When I first saw the concept art for Shank a little over a year ago, the natural artist in me was instantly drawn to the game.  I’ve been drawing way before I was able to put words together, of which were nowhere near understandable by humans at the time.  Obviously, the look and feel of the artwork was definitely the item that kept me coming back and peeking into the window.  Shank appears to adapt some of its style from properties reminiscent of shows I had come to enjoy; shows like Samurai Jack, Justice League of America and Batman Beyond to list a few similarities.

Without a doubt, I have enough sketch pads littered about, and if by some Disney magic they could talk, my love affair with this art style would be vetted easily.  Trust me, I could put on display, a parade of countless sketches that have resulted in hybrids and half-drawn characters in this style, of whom suffered neglect over soggy Captain Crunch cereal and broken pencil leads.  However, artwork alone is not enough to make me want to play a game; game play and the perceived fun factor has a lot to do with it as well. Enough about me already, onward with my review of the Shank demo.

I would most likely be considered what people refer to as an “old-school” gamer. ( I know, I am still talking about me.)  My chops were honed on games like Contra-Hard corps, Double Dragon and Streets of Rage.  As artifacts go, you might likely find a footprint of mine in the form of a Converse All-Stars sole pattern, somewhere in an abandoned and dusty defunct arcade – evidence enough that I participated in ushering in the coin-op era, but then that would be giving away too much.  Nevertheless, Shanks brings back at least for me, some nostalgia as far as pure beat-em ups and hack and slash games of the 80′s go.  The game is amazingly fluid, the physics are just right and the action is turned up just enough for you to enjoy what is actually taking place on-screen.  Some games are just a mosh pit of sprites, explosions and whatever else that causes most gamers to button mash, as if  the game controller is screaming unholy profanities while you’re hopelessly trying to silence it.  Subsequently, there is never truly an idea of how or why you survived the melee that ensued.  Usually, all that remains is the evidence of the thousands of pieces of debris left over from the things that were trying to kill you, and then it repeats.  Thankfully, Shank is nowhere near this.

From the onset, the combat moves for Shank seemed fairly simple, slash with your shanks, hack and tear with a chainsaw, and blow away anyone coming in front or behind, with your dual pistolas of course.  As the demo progressed, the game was already proving to be more than just your average run, jump, and shoot.

To illustrate, the game starts off with the an animated back story of our hero Shank, who watches helplessly as his beloved girlfriend is carried off in the arms of a ridiculous sized wrestler named “The Butcher.”  One of the more aesthetically pleasing aspects about the graphics, is that the back story and the game seem to transition in and out between each other almost seamlessly.  In other words, if it weren’t for the on-screen indicators, you would not know if you were in a cut-scene or the game, unless you tried to move.  Likewise, the graphics which appear to be Hi-Res vector art, presents the game as a AAA Flash title on steroids.  I hope that by using the phrase “Flash game,” I don’t minimize the brilliance that is being pulled off here.  The animation sequences alone are some of the best work I have seen in this style of game.  For instance, I was gaped in amazement when I noticed the main character on one knee, knife deep in the chest of a baddie, while looking backwards and firing off rounds towards incoming attackers.  Definitely bad ass.  The aforementioned animated sequence was just one of the craziest and hyper fluid animations that the main characters goes into, resulting in baddies being sent to their digital after-lives.

At this point, I am aware I have not touched on the controls.  Truthfully, it’s fairly straightforward, and you find yourself reacting subconsciously, not really thinking about what you “should” be doing at any one given instance – well, maybe when you need to jump.  For the most part, the controls for the game are smooth and they just work, point blank.

The beauty of the system is the animated sequences that occur from what seems likely countless button combinations. It’s the animation sequences that draw you deeper into the game, the hero “Shank” seems alive and ready to do your bidding with the push of a button.  Pure button smashers will enjoy the reward of the built-in combo system and the on-screen acknowledgement of successful combos during a melee of death and destruction.  Early on into the game, you will quickly find out what combination of buttons allow for certain moves, along with which combos are more efficient against the larger, more harder to dispatch of bad guys. Granted, a majority of the baddies don’t drop from the first hit, slice or blast from a bullet, but that alone adds to the insanely paced action that is closing in from both sides of the screen.

Without a doubt, this was another fun and enjoyable game to play, which more than catered to my old school coin-op lineage.  The Demo ends with you entering into a caged death match against a larger than life size character, “The Butcher.”  Remember that he is the initial antagonist who kidnapped and from what I can tell, killed Shank’s girl. Consequently, after more onscreen violence, bloodshed, awesomeness and a plethora of mind-blowing combos, the demo is over if you managed to kill The Butcher.

After experiencing the game for what it is, I cant help but wonder what lies ahead.  Based on the screen shots from the levels in the unlocked version of the game, it appears that I have not even scratched the surface on how fun this game may truly be.

I’d have to rank this up there with those games that you play when all you want to do is just jump in, kill some stuff and get out. There are definitely hours of fun to be had, more weapons to discover and even crazier, larger than life characters to face down and destroy.

If you are comic book enthusiast or enjoy the occasional graphic novel, I’d recommend the game on that perception of it alone.  In short, Shank appears to offer gamers a visceral thrill ride with the back drop of a graphical novel that comes to life, sort of like an animated cross between Kill Bill and Desperado.  Chalk this one up as another title that I will more than likely end up buying, not hard on the wallet either…only $14.99 and available on Steam.

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References:

Shank: http://shankgame.com/

Contra Hard Corps: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contra:_Hard_Corps

Double Dragon: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Dragon

Streets of Rage: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streets_of_rage

Samurai Jack: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samurai_Jack

JLA: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justice_League_(TV_series)
Batman Beyond: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batman_Beyond
Kill Bill: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kill_Bill_Volume_1

Deperado: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desperado_(film)

Steam: http://store.steampowered.com/