Stabbing is useful, and it’s hard to go wrong with a nice multi-hit combo, but sometimes it’s easy to overlook the basics of a good kick in the face.  This isn’t an issue with the heroes of Skeleton Crew, who not only come with a good set of platforming moves but also complement their weapon skills with high-powered footwork.  The undead have risen again and a lone knight starts out to defend the kingdom, but it doesn’t take long to find the first of several companions to spear, slash, enchant, immolate, and especially kick their way through the skeletal hordes ravaging the land.

Skeleton Crew is a platformer with a new demo currently live as part of the Steam Next Fest, thoroughly updated from the version you might have played during its limited availability last summer, and it’s a fairly sizeable chunk of game that does a great job of showing off the combo-based action.  The bonus multiplier is fueled by variety, so you’ll want to keep switching up your attacks to maximize rewards.  A regular multi-hit combo is effective, of course, but taking down a skeleton and then kicking its skull into the zombie behind it has style.  Different characters have different projectiles as well, such as the straightforward damage of the knight’s axe versus the white witch’s low-damage snowballs that freeze an enemy and leave them open to being picked up and kicked across the room.  Items have a bounce or two in them as well, so you’ll frequently need to work a bank-shot to activate a trigger and open a way forward.  It’s basically action-platforming combat pool, which is a combo that the demo proves has a good amount of promise.

Skeleton Crew is still a couple of months off but today saw it pinning down its release date in the new trailer.  The game comes out for PC, Steam and Epic Game Store, on June 16, at which point an undead army is finally going to get the kicking it so richly deserves