Overall 5.4 Graphics 5.3 Sound 2.7 Addictive 1.7 Story 1.3 Depth 1.3 Difficulty 9.3
4
Shaqtin' a Fool benis
I saw a segment of "Shaqtin' a Fool" earlier today and was inspired to revisit one of the most infamous SNES games in existence.
Shaq-Fu is universally known as the worst SNES games and one of the worst video games of ALL TIME. Is this the game really that bad? Nah, I don't think so. Is it actually pretty good? No, it's pretty bad. Does it have at least some redeeming qualities that make it special? Nah, not really. It's just a poor, poor game.
My video game collection growing up was pretty small. Outside of Mario and Donkey Kong games, I owned WWF The Arcade Game, Lamborghini and Shaq-Fu. Yes, I owned this slop. Why did I purchase this game one might ask. Well just like all the other suckers out there, I was a huge Shaq fan. I wasn't a huge NBA fan as a kid but I really liked Shaq when he played for the Magic. He was simply THE MAN. So I purchased this game so I could play as Shaq in video game form.
But not only did I own this game, I played the hell out of this game. That how slim my pickings were back then. I played Shaq-Fu for HOURS. I haven't played it since so I'm doing this entire review from memory as I have no desire to play it again at this moment.
Graphics: 6. This is the best part of the game. They aren't bad at all for the time. Sure the characters are unimaginative and there's not exactly a whole lot to the environment/arenas. But they look pretty nice for the most part. The 'level
select' area where you control a mini Shaq traveling to the next opponent looks pretty darn rough though. But the most important question is "how does Shaq look?". Well he looks like a very large black man. So pretty much spot on!
Sound: 5. I dunno. I just guessed. I can't remember a thing about the sound but I'm sure it was mediocre at best.
Addictiveness. 2. Okay, for me, this is probably higher because I played this game so much. But honestly, I have no idea why. It's not addictive at all. The only thing that would make it less addictive is if the game was unplayable. You could probably kill some time and have some semblance of fun playing this game but it probably maxes out at maybe 3 minutes.
Story. 2. Okay let's see here. Story... story... Two words sum up the story. "Um... wut?". The story is about some kid sucked into an alternate dimension and Shaq just happens to be a martial arts master (I guess Kung Fu based upon the name of the game) so Shaq goes and saves him. Something like that. I mean, fighting games don't need to have the best story-line but this is just awful. I gave it a 2 because I'll give them some credit for originality.
Depth. 1. Oh jeez let's see. You have what, 5 characters? Do any of the characters have special moves? I don't even really know. But let's talk about those characters. Let's see here... we have a mummy, a cat lady, a prince of persia knockoff, and some red creature guy. Maybe there's another character, I can't remember. I'm sure he was just as bad. Who were these people and why were they so boring? What made them special? Nothing. Shaq was the best character, by far. And he was the most boring and normal! Just some dude dressed in a basketball uniform. There were no secrets to uncover and nothing to entice you to replay.
Difficulty: 8. I don't think the game was THAT hard. But the controls were terrible so by definition of the rating system, I'm forced to give this a high difficulty. The game is so short that it's not that hard to beat. You can probably rip through it in about 15 min. But man, moving around sucked. Punching and kicking was so clumsy. Compared to Street Fighter or MK, it seemed like you were playing an Atari version of a fighting game. If the controls were rock solid, then maybe it'd be known for a decent game but they just didn't even bother trying to make this game playable. Must have spent all the development time on the story.
Well there you have it. A very bad game that's known for being the worst. It's not the worst, it's just very bad. Have I owned worse games? No. Have I played worse games? Honestly, I'm pretty sure I have but no names come to mind. If you haven't played this game, just give it a shot for about 10 minutes and that'll be enough. Trust me, you won't grow to love it.
Graphics 6 Sound 5 Addictive 2 Story 2 Depth 1 Difficulty 8
Review Rating: 4/5
Submitted: 02-27-15
Review Replies: 3
0.3
You called it SHAQ Fu? totaldramaman2
Well, THIS game... it's HORRIBLE. By far worse than E.T. on Atari, and probably not worse than Superman 64... but not as bad as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (I'm taking James's word for it...) This is... Shaq Fu. (my stomach feels more and more queasy every time I say that...)
--- The story of Shaq and Mr. Beardy-McBeard-Beard ---
So, the story goes something like this: Shaq is walking around, you know, just gettin' some excersize for his game. Then he goes into a Chinese shop for whatever reason. The worker there, Mr. Beardy-beard-beard, tells Shaq to go into this door to save some weirdo from the loony bin. So you walk around, and you see something like Monster's Ruins. So the natural SNES thing to do is press B. No? How about Y? Maybe X or A? No, you press Start. Now, that's not TOO bad... not as bad as the grappling hook from Batman Returns... that's probably going to be my next review (unfortunately). So, you get into your first fight, and you learn that the controls are HORRIBLE. You keep jumping around, missing hits, not attacking and just... a horrible experience.
--- Looking for a GOOD part of the game... there isn't one ---
So, you just lose. You're like Superman in Superman 64, you never win, Lex does. I wouldn't be surprised if Lex was the final boss. Speaking of that, has anyone ever beaten this game 100%? If you have, tell me. Gosh, you're always jumping around, missing your enemy. How fitting, Shaq is a basketball player. Jump! Jump! Jump! *song from DDR: Mario Mix starts playing* ...Well, at least it's a good song. A lot better than the music for this game. It seems to be a bad take on rap... that's very kind. 2 hours later... come ON! ENOUGH WITH JUMPING AROUND, MISSING WITH ATTACKS, ALWAYS LOSING TO THE CPU... I CAN'T TAKE IT MUCH LONGER! Just let play Superman 64... and E.T. and... NO! I WANNA PLAY SUPER MARIO GALAXY AND OCARINA OF TIME AND PIKMIN 2!!! Okay... that came out... let's get back to... Shaq Fu. *sheds a tear*. So... did I explain HOW the controls are horrible? You press up to jump, A, B, X,and Y to attack. If you could possibly defeat an enemy (which takes a tear-giving HOUR of experience) what happens? Oh, nothing, just the next impossible foe. You know, there aren't very many enemies. There's only 12. I would have liked a bit more variety. Super Mario RPG was on the same system, and it had about 100 diffrent enemies. But wait... that game was good. Great, acutally.
--- To conclude this wonderfully brilliant crappy game ---
Man. I can't bear playing the game so bad, I'm talking about lots of good games instead. About an hour later... I miss Mr. Beardy-McBeard-Beard. Him and his nonsense about the second world. Did I mention that? The game takes place in the second world. So Earth must be the first world, and... weird desert land with wierd creatures that each own thier own collisium. Okay, enough with this game, next review will be Batman Returns! See you guys then!
Graphics 4 Sound 1 Addictive 2 Story 1 Depth 2 Difficulty 10
Review Rating: 2.7/5
Submitted: 07-11-11
Updated: 08-04-11
Review Replies: 11
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