Nukezilla Review: Shank (XBLA)

Imagine my surprise when I found out that the week before this year’s PAX festivities, a game was released that I’d been waiting eagerly for since last year’s PAX. The moment I got my hands on Shank on the show floor last year (oddly enough, using a Dreamcast controller) I knew this was something special. In its most basic sense, Shank is a side-scroller that combines the action and visuals of Comix Zone with the story and flavor of a Quentin Tarrentino flick. It’s also, hands-down, the prettiest goddamn game I’ve ever seen.

Shank’s tale is one of Kill Bill-esque revenge, with the title character being hunted down for betraying the leader of some nameless Mexican mob; the same mob Shank used to be the head hitman for. This revenge quest has Shank traveling through slums, a brothel (with possibly the most jaw-droppingly ridiculous boss ever created), a train, and various other locales to hunt down the head honcho that killed his beloved Eva.

All the while you’re presented with a game that looks like it jumped out of a comic; yes, that statement has been used to grand hyperbolic effect before, but when I say it here I mean it. The beautiful hand-drawn effects of Jeff Agala are absolutely astounding, and look like a cartoon; well worth the asking price of this game alone. These locations are filled to the brim with various lackeys and bosses tasked with killing this wayward bandito at any cost; luckily Shank can get his hands on all matters of killing tools.

The gameplay is of the “go from point A to point B, killing everything between” variety with a focus on weapons combat. Shank has access to his namesake tools, as well as a secondary melee weapon and firearm; along the way you get new weapons that fit into one of those types. You can get your hands on a shotgun, uzis, a chainsaw, and chain handwraps to dispatch foes in all varieties of grisly fashions, plus an invaluable pounce attack to keep the smaller enemies at bay.

The best feature of these weapons is that you can switch them on the fly, mid-combo, leading to some beautiful flourishes of death as you fling a foe into the air with a machete, pop a shell into him before he lands, pounce on his half-dead body and shuffle off his mortal coil with a samurai sword to the abdomen, before pouncing onto another foe and chocking him to death with your chains. This is what the game was made for: there’s so many beautifully complex ways to kill that no two deaths will look the same…at least until halfway through the game, when you get your last weapon.

From then on it’s a fight against staleness as you go up against the same enemies you’ve been playing against for the last few levels. Once you’ve figured out how to kill efficiently, the random, beautifully violent flourishes seem to die down, since pouncing and using the shotgun become your best bet for survival.

I was surprised that this game could get stale, especially for its relatively short run-time. Thank God for co-op; not only does it boast new levels and combo attacks, co-op’s story is a prequel to the main storyline. That mode, along with a handful unlockable costumes (one of which is, unfortunately, not Sho-Nuff, even though that’s exactly what it looks like) adds some replay value to the game.

Now, sure, I’ve taken about 20 sentences to tell you how great Shank is. The problem is, my words are rather meaningless; you’ve gotta see this game in action to truly appreciate how grand it is:

This review is Day 21 of the December Review Nukestravaganza.