Greak: Memories of Azur vs Shaq Fu: A Legend Reborn
Greak: Memories of Azur
Greak: Memories of Azur is a gorgeous action-adventure game featuring a young boy in search of his sister in a world engulfed in turmoil, no thanks to the bloodthirsty Uglars. Playing as the boy Greak, you’ll venture across various regions in Azur, exploring every inch of it for hidden stashes, completing quests, and battling enemies along the way.The game starts off like a relatively regular action platformer, where you’ll get to jump, swing your sword around, and solve relatively simple puzzles by switching characters once you manage to reunite him with his sister. This part is actually pretty similar to the gameplay in Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, a favorite of mine.
In fact, you’ll get to control both characters at the same time, which is interesting, though it does complicate things a bit during combat especially considering that the sister is a magic user and deals damage from afar while the brother is a sword-wielder and does best dealing damage from a much closer range.
In a way, Greak: Memories of Azur also feels a bit like a Metroidvania in the sense that the game hides secret chests and rare flowers in places that you, if you don’t pay too much attention, might miss. Even if you spotted the items, you will still need to figure out a way to get to them, which usually involves some creative and sometimes very precise jumping. Expect to get frustrated… a lot!
The gorgeous hand-drawn art in Greak is definitely one of the highlights of the game as well. The out-of-focus background in the distance matches well with the stuff at the front too.
In a nutshell, not only is Greak: Memories of Azur a gorgeous action-adventure game with a heartwarming story about a brother trying to reunite with his sister in a world embroiled in war and infested with dangerous creatures, it also comes with a fun gameplay that's perfectly "midcore". So, if you're into story-driven platformers, you'll want to check out this one!
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!
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