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.

benis : Another good review from you. I totally LOL'd when I pictured you playing Shaq-Fu studiously when you were younger. I mean, even if its bad its your game, right? Might as well ....BE THE BEST SHAQ FU PLAYER YOU CAN BE

endings : Well, you know, it's kind of funny. Back then you didn't have the internet so information about gaming wasn't so easily obtained. I knew that ShaqFu wasn't a good game but I had no idea it was regarded as one of the worst. It wasn't until many years later that I realized that everyone hates that game. Perhaps if I had a subscription to Nintendo Power or something I would have known and avoided the game all together.

benis : Nah, theres no shame.
I owned a copy of FESTER'S QUEST for the NES, a shooter game about the Addams Family.. with aliens. It made no sense, and is kind of a garbage game.
I also sometimes love to play 8 Eyes, which is like Castlevania if you gave it bad controls, and ate a bucket of candy, spun around and threw up all over the stage backgrounds. Its just.. lol.

I tried playing Shaq-Fu, that prince of persia ripoff guy was too fast, it was pretty tough!