Shaq Fu: A Legend Reborn Reviews
If you're a fan of side-scrolling beat 'em ups, have an open mind when it comes to humour, and don't mind the odd bout of tedium, you'll probably like Shaq Fu: A Legend Reborn quite a lot; just like me. Technical issues do pull it down a little though; just be aware of them, and its ability to offend, before you buy into it.
Shaq Fu: A Legend Reborn is a game by any normal definition should not exist. It is a game I am truly surprised people wanted and funded. To those of you who took the leap more than four years ago; I say thank you. I sit here with a rough diamond, most certainly not perfect, but memorable and hilarious at every chance it gets. While short, this is not a game to be overlooked—Shaq is back.
A Legend Reborn is definitely better than the first Shaq Fu game but it still misses a lot of its potential.
Review in Slovak | Read full review
As bad as Shaq-Fu: A Legend Reborn is, it could always be worse.
Shaq Fu: A Legend Reborn is not a perfect game, but instead provides gigantic steps in the right direction for potential sequels.
A certain candidate for the best worst game of the year award.
Review in Persian | Read full review
Shaq Fu: A Legend Reborn manages to do things at such a basic level that it numbs us to the idea of anything entertaining happening ever. A product from the past that lacks in every department, one has to wonder why they even bothered?
Shaq-Fu: A Legend Reborn is a fun button masher that brings Shaq back to the world of video games – you know, outside of a proper basketball game that is. The original Shaq-Fu was a fighting game, and now Shaq enters the beat ‘em up genre with a fun release that, while a bit repetitive due to its genre, is certainly fun.
I enjoyed the humor for what it was, and it doesn't take an overly long amount to time to clear. It's one of those games you can spend a day playing and not feel like you're being cheated out of anything if you never play it again. Shaq Fu's return won't earn the horrible reputation of its predecessor, but will probably be easily forgotten before the year is over.
From being a technical disaster and unfunny self-aware piece of software, Shaq-Fu: A Legend Reborn is an embarrassment to Shaq-Fu's 16-bit legacy. The original may not have been much, but at least it was not made ironically. The original was made by a talented team that did the best it could with what it had. A Legend Reborn is made with current technology and it somehow looks uglier and plays worse than the game that was coded in the '90s with pixels. Shifting the genre to a beat 'em-up was a logical choice, but this execution was a terrible miscalculation. Compounded with the overall poor quality, this is an extremely short game that clocks in at about two and a half hours. Not much value in Shaq-Fu: A Legend Reborn at all. Better stick with the 16-bit original.
This is 2018's most cuttingly unpleasant game to play. And I'm one of those that played Agony.
A Legend Reborn is a safe entry to the beat-em-up genre. It’s pretty basic but the writing is phenomenal. It’s also safe to say people might get offended with some of its humor. Not to mention the whole game is an apology letter for Nintendo Switch owners who purchased last year’s NBA Playgrounds before an online update was released. And in my opinion, this is the best way to play the game – for free.
What you’re left with, in the end, is an adequate brawler that tends to vary between too easy (while the enhanced Big Diesel and Shaq-tus modes are cute they’re not very challenging) to tough for the wrong reasons (control issues breaking out of stuns). Through each of the areas you visit enemies can be cosmetically different, and have some nuance, but they’re still a bit cookie cutter and all come from roughly the same 5 core types. This makes for finding patterns you’ll follow to success and, for the most part, there’s not much of a need for more than some basic strategies to stay alive until you get to the boss and need to figure out their patterns. The result is just a run-of-the-mill beat-em-up that seems to be using its “humor” to compensate. If that all sounds great to you, enjoy.
Simply a missed opportunity and another proof you should be wary of crowdfunding games. Shaq Fu: A Legend Reborn pales in comparsion to the 30 year old Double Dragon. Add in the ridiculous price tag and short length and you'll end up with something you shouldn't buy outside of sales.
Review in Slovak | Read full review
Shaq Fu: A Legend Reborn is a run of the mill brawler, which just happens to feature pretty good boss fights. This game is really funny and is certainly worth playing for that alone. I had plenty of fun with this, despite its many shortcomings. Still, given the choice, I’d go with classics like Streets of Rage 2 or TMNT: Turtles in Time.
For a game that was in development for years and was funded as much as it was, it is pretty disappointing. Barely takes 2 hours to beat and that is on top of the repetitive gameplay stretching it out.
Congratulations Shaq Fu apologists, your sequel game delivered. We’re working on monkey paw rules however, so that means Shaq Fu: A Legend Reborn only delivered on being a competent game instead of a good one.