I remember seeing Shaq fu in a display case at a local store as a child, with it's intriguing box art, promising action, and I of course wanted to play it. Of course, I couldn't afford it, and so, never got the chance to play it, and I eventually forgot all about it, until recently. I oddly heard it referenced on one of my favorite shows (seriously, of all retro games, they picked Shaq fu?), and the memories of seeing that game and wanting to play it, came flooding back, sadly, I was still unable. The third time was a charm however, and thanks to Vizzed and friends, I finally got the chance to play this game, and let me say, the box art was far more promising than it should have been, given what this game actually offers. First off, I was surprised that this was actually a fighter, not an action game. Now, if you're like me, you've heard many long winded rants about how terrible this game is, citing several problems with the game. Let me put a definite answer out there for you: most of them are false. That's right, I was a little disappointed with it, but this is not the worst fighter out there, nor is it one of the worst titles on the Genesis. Hey, it isn't even the worst fighter on the Genesis. It may not be a gem, but it doesn't deserve the flak it catches. In fact, there were a few areas that I thought it was really good in, insomuch that I felt that many of the other, more loved fighters, could have taken lessons from it. It starts out with Shaq standing around in downtown Tokyo, and, long story short, ending up getting sent into another dimension. In this dimension, Shaq must put his fighting skills to the test against eleven opponents, all bent on impeding Shaq's progress on his mission to save a boy who has been kidnapped. In the game, you are given a somewhat large map, and you must traverse it, moving from location to location at your own free will, and do battle with the enemy at each spot. From there on, it's your typical 90's fighter, as far as gameplay is concerned. The buttons are pretty simple, and work exactly how they're described: A moves (run) and taunts, B is a quick attack, and C is a strong attack. Also, just like in Street fighter, if you play with three button settings, you must press start to switch between punches and kicks, so I recommend setting it to six button controls. So how does Shaq fu stack up against the competition? Well, let's see, shall we?

Graphics: 7/10
Very Good.
Compared to other Genesis titles, these aren't bad at all, but they aren't anything special either. In reality, the graphics are what I would call scrambled eggs. A mix of things. There are times when the graphics are actually quite impressive, such as the still scene story clips. They're very smooth, and well illustrated, with no apparent pixellation, and very realistic environments, especially in Tokyo. But then, almost every game tries to wow you with the cutscenes. It's how it performs graphically in-game that counts, and yet, even here Shaq fu is a grab bag of impresive and merely decent graphics. The aforementioned overworld is quite a display, showing white caps in the waters, and the splashing and ebbing of the waters that crash into the cliffs. The greenery is pretty flat, but nice nonetheless. Overall, I felt this part of the graphics was very nice, and I rather enjoyed just running around, looking at the scenery. Very nice work on a 16 bit system. The pre-battle graphics were also nice, and reminded me of the classic street fighter pre-fight trash talking scenes, only this time, both parties get to speak. Unfortunately, the exceptional graphics end there. The actual fight graphics were pretty disappointing, but not bad. Average is what I would call it, really, mostly because the sprites are so small that there is almost no need for details. These are some of the smaller sprites that are offered on the Genesis, but they could be worse. The colors aren't bad, and earned a positive mark for the game graphically. The backgrounds, I personally found more enjoyable than the backgrounds in other Genesis fighters that I've played, and they, as we had come to expect from a fighter by this point, were animated somewhat. And now for the second biggest disappointment graphically: the particle effects. They weren't special or even interesting in the least, just more bland flashes and "poofs", like the standard fighter of this age. All in all though, Shaq fu's graphics would have pulled me in, back in the day of glorious 16 bit gaming.

