Shank

Shank is a 2-D side-scrolling beat-'em-up with minor platforming elements. The protagonist, simply known as Shank, fights his way through hundreds of enemies on his quest for revenge. There's three weapon types assigned to three buttons; knives for a light mêlée attack, heavy weapon, and gun. As you progress through the game, you unlock new heavy weapons and guns and these can be switched out using the D-pad. You are also able to carry up to five grenades. Shank can also grab or pounce on weaker enemies (the stronger ones will shrug him off though).

The animation in the game is absolutely superb, so chaining between the different types of attacks and weapons is fast, smooth, and incredibly gory. The pounce move was particularly impressive. Whilst you have an enemy pinned down, you can choose to shoot a different enemy before finishing your current one. There's also some particularly brutal moves you can perform in this state, such as ramming a grenade in their mouth, or strangling them with chains.

The game is challenging enough, but the frequent checkpoints on the default difficulty makes it feel just right. You have to be mindful of different enemies attack behaviour, and use the dodge liberally since it's easy to get surrounded or gunned from range.

Platforming sections break up the action, and it looks way more stylish than it is fun. Shank can climb vertical walls using his knives, wall run along billboards, and swing across posts. Most of these sections feel pretty automatic, but there's times when you plummet to your death but are unsure why.

There's quite a few bosses scattered throughout the game. You can often deal a fair amount of damage by giving them a few slashes then carefully dodging their attacks. However, each boss has a weakness where Shank will deal a large amount of damage if you press the grab button when prompted. If the boss kills you, the game provides you with a hint; which is a nice feature.

There's a Co-Op mode which apparently has a different campaign, so if you only intend to play single-player like me, you can only experience half of the game. The single-player campaign will be over after around 3 hours, but you don't really expect more than that for this type of game.

Fans of the beat-'em-up genre are in for a real treat with Shank. The great art design and animation means it's fantastic to look at, and the combat is smooth and brutal.

Shank is a 2d brawler. Besides the unique visual style, i have trouble imagining that these are the same guys behind the great Mark of the Ninja. In comparison, shank is much more clunky, simple and dumb. I played with a controller, and even then i had trouble in controlling the character, specially when it came to dodges. The story is a simple revenge tale which works. The levels end up feeling a bit repetitive, since the combat system is not that good to keep you entertained through waves of the same type of enemies. I like its art style, but thats the best thing about it.

Perhaps it was designed to be played in coop, which makes sense considering the huge amount of waves it throws at you. But even then, its not mechanically deep to be a satisfying game to play in the long run. Klei would move on to much better things.

Most modern beat ’em ups seem to serve no purpose other than to milk our nostalgia and remind us how repetitive games once were. Shank, however, is something new, something special. It rewrites the history of the genre by adding the advanced combos and visceral action of modern 3-D action games like God of War and Devil May Cry [デビル メイ クライ] to a more traditional presentation and design — that of the 2-D brawler.

Like any other game in the genre, you fight from one side of the stage to the other, reach the boss and venture on to the next stage. Thanks to a fighting system that offers flexibility, speed and a great variety of stages and enemies, Shank’s brief but very challenging campaign is one of the highlights of its genre in recent years. The presentation complements the game perfectly, taking the visual style of Samurai Jack and pairing it with the desolate, violent Mexico found in Robert Rodriguez’s films; one could possibly mistake it for being a spin-off of Machete. The game also contains a two-player campaign that works as a prologue to the main single-player.

Unfortunately, the two-player campaign is a bit shorter and a bit too hectic for its own good. Nevertheless, for a cheap downloadable game, this is the best time you’ll have with a chainsaw, hunting knife and shotgun all at once. Just don’t be afraid to use all eight buttons. Shank makes the most of modern controllers, where others only aim for nostalgia.