The game was crowdfunded on Indiegogo in 2014 and has been in development for the better part of 4 years. The premise is as follows: You play as Shaq Fei Hung, a Chinese orphan from the town of Hunglow, as
he embarks on a quest to save humanity from demonic monsters
masquerading as celebrities. It's chock full of animated cutscenes, cringe-worthy humor, and features the vocal talents of Shaq himself.The gameplay is pretty standard beat 'em up fare; there's a basic attack, the "size 22" combo attack and the "Shaq-wave" which can take out multiple enemies at once but requires energy to perform. Shaq can charge towards enemies, jump and roll out of the way of oncoming attacks. It's basically Streets of Rage with Shaq.
At different points in the game Shaq will don the "Diesel" suit which turns him into an unstoppable juggernaut and the "Shaqtus" power-up, which transforms him into a spine-throwing cactus. These power-ups appear at set points in the game and are unavoidable, but they do offer some much-needed variety to the standard combat.
It should be noted that Shaq Fu: A Legend Reborn is exclusively single player--the COOP and VS modes that were promised on Indiegogo are nowhere to be found. There are 6 levels for you to mash your way through, each containing multiple check points and ending with a final boss. The boss fights all contain an annoying glitch which results in the character model flipping when Shaq goes behind it--it doesn't affect the gameplay, but it's pretty jarring .
The graphics and sound are passable and the core gameplay is actually pretty solid--it can get a little repetitive at times, but that kind of comes with the territory. The controls are responsive and the game ran smooth on the Switch with no slowdowns. The entire game only takes about 3 hours to complete.
Although it might not be the "instant classic" that was promised, Shaq Fu: A Legend Reborn is not too bad. It's fun while it lasts, but $40 for the physical cartridge is way too much for how short it is. There are certainly better beat 'em ups out there, but none of them star Shaq; for that reason I give this game two and a half out of five Shaqti.
