Wu-Tang: Shaolin Style

• Release Date: November 09, 1999
• Genre: Fighting
• Style: 3D Fighting
• Similar Games: Tekken 3 (Arcade), Tekken 3 (PlayStation), Mortal Kombat 4 (Nintendo 64), Mortal Kombat 4 (PlayStation), Mortal Kombat 4 (IBM PC Compatible), Ehrgeiz (Arcade), Mortal Kombat 4 (Game Boy Color), Ehrgeiz (PlayStation), Ehrgeiz (PlayStation)

Game Description

Battle an evil warlord named Mong Zhu as members of the rap group Wu-Tang Clan in this 3D fighting game featuring nine playable characters. Master the martial arts as RZA, Method Man, Raekwon, GZA, Ol' Dirty Bastard, Masta Killa, U-God, Inspectah Deck and Ghostface Killa. The Story Mode starts you off in a courtyard area called the Hub, which resembles a city intersection with four separate alleys. Each alley leads to a fight against specific enemies from the Mong Zhu clan.

Overcome challenges by successfully demonstrating Shaolin skills, and learn different fighting styles in your quest to become a Wu-Tang master. Completing each task will earn you one of 36 possible "chambers," which will gradually unlock secrets. Reveal 50 fatality sequences, hidden characters, new arenas, concept art, and other special features. In addition to the Story Mode, the game includes a Versus Mode supporting up to four human- or computer-controlled characters at the same time.

Versus Mode offers a choice of arenas, characters, and handicap options. There are also two types of games. "Original" gives each character a specific number of lives, with the winner being the last one standing. "Advanced" introduces a kill limit to the free-for-all, with the first person (or team) to reach the limit declared the winner. Wu-Tang Clan: Shaolin Style also features a practice option to help you learn each character's special moves. Three exclusive songs from the group were created specifically for the game and are included in the soundtrack.

Roots & Influences

While Wu-Tang: Shaolin Style has similarities to Tekken 3, EHRGEIZ, and Mortal Kombat 4, the engine was based on the unreleased Thrill Kill from Virgin.

Review: Overall

Since when did hip-hop and martial arts join at the hip? Wu-Tang: Shaolin Style is a game that tries to cover up its silliness by borrowing the Thrill Kill engine and throwing in some made-up form of martial arts called Wu-Tang, which is performed by characters that are contrived from the rap group Wu-Tang Clan. Despite the fact that it does have a very similar 3D engine as Thrill Kill's but adds its own special effects and features, the game lacks the standard formula of most fighting games. Now that may be what is called unique but perhaps they went a bit too far, especially with the simple yet ridiculous story.

The intro to the game is one of the longest in game history. Its full-motion video looks good and even has some drama in it -- that is, until the funny rap video comes up. Are we supposed to be serious about fighting or are we supposed to laugh? The most annoying thing about the game is when every time you boot it up it forces you to input a password code to unlock the uncensored version. Since it has a mature rating for animated violence (and blood and gore), why would it need to have players enter a code all the time?

The violence isn't any worse than Resident Evil 2, and that game just puts up a disclaimer warning the user of scenes containing graphic violence and gore that may be unsuitable to some audiences. Thrill Kill, if it had been released by Virgin, would've had the user press two buttons on the controller to agree to their disclaimer for the mature content. In fact, Wu-Tang: Shaolin Style is a little more violent than Thrill Kill, but since it has a celebrity music overtone to it compared to Thrill Kill's politically incorrect and sadistic themes, it probably attributed to allowing Wu-Tang to pass the ESRB's requirements.

Versus Mode is probably the mode you'd want to play in first since Story Mode is a bit difficult to master from the start. You can then choose to play a Free Battle where each player is scored as an individual and only one player can win. You can team up with another CPU player to help you out in Team Battle mode. Teammates don't target each other and can't harm one another in combat, and thus in the Advanced game format the combined number of kills for each team is used for scoring. Other options allow you to set the number of lives, time limit, kill limit, rage meter, arena selection, and difficulty. There's even a turbo mode for faster play.

Graphically, Wu-Tang has good graphics with lots of color, real-time lighting, and pretty smooth animation. But the textures aren't anything to write home about. The special effects aren't outstanding but some of them look quite dazzling, like the fiery sword slashing. Though not controllable, the camera does pan around wisely and doesn't leave your character. However, at times it makes no sense for the camera to be in front of your character so that the opponent is facing the other way, blocking the view.

The game's sounds consist of sharp cracks, punches and kicks and other things that go bump in the night, but the music (if you can call it that) and voices leave little to be desired. Vocals are accompanied by hip-hop tracks from the Wu-Tang Clan and the in-game voices like "yo" (among other stuff) are spoken by the group's members. Not for the serious fighting fan, however good for the serious rap fan. Fortunately you can turn off the music but unfortunately the voices are still there.

The vibration function seems to work better during the passive cinematic fatality sequences than in the game itself. The Multi-Tap Adapter capability for multi-player gaming is probably the only thing going for this game. Ever wondered why the chambers are called "chambers" and why there are 36 of them? Just take a glance at what studio the music tracks were done by -- 36 Chambers Studios! Nothing ceases to amaze me when it comes to developers who truly customize their games with unoriginal level names.

Simply put, Wu-Tang: Shaolin Style is really for hardcore fans of rap or the Wu-Tang Clan as opposed to hardcore fighting fans. Activision had been lacking a lot in 1999, publishing games that aren't that great for some reason, and on that note Wu-Tang hits the top of the list for most amateur in concept. When there are cutesy annoyances and silly antics in a game that take away the fun of it, then it is a sad day for the fighting game genre to have even allowed this to happen. It's a good thing PlayStation games like Tekken 3 put everything in perspective in terms of priority and quality, and every fighting game should compete with that one at the least.

Review: Enjoyment

Somehow this is more of a rap album than a game.

Review: Graphics

This game has vibrant colors, dynamic lighting, some neat special effects and smooth animation, though textures are slightly on the average side.

Review: Sound

Nice attack sounds but horrible voices and annoying music.

Review: Replay Value

If you just want to fight relentlessly and skip the videos then you might be able to survive through this game.

Review: Documentation

24 pages of fairly easy to understand instructions, though they could've removed that promotional stuff at the end advertising some of {$Wu-Tang}'s upcoming records.

Production Credits

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