FEATURE: Pretty Bad, But Mildly Fun Games #3 - Shaq Fu (MegaDrive/Genesis)

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Developer: Delphine Software International

Publisher: Electronic Arts

Genre: Fighting

Release: 1994

Console: MegaDrive/Genesis

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I'm aware this game appears on other consoles other than the MegaDrive, but the thought of going through each version makes my heart beat faster from panic. That's a bit drastic, the game is just not worth playing that many times. prettybad

Let's start with the story, this is something truly incredible - whilst Shaq is browsing the local sights in Toyko, he somehow stumbles upon a Dojo, here he encounters a mysterious old man who informs Shaq about a little boy named Nezu who was taken to "The Second World", where sorcerer Sett Ra rules the lands.  It is Sett Ra's plan to carry his dominance over to "The First World", also known as Earth. Nezu's blood is pure, therefore he is the perfect candidate for the ancient ritual that will enable Sett Ra to end his exile from Earth. Either way, Shaq enters a portal that takes him directly to the second world, thus the adventure begins....

Whilst going through the story, there's this horrible music that keeps looping and it has to be one of the worst 16-bit audio tracks ever. Muting might have been the better option.

Shaq Fu is just a fighting game and nothing more, but in an attempt to add more depth to the game, you are able to choose your fights by using the world map, where you simply walk to each location and participate in a battle. It adds a tiny sense of freedom, but it just seems the developer was trying way too hard to make the game different to other fighters at the time.

There are 10 stages all together, 11 if you include the real final battle, each stage is differently themed to suit the appropriate enemy, for example the stage Gargoyle's Peak pits you against Mephis, a strange green monster woman, whilst the Vegabond Temple stage put's you against Ragah, the prince. Honestly, that's a nice touch - I know it's nothing new in fighting games to have each character have their own respective stages, but the stages in this game are actually really nice to look at, I can say a lot of bad things about this game but the graphics are fantastic.

When the game starts, the controls don't seem too bad, but that quickly wears off after a few fights where it becomes clear how awful the controls actually are, the actions just seem very delayed - when a button is pressed, it doesn't feel like you're actually doing much.

In the supposedly last fight of the game, you go against Beast - an assassin created by Sett Ra. Beast is one of the harder opponents, but he isn't the last, it turns out after Beast is defeated, the mighty Sett Ra makes an appearance, upon defeating him, Shaq is able to save Nezu and they both return to the Dojo. However, at the basketball game that night, Shaq spots Beast in the distance...Does this mean there's a Shaq 2? There's not thankfully. But deep down, I think I'd still play a sequel out of curiosity.

As well as the story, there are two other modes - tournament and duel, here you can try fighting using the opponents you fought in the story mode, you can also have 2 to 8 player tournaments, but I would personally find it almost impossible to get that many people to play this game. 

Overall, the game is awful, there's no doubt about it. The fights are very basic and offer hardly any diversity, it seems the story overpowers the gameplay, which shouldn't really be happening in a fighting game. A shameful attempt of celebrity endorsement, Shaq Fu offers little gameplay value, and is only fun to have a good laugh at the storyline. Maybe one day I'll try the portable versions.... Feature1