SHANK - PREVIEW
Klei Entertainment takes on the side-scrolling beat-em up with Shank , managing to create something fresh and compelling from a genre that ' s grown old and stale .
What Is It ? Shank taps the talent of Atomic Betty director Jeffrey Agala to create its striking graphic novel look and feel , but it takes more than a fresh coat of paint to freshen up the side-scrolling beat-em up . At its heart , that ' s what Shank is . Think Double Dragon . Think Fatal Fury . Then get your hands on the demo and think again .
What We Saw We played through a demo level of the game , taking control of the gritty hero Shank as he tears through a dusty desert town , taking down enemies with guns , knives , a shotgun , and a chainsaw until finally facing off against a massive boss . Though platforms have not been announced yet , we played on ... well we played on a box with a Xbox 360 wired controller , a Dreamcast controller , and an Atari 2600 controller wired into it . We actually used the 360 controller to play , so the game would be right at home on Xbox Live Arcade .
What Needs Im provem ent ? More More More : The only problem I had with the Shank demo was that it ended . Once it ended I poked around with some of the other options available to me , including a mode where you simply attacked three enemies over and over again in order to practice combos .
What Should St ay The Sam e ? Combo System : This is where Shank towers above other games in the genre . The combo system allows players to switch smoothly between weapons in the middle of a fight in such a way that even the button masher can look like they are a professional player . It ' s so very fluid and satisfying , and that ' s just brushing the very tip of the combo iceberg .
Striking Art Style : It ' s like stepping into the pages of a graphic novel . Shank looks like a comic book , with cut scenes that help carry the illusion , seamlessly integrating into gameplay .
Final Thought s Playing Shank was one of the most entertaining moments I had at PAX 09 , taking the simple , mindless fun of the beat-em up and polishing it to a stylish sheen that leaves me eager to see more as development progresses .