You like a game with a challenge, is beautiful and both Old-School and Modern? This is your game!
I am here to tell you this straight up: Shank is the best game to come out this summer and a candidate for my game of the year list.
Story:
One of the best parts of this game is it actually has two separate stories for Single and Multi player
The game's main story (Single Player) feels a lot like it was taken from or made as a loose adaptation of the Kill Bill series (with nods to Kill Bill all through the game) except you're a male protagonist named Shank who was part of a dangerous gang and got betrayed, his girlfriend kidnapped and killed and Shank was left to die while he painfully watched his girlfriend taken away.
A few years later Shank returns to take revenge and killed all who have wronged him and anyone who will stand in his way.
The Multiplayer story serves as a prequel to the main story and follows Shank and his best friend Falcone as they go around running "errands" for their boss where by the end of the campaign you are a given an explanation as to why Shank was betrayed.
Gameplay:
It would be pretty easy to call Shank a side scrolling beat'em up but this is not exactly the case. While the core of the game is a beat'em up the game plays more like a 2D version of Devil May Cry rather than Double Dragon or Streets of Rage.
Shank has quite a verity of ways to dispose of his enemies: Pistols, Shot guns, Machetes, Chainsaws, chains, swords and of course the eponymous Shanks, are all there to help you take on your opponents in some of the most brutal, beautifully animated combos you'll ever see. You can also uppercut enemies in the air and start filling them with lead or jump after them and continue your assault on them.
The games controls are excellent and quite responsive (some reviewers pointed out that there was a problem with the response, I have not seen it at all and I played through the game 10 times). The face buttons are your usual high/low attack, jump and gun. Shoulder buttons are used for block, grenade, throw and pounce.
Throw and pounce are the two things where this game is unique. Throw will have you hold an enemy and punish them in creative ways depending on the weapon you have equipped, literally feed them a grenade or do a two player combo with your partner by throwing them in the air and having your partner pile drive him to the floor. Pounce, which is my favorite feature in the game lets you jump enemies like a panther and hold them to the ground while you punish them in very brutal ways. This is a very useful technique and once you get the hang of it it'll help you pull of quite amazing and creative combos. Its only downside is it doesn't work on bigger enemies or bosses so as not to allow you to abuse it.
There are some minor platforming segments but they serve as a build up to the next batch of henchman nothing more and with these amazing controls are a piece of cake.
Difficulty wise the game is a bit hard when you first pick it up (VERY hard on today's standards) on normal difficulty the game is quite generous with its checkpoints but on Hard you only get a checkpoint if you reach the boss otherwise you return to the beginning of the game if you lose, this gives you a sense of danger that is quite lacking in today's regenerating life, overpowered main character games and keeps your eye on the health bar and keeps you searching for "refuel" drinks. Still there are endless lives and no game over so on old school standards this is still a generous game.
Lots of unlockables make the game worth playing through plenty of times including concept art and different costumes (including Bruce Lee's and The Bride's yellow jump suit) The campaign is not very long and you could finish it in one sit down if you wanted to but you'll keep coming back for more and for a $15 downloadable game its good enough.
Design and Graphics: I fell in love with this game when it was first announced simply because of the art style. With the character design being done by Genndy Tartakovsky (Samurai Jack) and the majority of the team in Klei being former cartoon animators, the game looks stunning! The fluid animation in the combos mix well with the beautifully drawn back drops, this is the closest you'll get to actually playing a cartoon! Details are also paid towards the henchmen whom while are repetitive are quite well animated and give you the impression that they are being punished hard. This is where I always imagined 2D games would go but I was afraid it was no longer possible after the jump to 3D almost killed 2D gaming, so I'm glad it actually happened!
Conclusion: If you like old school action games, 2D games or feel like going on a killing spree and need an outlet for that vent up rage, then this is the game for you, but don't expect any deep story or complexity here. This is a straight up action cartoon inspired beat'em up with an excellent multiplayer that could've easily been used as a DLC or full on prequel to milk money but was thrown in for free with the game. Remember this game was published by EA and is giving you something for free!!!
Note: This is a review of the PS3 version. As far as I know there isn't any difference between this and the 360 version but some reviewers have scored the 360 version lower for reasons that are unknown to me.
Final Score: 9.0