Shaq Fu: A Legend Reborn Reviews

There's no reason for this game to exist, and I wonder if the people who crowdfunded it even know what the original Shaq Fu game even was. Well, it was a mediocre one-on-one fighting game that became a bit of a meme on sites like GameFaqs in the 2000s as a gag game because the entire concept is entirely preposterous. This reboot of the property is probably the most embarrassing thing Shaquille O'Neal has ever been involved in, and that's saying a lot considering he appeared in movies such as Kazaam (1996) and a Tom Green (2001) movie which I will not name here. As a brawler beat-em-up it starts out decent enough but there's unfortunately no depth to it. You learn all of your necessary attacks on the first stage and aside from some environmental objects like boulders and enemy portals the combat never gets any more complex. I played on hard and found the middle section of this game infuriating because he kept jumping into the background and getting stuck or instakilled by swarms of enemies while doing a special attack. Shaq can punch, do a combo attack with some range, do a dashing attack and pound the ground. At some points he turns into a mech, kind of like the movie Steel (1997) that he starred in, or a cactus which is probably only because it was the closest thing that rhymed with the name Shaq. These are filler segments that are fun but take no effort to complete. The story is occasionally humorous, but the fact that it never takes itself seriously is kind of what keeps this from being a good game. I think it would've been way more awesome if this was a super-serious Spawn-type piece of pulp media, with Shaq bludgeoning enemies as he battles demons in the underbelly of Chinatown and Hollywood. There are flashes of that inspiration, but this is a game where Shaq fights an alien butt in a thong as a boss, so it's just too stupid to take seriously even though I really think it would've made the game much cooler and similar to a cult classic. The only really funny running joke is that Shaq grows up as a Rickshaw driver in China and tells everyone he's Chinese. Powerups, upgrade points and statistics would've also made this a good game. After level 2 you've really seen everything the game has to offer, but I will say that at least this game doesn't fall into the trap of a lot of fighting games by just being a repetitive button masher where the enemies never die. You can always see enemy health, and there are some tactics on hard difficulty even though they are stupid, usually keeping distance and luring the enemies over or jumping behind them as they finish their attack animations. The boss fights are all different and there's enough content here to give it a light recommendation as a budget game, but it's nowhere near among the great beat-em-up games or even a great action game in general.