of enemy's movement range or hide in a bush which can grant a 20% chance for an attack to miss. The gameplay can become stale were it not for golden skulls challenges and the succinct degree of humour present in the game which, surprisingly, can be quite amusing and definitely goes a long way in making the gameplay experience more satisfying. There are also xp for levelling up and emblems you receive at end of each scenario depending on your performance but otherwise they do not have a direct impact on your gameplay, if at all, whether you are level 1 or 10 you do not possess any distinct advantage whatsoever aside from having bestowed a different title each level. The emblems are purely for asthetic purposes to show off your dedication or time committed to the game, notwithstanding the amount of repetitive grinding just to be able to collect all the rare/very rare emblems either through gameplay or combining them to hopefully obtain the ones you want and then upgrading all or most of them to Gold rank.

There is a multiplayer component in addition to the single-player campaign as well. However, the matchmaking lobby is usually empty majority of times and hence one would have to encompass a gross amount of patience in order to possibly find a mattch courtesy of the ability of the game to continuously search for opponents in the background whilst you wreak havoc in traditional campaign mode or casually browse through the leaderboards and emblems you have amassed. Despite the near non-existence of an online community, I find the single-player campaign infinitely enjoyable on its own and that alone is enough to make this game remarkably innovative and is a refreshing change from the traditional, stagnant TBS mechanisms

One of the best turn-based strategies out there.

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