Darkened Skye

The game begins on a path in the forest of Lynlora near a village and moves to many settings, such as the gloomy Ogmire Archipelago and the drowned city and dungeon of the same name; Tikniki Swamp, which has a maze and a scene of riding shotgun on a giant turtle which you cannot steer; a fleet of balloons called the Sky Pirates' Camp; the Chinese-style land of Zen'Jai with lava rivers, three dragon lairs, of various elemental affinities, and the Warlord's Palace, which is like a maze; Stone Heath, with three combination-lock puzzles located in ancient stone circles; a multi-story dungeon called the Goblins' Lair; the Bone Lands, which surround a lava lake; a vampires' necropolis called the Gargoyle Cemetery, which leads to a Cathedral taken over by the enemy and a giant collapsed staircase in the Bell Tower; and a sky full of floating stones leading to Necroth's Realm and his Lair. There is a short puzzle in a miniature village along a stream, called Twell Country.

Skye suffers from a fear of drowning, so the game involves much jumping over water hazards, especially prevalent in Ogmire. There are also many puzzles of avoiding falling from great heights. It has an arcade sequence of riding a fantasy beast through underground chambers without falling into lava pits or crashing into rock formations.

The game takes place in The Five Worlds: Lynlora, Ogmire, Zen'Jai, Stoneheath, and The Gorgoyle Realms.

The protagonist of Darkened Skye is Skye, a shepherd who wants to get more enjoyment out of life, and is voiced by Linda Larkin. Her companion is a sarcastic gargoyle named Draak, who decided to rage against the game's villain, the evil wizard Necroth, and is voiced by Robb Pruitt.

Publisher Simon & Schuster Interactive wanted to develop games based on M&M's given how recognized the candy characters were. , Simon & Schuster also talked about using Skittles, which would be a back-up plan in case M&M's ended up unavailable. Eventually Mars gave the license to both brands, with the Skittles one being inspired by the assumption that a computer game based on Skittles could make the brand more popular as the confectionary's consumption declined with people older than 20. After the M&M's video games sold well, producer Elizabeth Braswell was asked to develop the Skittles game.

While she first refused the job, Braswell eventually decided to work on it by focusing on gameplay and humor. A 300-page script, by lead writer and designer Andy Wolfendon, was written and submitted to Mars, which only asked to change a joke, utterances of "damn" and "remove all the snakes from the game." When Braswell asked for clarification, they said that there could be snake-like creatures, but no actual snakes.

Darkened Skye received "mixed" reviews on both platforms according to the review aggregation website Metacritic.

The gameplay was compared to games like Tomb Raider and Star Fox Adventures. Game Informer's Matthew Kato stated that he liked the magic system while calling the combat "painfully average".