Skull Island: Rise of Kong

Submission 4,568

About

Skull Island: Rise of Kong is an action-adventure video game in the King Kong franchise developed by IguanaBee and published by GameMill Enterntainment. Shortly following the release of the game in October 2023, the game drew social media attention over its poor quality, becoming a subject of memes and discussions.

History

On October 17th, 2023, action-adventuere video game Skull Island: Rise of Kong, developed by IguanaBee, based on King Kong of Skull Island, was released by GameMill Enterntainment for PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One and Series X/S, Nintendo Switch and PC.^[1] On August 29th, 2023, a trailer for the game was released (shown below).^[2]

Gameplay and Features

Skull Island: Rise of Kong is an action-adventure with platformer elements. Players guide titular character King Kong through Skull Island on a journey of vengeance against alpha predator Gaw.

Online Reactions

Immediately following the release, the game drew negative attention on social media over its poor quality, with multiple users describing the game as "shovelware".^[3]^[4]

On October 16th, 2023, X^[3] / Twitter account posted a two-minute gameplay video of the game, describing it as "made by people that make low effort shovelware with big IP franchises." The post (shown below) garnered over 320 reposts and 1,300 likes in one day (shown below).

On October 16th, 2023, X^[5] / Twitter user @RickDaSquirrel several gameplay and cutscene videos from the game, criticizing its poor quality. On that day, @RickDaSquirrel posted a video of a cutscene in which an animation of a dinosaur roaring and snapping at King Kong was replaced with a still image, commenting, "DO NOT BUY THE NEW KING KONG GAME. IT IS A COMPLETE SCAM." The video (shown below) garnered over 5,400 reposts and quotes and 39,000 likes in one day.

The post was followed by a large number of quote posts which ridiculed the poor quality of the game, including comparisons it to Lord of the Rings: Gollum_, another poorly-received 2023 launch. For example, an X^[6] post by user @wayneradiotv comparing the games received over 1,600 reposts and 18,200 likes in one day (shown below, left). Also that day, X^[7] user @ComradeWaluigi made a post referencing the I Want Shorter Games With Worse Graphics meme that garnered over 1,500 reposts and 21,100 likes in the same period (shown below, right).