Review: Shaq-Fu: A Legend Reborn Goes Retro

<p>I don’t think anyone is entirely sure why <em>Shaq-Fu<&sol;em> has returned to the world of video games&period; First released way back in 1994 on the SNES&comma; the idea was simple&period; Take basketball superstar Shaquille O’Neal&comma; mix that with the fighting genre&comma; and watch the money roll in&period; After all&comma; Shaq was a huge star&semi; everyone loved Street Fighter&period; Why not push those ideas together and see what came out the other side&quest; Unfortunately&comma; what was produced is widely renowned as being one of the worst games ever&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3 class&equals;"injection">Shaq-Fu<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>Over the years&comma; however&comma; the original has become somewhat of a fan favorite to the point <em>Shaq-Fu&colon; A Legend Reborn<&sol;em> was greenlit through the power of an Indiegogo campaign&period; Now&comma; in 2018&comma; we have it on the Nintendo Switch&comma; Xbox One&comma; PS4&comma; and PC&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The first thing that’s worth noting is that this isn’t another fighting game rip-off&period; Instead&comma; it goes the side-scrolling beat &OpenCurlyQuote;em-up route&period; That’s a smart move in many ways as it’s allowed Saber Interactive to keep proceedings rather simple&period; The ex-NBA player will be attacked by numerous enemies as he walks through different environments while you enjoy a multitude of attacks to do away with said foes&period; It’s as easy as they come and&comma; for the most part&comma; not half bad&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3>A Legend Reborn<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>Furthermore&comma; <em>Shaq-Fu&colon; A Legend Reborn<&sol;em> does not care about what many may see as political correctness&period; I can’t say for sure if you’ll be offended or not&comma; but I’m confident there’s a chance of that as the humor revolves around crass gags which may feel a little tired in 2018&period; There’s nothing over the line or truly shocking&comma; but references to masturbation or stereotyping certain groups of people are always going to have the potential to upset&period; It really is going to be down to the individual&comma; though&comma; but consider this a slight warning&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Shaq-Fu<&sol;em> is a very by the numbers experience&period; It looks pretty enough to justify its place on your modern day console&period; However&comma; it doesn&&num;8217&semi;t do anything thing to stand out&period; It’s always nice when games come along which take a nod to the past – we could do with more entries within the genre – but they also need some sort of updated sprinkles – A Legend Reborn is lacking in that regard&period; It ticks the boxes&comma; unlocks a few more difficulty settings when you’ve been through it once&comma; and will soon fade into the distance as time rolls forward&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Still&comma; there’s clearly a demand for it&period; The game was only made possible thanks to crowdfunding&period; If nothing else&comma; isn’t it pleasant to have Shaquille O’Neal back amongst it all these years later&quest; Deep down I don’t think he had much to say in the concept outside of agreeing to his likeness being used&period; However&comma; that’s not something we have to worry about&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Altogether&comma; <em>Shaq-Fu&colon; A Legend Reborn<&sol;em> is pretty average&period; However&comma; if you like retro beat-em-ups&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s definitely a game worth looking at&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;