After being announced in July, a launch date has been locked for Skull Island: Rise of Kong. Everyone’s favorite colossal ape brings the fight to PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, and Steam on October 17, 2023. A new trailer is here to set up the story and preview the beastly beatdown to come.
Hot on the heels of the Netflix animated series, Skull Island: Rise of Kong takes inspiration from Joe DeVito’s King Kong of Skull Island stories. You’ll be tasked with avenging Kong’s parents, who fell prey to the ruthless predator Gaw. As the trailer shows, that vengeance is doled out through powerful combos and finishers. Kong can pick up new abilities over the course of the story, taking out huge boss monsters along the way.
Seeing red
There are some key differences between the versions of Skull Island: Rise of Kong that will be available at launch. The standard edition includes the main game for $39.99. If you want a bunch of extras along with it, though, you’ll have to shell out $49.99 for the digital Colossal Edition. On top of extras like various color schemes for Kong and a boss rush mode, this version includes exclusive film grains.
That’s right, for ten bucks more you can swap between eight types of film grains. One attempts to mimic the look of Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack’s 1933 King Kong film, for instance. Another aims for the ’70s Kong style, and there’s also one that tints the screen red for a “rage mode” aesthetic. An orchestral soundtrack and a gallery of in-game artwork round out the package.
My most prominent video game memories of Kong involve the notoriously easy King Kong on Xbox 360. That one was a guaranteed 1000 for anyone looking to up their Gamerscore in the cheesiest way possible. And hey, it was alright! We’ll have to see if Skull Island: Rise of Kong passes that not-so-lofty bar when it drops in October.
