Darkened Skye

Save the Rainbow.

"This ( premise) might sound like an inane game idea based on accounting instead of good sense--theoretically, that's true, but in practice, it's a bit far off the mark. Darkened Skye turns out to be a colorful and fairly entertaining game that's surprisingly funny."

Prepear yourself for one-of-a-kind of game...

At first glance, Darkened Skye looks like your ordinary kind of RPG game. "In the far-off and decidedly fictional land of Lynlora, you play as Skye, a bored shepherdess, who is lamenting her fate of being bored and trying to keep track of all these damn sheep when, suddenly, a commotion off in a clearing attracts her attention. When she goes to investigate, she finds an ancient magical artifact; a flattened spheroid, orange, with an S in the center. She takes it to the local wisewoman, who tells her...'why, it's a Skittles!'"... wait what?

You heard that right, we are talking about the Skittle candies... I'll give you a second to collect your thoughts... Are you done?....

" Skittles are the source of all magic (Fancy you not knowing that!) and gathering them is vital to erase the darkness on Lynlora's sky. So our protagonist, Skye, sets off on a quest to return the rainbow to Lynlora, thereby returning Skittles and magic along with it."

As you probably have already guessed Darkened Skye is an advergame (released for Game Cube and PC) to promote Skittles candies. The game is generally considered average, with not that great of a gameplay, fuzzy controls, unwieldy animations, and occasional bugs. What makes the game worth playing is that the company gave the producers full-freedom, so the writing team was in active revolt over the fact that they were making such a game—the writing is patently hilarious and so tongue-in-cheek that to this day all they can taste is teeth.

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Tropes used in Darkened Skye include:

• All There in the Manual: Averted on the box. It's incredibly vague as to the actual plot of the game, probably because no one would buy it if it copped to being an advergame. The actual manual, however, mentions Skittles, complete with trademark symbol.
• Ambiguously Gay: The Boss Vampyre in the Gargoyle Realm.
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: All enemies become these when Skye uses the Shrink Spell.
• Because Destiny Says So: Lampshaded by several NPCs that Skye is "she whose coming has been foretold".
• Bilingual Bonus: Draak is fluent several of the land's languages, particularly in the waterworld Ogmire.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: Both explicitly (Skye talking directly to the player) and implicitly (Draak making silly hints of it, like having "read the script")
• Deadpan Snarker: Both Skye and Draak, but Draak just can't let up.
• The Faceless: The Big Bad's right-hand-man in a suit of armour, who was once Skye's Father.
• He Whose Face May Not Be Glimpsed: The Big Bad as lampshaded by Draak:

Let's just say he-whose-face-may-not-be-glimpsed and I have issues!

• Hey, It's That Voice!: Princess Jasmine tends sheep?
• Hitbox Dissonance: The hitboxes usually didn't have much to do with the models...always to your considerable disadvantage.
• Idle Animation: Leave Skye standing for a few moments and she'll start doing a few things, like stretching her arms out, or examining her staff and then polishing it.
  • The best one lampshades their use of Sticks to the Back: Skye repeatedly attempts to toss her staff away, only to have it magnetically snap back every time. It's maaaagic!
• Improbable Aiming Skills / No Arc in Archery: Archer Grunks can shoot volleys of arrows with deadly precision, whether far away or in close quarters, so you best stay out of their line of sight. If caught up close, use a splash damage spell fast!
• Intangible Man: Dorian, who appears out of nowhere every now and then to advise Skye. He actually became Draak, but one of Skye's spells keeps conjuring his true form.
• Jiggle Physics: Skye, if you rotate the view and see her front while she's running.
• Luke, I Am Your Father: The Big Bad's right-hand-man, who turns out to be Skye's Father, who betrayed Skye's mother after being seduced by magic.
• The Man Behind the Curtain: The Big Bad of the game aka Necroth, who turns out to be a Pint-Sized Powerhouse such that Skye has to shrink herself in order to deal with him.
• Mineral MacGuffin: The Skittles, which are the source of all magical power.
• Missing Mom: Skye's mother, Mariama, who, as far as Skye knows, is just a merchant. She is actually the leader of the rebelling forces against the Big Bad, and now a prisoner of the Big Bad.
• Night of the Living Mooks: The vampires in the Gargoyle Realm can only be stopped either by trapping them in their respective caskets with garlic, or using a new spell (obtained in the next level) that kills the undead.
• Non-Human Sidekick: Draak, who's some kind of little gargoyle thing.
• Ominous Latin Chanting: The 3rd soundtrack of the Ogmire world.
• Plant Person: Orlina, the Pancreas Heart of the Forest in Ogmire, who is so depressed she needs to be healed using musical bugs.
• Simple Staff: Skye has a shepherd's staff that, after she gets her first Skittles, turns into a weapon (both a melee weapon and a magic staff) and a Hammerspace Hideaway for Draak. If she stows it on her back, she can run faster.
• Starfish Language: The Fish Riders of Ogmire speak in a language that sounds like gargling.
• Super Drowning Skills: "I'm a Warrior Hero Adventurer Goddess who can't swim, okay?!"
• Was Once a Man: Draak was originally Dorian, the Gargoyle Steward, who was punished by being turned into a mini-gargoyle after the real Gargoyles were turned to stone by the Big Bad. He becomes human again after Skye de-petrifies the Gargoyles.
  • Also Skye's Father before he became The Dragon and a Voluntary Shapeshifter.
• What Do You Mean It Wasn't Made on Drugs?