Reflecting on Squash & Stretch and Skullgirls.

A few days back me and my roommate were discussing our study into Squash and stretch animation for our animation project. In this we had to find an example of Squash and Stretch in video games and being HUGE fans of Skullgirls we immediately jumped at the chance to talk about our favourite game at the time.

We didn't simply do it to talk about our beloved games of course, we realised that we had to focus on our project and seeing as Skullgirls was a 2D, hand drawn, fighting game, we felt there would be MANY examples of squash and stretch taking place.

SADLY, during our presentation, we were met with utter silence from our fellow students. This could easily be due to Skullgirls art style which is very cartoonish but also has a 'fan-service' flare to it with an all female cast with large chest proportions.

Thinking back to it, we should have considered talking about the character's designs, getting the elephant out of the room, but not addressing it in a childish manner. For example.


Painwheel is always crouched or bent over, she walks on all fours and is capable of flight for a short amount of time. This is due to the incredibly heavy metal blade in her back and her weak body frame. While her body does appear toned this is only due to a substance in her body, meant to give her a pained and unnatural look.

This is what helps create her unique move set, balancing her visual style with her fighting style. If you examine her and the other characters move sets in this video, you can see the examples of Squash and Stretch we were trying to get across at the time, especially with Painwheel's muscle inflation and striking abilities as well as her needle attacks.