Shaq-Fu

"Shaq has been utterly shamed by this very bad game. What a terrible way to portray a basketball star!"

I know that newer and much better game systems and fighting games have come out, but game is below mediocre even when put into its time period. In fact, Shaq Fu's only selling point is that it contains the basketball hero Shaq. It's not a good start to say the least, but it gets much worse. How does Shaq get into the game? He just happened to wander into a store before a major basketball game and was drawn into a magical portal to save a young boy. If you thought the story was bad enough, wait until you see the gameplay, which is just pitiful!

I'd first want to say a bit about my grading system. Some people believe that a 8/10 is average, some think that a 5/10 is average. Others will give a game a 10/10 simply if it works. As for me, I want some room to give a score so for me, a 5/10 score is for an average game.

But that doesn't change the fact that this game is pure junk.

Gameplay:2/10
I will give credit to this game for being relatively glitch free. But other than that, there is no merit in this game. The fighting characters are far too small to be seen effectively and the characters move too quickly. When you push the buttons, the characters move in a rather awkward way. Compounding the problem is the fact that the characters are pretty unbalanced. Some characters are too powerful and will easily defeat a weaker character. This makes multiplayer unfair. If you thought single player would be better, i can assure you that it only gets worse. The AI is very poorly done and are either relentlessly hard or hopelessly easy. This game doesn't feel much like a fighting game at all!

The storyline gameplay involves you as Shaq, and you must fight about ten other characters to somehow save a little boy. You walk around a world map (from another realm) as you fight the enemy. Even if Shaq could fight and was in the situation described in the game, he would just go on to the last boss and rescue the boy instead of killing everyone. And one last thing. Shaq! Stay on the basketball court where you belong!

Graphics:4/10
The graphics are slightly better, and the characters look clear - but as I mentioned before, they are all too small. The background and level designs (other graphics) are pretty good and are typical of a good fighting game. The number of levels for this game is also good enough. There are about ten backgrounds and ten characters.

Sound:4/10
The sound is slightly sub-par. The music for fighting games is supposed to get you into a fighting mood, but not for this game! Most of the time, it just calms you and makes you more peaceful! The sound effects are also mediocre, with the same sound made when you're hit. However, the sound is still manageable. Just keep the volume down.

Value:4/10
The single player for this game is pretty damn bad, and can be considered, in most aspects, to be practically unplayable. However, this is always multiplayer to think about (which isn't much better to say that least)
You can play with friends but not for too long before your friends realize that you have just wasted their time. The game is just not fun.

Tilt:1/10
This game was very bad, I would definitely not play this again. Period.

Overall:3/10
The gameplay brought the game down far! This game would might have been one of the best games for Genesis had the balancing issue been resolved, the character sizes readjusted, and the story made more realistic.

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 02/27/04