Kingdom Classic vs Shaq Fu: A Legend Reborn
Kingdom Classic
Kingdom Classic is a pretty challenging and yet entertaining, 2D game that also happens to be one of the more innovative tower defense games in recent years. Developed and published by indie companies, this game puts you in the role of a crown-totting king or queen who is setting out to find a suitable spot to settle down and build his or her own kingdom from the ground up.There aren't a lot of kingdom building in this game though. Aside from upgrading your main "base" which starts off being a simple campfire, you will only build and upgrade certain structures like farms, walls, and towers. The game also uses a really simple coins-based system where you rely on the coins you earn to do practically everything, from converting wild men in camps into your kingdom's loyal subjects to powering up special stats-boosting shrines, to unlocking new stone upgrades, and even to upgrading your very walls.
Your kingdom will be under constant attack by creatures from otherworldly dimensions every night, and hopefully by then, you would have some defenses up and ready. These creatures will become increasingly harder to kill, more in variety, and more in numbers, so you will need to ensure that your kingdom's defenses are sufficient to meet the threat.
Due to its difficulty, you might want to check out some of the guides out there after trying a round or two on your own, just so you won't pass up on this amazing game. Even with the guides though, you will still need to put in a good deal of effort and strategic thinking just to make it to Day 50 let alone Day 100. So, if you're a fan of tower defense-like games, don't mind pixel art, and enjoy a good challenge, Kingdom Classic is an indie game you will want to buy.
Shaq Fu: A Legend Reborn
Shaq Fu: A Legend Reborn is a fun and hilarious beat 'em up game that takes quite vicious, satirical jabs at various pop culture, celebrities, people stereotypes, and even the developers' own indiegogo campaign. The game starts you off in China where Shaquille (Shaq for short), a black baby was raised in a small village in China after he was found drifting down the river in an expensive-looking handbag. He was naturally bullied by the local kids when he was little because he was so much taller than they all were but his taller and bigger stature helped him gained the mentorship of the local village elder and he was eventually trained in the ancient martial arts of Wu Xing. Sounds like a the generic start of a kung-fu story, right? Well, the game does it so much better by peppering it with plenty of humor.Anyway, one day, his fighting skills were called into action when the god of death, Yen Lo-Wang, once again escape from the underworld and unleashed his plan to take over the world... that is by possessing various celebrities with his demons and brainwashing the world's people into subservience. Of course, this is not something Shaq will simply ignore, especially not when his elderly mentor was murdered by one of Yen Lo-Wang's minions.
Now, the gameplay in this game isn't what you'd call "hardcore", but the boss fights are quite challenging and the enemies you go fist-to-fist against have their respective sets of abilities in which you'll need to find ways to counter, besides being downright amusing. Just look at the animations! Controls are very simple to get into, especially if you had played such beat 'em ups before, and it's really nice that the developers put in the extra effort to vary their range of enemies and background art.
The best parts about the game though, aside from the funny dialogues and the cool moves, include crazy fun power-ups that can turn Shaq into a spikes-spewing cactus-man or equip him with an Iron Man-like suit, albeit a suit that is powered by diesel, which allow him to dish out a flurry of fists to any enemy unlucky enough to be standing in his way!
Shaq Fu: A Legend Reborn's brand of humor may not be everyone's cup of tea, but if you enjoy beat 'em up games, and you like to see the amusing side of things and you don't take the world too seriously, then this game is definitely right up your alley. It'll be able to make you cough up a chuckle or two, at least - I daresay I laughed a bit too much at some of the jokes in this game. Oh and a quick tip if you will - make sure you listen closely to the lyrics in the game's very own theme song. I got my first chuckle from it!