Somewhere in the Dark recesses of the space time continuum, between “Parachute Pants” and “Furbies”, lived a different fad; A Shaq fad. For those who feel they are too young to remember these dark times, I’ll remind you. It was the mid nineties and America’s youth needed a roll model; the NBA gave us Shaquille O’Neal. He made a rap album, 3 movies, and a video game. Yes, a video game. For those hardcore of the hardcore you may remember it. Shaq Fu.
It was a fighting game for the Sega Genesis. The story line consisted of Shaq in China getting ready to play a basketball game for charity. Randomly he decides it would be a good idea to go to a kung-fu dojo and ask the old man that harbored inside if he would like to attend Shaq’s basketball game. Why a kung-fu master would want to attend a basketball game is beyond me.
The old man then in turn asks Shaq to go on a series of kung-fu missions to find a missing boy. (Why a kung-fu master would send a basketball player on a kung-fu mission is also beyond me). However Shaq being the good martial arts knowing Samaritan jumps at the chance to use his “moves”.
Through his encounter he fights wizards, cat people, and other kung-fu masters. I don’t want to spoil if Shaq wins the basket ball game or not. It would have been a nice irony if he didn’t.
Despite the game’s “Swiss cheese” plot (because of the holes), I actually find the game-play mildly enjoyable. The controls were decent, the variety of moves were a nice touch, and if you could get pass the fact that you’re playing a seven-foot tall basketball player who once uttered the words “I am Kazaam”, then you may have gotten over the biggest flaw of the game.
In today’s standards, video games are the next form of story-telling. Some of them have to be believable. However there are still trashy games that grace such folk as 50-Cent. Games like that make me want to request that the named artist in question sticks with his or her day-job. I mean, that’s what Shaq was trying to do when he randomly asked that old man if he would attend a charity game. It was that old-man who expected too much. If we learned anything from the game, it’s that Shaq’s love for basketball and dedication to place fans in the seats becomes comparable to a warrior setting off on an adventure.
If it wasn’t Shaquille O’Neal gracing the cover of that box then it might have been a decent story. Place Bruce Lee in that position and see how many more games can be sold. I mean, stories can’t be perfect all of the time. Take it from a red plumber I know who fights dinosaurs.