Sound: 2/10
Very Bad.
This is Shaq fu's biggest downfall, by far. The audio was so bad, I actually started to turn it off towards the end of the game, but I decided against it since I had tolerated it for so long already. The problem being the background music, which is the worst issue a game could have as far as audio goes, since it plays constantly after the game starts. The actual music would be okay, were it not for that one super annoying instrument (if it can be called that) that constantly makes a sound that is somewhat akin to someone plucking (not strumming) an extremely overtightened acoustic guitar string. It actually began to hurt my ears, granted, I was using ear buds, but still the incessant high pitched plucking was just awful on the ears. The rest of the music, which you can barely hear behind that hideous plucking sound, actually wasn't bad, and is the only reason I didn't rate the audio a 1. I don't mean to rant here, I'm just stating the facts, as objectively as I can. The sound effects aren't bad, but they're so low and faded into the background, that you'll likely miss most of them.

Depth: 5/10
Average.
As you might expect from a fighter, there isn't a great deal of depth, however there is more depth than the average fighter of it's time offered. With a Story mode that offers, as the name implies, a story and quest; a duel mode, that simply pits two fighters against each other in a best-two-of-three match, and is available for both single and multiplayer; and a tournament mode, that again is self explanatory, and can support anywhere from two to eight fighters, all controlled by players, meaning two players can enter up to four fighters each, or as many as eight people can play together in a single elimination tournament. This game definitely offered more variety than many others of it's time. In the end it's all the same though: beat people up. But isn't that the point to picking out a fighter game to play?

Story: 8/10
Exceptional.
The big shocker here to me, was the inclusion of a real storyline. In a retro fighter, that's a rarity. Most just let you pick a character and play through the game, without the slightest idea as to why you're doing so, or who your character is, other than the name, until the ending clip, where you learn a small bit about who they are, and what happened to them afterward. Not the case with Shaq fu. No, there's a story right from the start of the game, and it's pretty well told for such a short opening. It explains perfectly how you got there, and why you're there. The conversation bits before and after fights explain more clearly to the player, just what is going on in this dimension, and what to expect next. There's even a story still scene mid game. Finally, there are bios on each character (if you wait at the start screen), that explain who they are, and what their role is. It also avoids a plot hole by explaining that Shaq is the inventor of a new martial arts style. Very clever disaster evasion there by the writers. In comparison to other fighters of the time, Shaq fu gets a 10/10 for story, only because I can't rate it higher. But as a Genesis game in general, it gets a solid and well deserved, if not underrated 8/10 here.

Addictiveness: 3/10
Bad.
As you might expect with a linear storyline, and only one playable character in story mode, the replay value is all but non-existent. However, with the tournament mode and the ability to play with two to eight players, the game is actually quite appealing by way of replay value, if you have friends that enjoy the game. So for a Genesis fighter, Shaq fu isn't all that bad by way of addictiveness, if you can get some friends together for a tournament. Otherwise, you're likely to do as I did, and put it down, and never plan to touch it again. Not because it's so bad, just because, well, what's the point?

Difficulty: 4/10
Relatively Easy.
What can I say? You can beat this one easily, if you're so minded to. On the Easy difficulty setting, it's as easy as spamming a button. The same attack repeatedly pretty quickly finishes off just about everyone up to...well, I would give a name, but that would be a bit of a spoiler. Just say all but three people can be one button spammed to the bitter end. If you want to actually fight, then you might encounter some difficulty.

Overall: 5/10
Average.
This rating is about accurate, sadly. Shaq fu is about as average as it gets. Not good, and not bad, just kind of there in the world of video games. It's strong points are very strong, but it's weak points are terribly weak. It had more potential than this, but all in all, I feel the developers did have some work to be proud of here in ways.

Summary.
All things considered, Shaq fu isn't nearly the blemish on the gaming world that you may have heard it was. And while I wouldn't recommend it to anyone but fans of retro fighters, I wouldn't discourage anyone playing it either. It's just a plain old retro fighter, that deserves no real praise or critcism, though it does offer some good. That said, Shaq fu isn't quite the fiasco that you might expect.

GenesisJunkie :

BtotheH :

Thank you both, so much. I really had a very easy time writing this one, which kind of surprised me, since it definitely isn't a favorite of mine. I just wanted to get a somewhat favorable word out there for a game that deserved some real notice for some things. Namely the graphics and story.