Ah the 90’s. Girl Power was on the rise, people were nuts about Beanie Babies, the Macarena was popular and our video games came with a dash of casual racism.
With the release of the 3DRealms BUILD engine came the march of the clones. Duke Nukem 3D was the first game to use the engine, followed by a few forgettable copies and a trifecta of games that include Shadow Warrior, Redneck Rampage and Blood. The question that came with these BUILD clones was “How do we set this apart from Duke Nukem 3D’s stereotypes, sexism, violence and movie cliches? Why, with other stereotypes, sexism, violence and movie cliches!” So Shadow Warrior’s hook was kung-fu movies and a samurai sword, featuring our protagonist with the ultra mature name of Lo Wang. Of course it was all in good fun, when video games weren’t exactly considered high art, hung around for some mindless entertainment and probably had a nice dose of drugs to go in with their development cycle.
Shadow Warrior (1997)
But the past is the past, and it seemed a hero like Wang who had such classy catchphrases as “Ancient Chinese Secret” or “BANZAI!” or the classy “Just like Nagasaki!” should stay right in the past where he belonged. Naturally I was a tad bewildered when I found out game developer Flying Wild Hog disagreed with me and set out for a remake.
Right away Shadow Warrior does two things right. First is the obvious, maybe not so much racism. Second, while the story is dark and a bit more thought out than the original it’s still not a game that takes itself too seriously. Lo Wang is still our hero, but Flying Wild Hog makes a few immediate and effective changes. They don’t sweep the political incorrectness of the original under the rug, rather they lampshade it, such as a line about the game’s first level where Wang comments on the locale: “I was hoping for something a little more cliche, but I guess koi ponds and Cherry Blossoms will have to do.” The original Lo Wang was a kung fu master with a full Manchu who spouted nonstop, repetitive Engrish sayings for the sake of comedy. We meet the new younger Wang speeding down the highway dressed in a sharp outfit, smoking a cigarette and singing along to Stan Bush’s The Touch. It’s a wittier, more serious Wang that stops being a stereotype and starts being a badass hitman… With a bit of a comic book obsession.
Alright, so it hasn’t completely distanced itself from the original. Shadow Warrior 97 had awkward, out of place nude anime ladies scattered throughout levels and… Those are back. So are fortune cookies with “sage” advice, and ridiculous looking weapon designs. However all these things are more a head nod to the original out of place awkwardness of the first game’s low brow comedy and poor attempts to satirize Asian culture, it’s basically making fun of itself, saying “Yeah that wasn’t exactly the greatest idea… Now let’s move on.”
Okay, right, so cultural sensitivity moment over. It’s not my typical kind of review coverage, but attempting to update the original was so head scratching I just had to dedicate a bit of time to it. Let’s talk about how the game feels, looks and sounds.
After a little bit of story setup you’re thrust into the action as you cut a very gory swath through a mixture of gangsters and demons. There is something decidedly old school about the combat, switching through weapons on the fly, no places to take cover and only relying on strafing and dodging, and no automatic healing for your character. It basically feels like an old school 90’s FPS game, and I found absolutely nothing wrong with that. Throw in some gameplay tweaks to keep the action fast paced and you’re in for a mostly fun experience. Mostly. There are slight faults with the combat system, for example the game’s use of magic, or as it’s called here “Ki.” While the abilities themselves are cool and keep the game varied, using them can be a little counter-intuitive.
In short using a special ability usually requires some combination of the mouse and the WASD keys, which are also responsible for combat and movement respectively. This means when trying to do one action you may often find yourself accidentally doing another. I’ve often been in the middle of a combat intense situation, had to double tap the D key to begin channeling my healing magic, and would strafe to the right as an unintended side effect. I can’t claim this has been a major detriment to the gameplay, especially since there’s such a variety of attacks and ways to safeguard yourself in the midst of combat, but it does make it feel a bit odd overall. You can’t work with the keybindings to fix this either, you’re just stuck with having to get used to the system.
Ki is certainly cool, if only it were more intuitive.
The sword may have been a gimmick in the original, but it’s pure awesome here; smooth, deadly, lightning quick and fun. There’s nothing like diving into a thick crowd of enemies and chopping them to bits. You get other toys to play with, this is an FPS after all so you get plenty of guns, the aforementioned ki which gives you special abilities (usually tied to sword attacks), and the occasional demon’s body parts. These other toys are both necessary for some more strategic encounters, and upgradeable to make for an overall more badass Wang. The upgrade system is a little intimidating at first, one menu for passive powers, one for special abilities and bonuses, and one for weapons. It’s an in depth system and you have to spend your points carefully to customize your Wang.
While the skills help you feel like the incredible badass Wang is setup to be, it also never feels too easy. Once you feel like you’re getting used to the flow of the game, ready to breeze your way through a room of baddies, the game will throw a new enemy type at you or a difficult boss type that takes no small measure of thinking and quick reflexes to defeat.
The graphics are definitely serviceable, though environments can get a little stale, and tons of areas will end up looking the same. Luckily there was enough going on I was never truly bored. The game is also occasionally marred by frame rate issues, and I found my machine would start to chug along in the middle of an enemy ambush where I had to deal with a dozen or more baddies. The soundtrack bounces between stale and fun, I could be listening to any old action movie ambient soundtrack one minute and Stan Bush the next.
Story is nothing to phone home about, your job is to try and save the world from demons while getting a sword for your employer… So go do that. Though the tone attempts to be a bit darker than its predecessor, the entire game still plays up action movie cliches. The game is also littered with small easter eggs such as Serious Sam and Hotline Miami or cabinets, or cute little bunny rabbits you find in the midst of fierce love making sessions… Just don’t interrupt them, as I discovered, unless you want to be hunted down by one while heavy metal blast in the background with lyrics informing you that you fucked up.
Before.
After.
The game is fun, plain and simple. None of its faults are too glaring or frustrating, while at the same time it’s not exactly ground breaking. It’s amusing, fast paced, and an all around decent time waster. If you’re out of other things to play and you have a few bucks to plop down I would recommend giving this one a go.
Before.
After.
