I was browsing the IGF finalists and Shank was the only one which seemed like something that could hold my interest as the rest were artsy games, some puzzle thingies or a washed platformer or whatever and I’m an action guy (twitch, RPG, RTS, fighting, simulation, whatever so long it’s action).
I have to say that the video of the demo they gave at PAX looks pretty entertaining.
While it is likely to end up pretty repetitive, and the little shotgun/chainsaw gimmicks will likely get trite by the third stage, it still comes across as a very fun and paltable scroller.
The background music is also rather short loop and while it insiminate to the background, its repetitiveness does somewhat grate your nerves at some point (in particular since it doesn’t vary or become more speedy/action-y/epic as you progress).
Overall, seems like a good game and the art is fantastic.
I’d recommend it, by sight (durr console game), to Alien Hominid fans. When it’s done that is.
The game doesn’t seem to be out yet, but the soundtrack is available for free. I’ve only heard the first track (Shank), and it’s pretty awesome. If the whole soundtrack is like this, I might have to get the game just based on that alone.
I really liked this when I played it at PAX.
It was also a great show off game as the other folks watching you play would constantly ooh and ah at the stuff you did.
I’ll probably have to pass on this for the moment as my ladyfriend will murder me if I don’t pick up Scott Pilgrim, but from what I played at an EA event it’s pretty good fun. Quite reminiscent of Alien Hominid, albeit with a bit of platforming and a fairly forgiving nature (on whatever difficulty it was set to there, anyway.) Dishwasher comparisons are kinda fair, too, and it’s got enough weapons and attacks I honestly forgot how to use most of them once the controls disappeared. Fortunately, hitting random buttons made awesome gory things happen!
I just pounced on a guy and jammed a chainsaw into his face while no look shotgunning the three guys who were about to knock me off him. Blackthorne lives!
I tried it on the PSN (couldn’t wait for the XBLA version) version, and I think my fingers are too old. My carpal seriously flares up after only 3 stages or so :/
Are the dualshock’s buttons more mushy than the 360’s? I felt like I had to jam them pretty hard to get Shank to respond, although when I did so (press hard), he responded very well. Definitely fun, just very mashy.
I like the “You’re about to fall into something horrible” slow motion effect. It saves you frustrating deaths, it keeps the action going, and most importantly it’s just a plain thoughtful little feature that many other developers wouldn’t even have considered.
Hmmm. Not a fan of the Flash-style animation, but the demo was still pretty fun. Probably an eventual buy, but not ahead of Scott Pilgrim, which I’m already holding off on until I finish up Guardian of Light.
Is there any official or inofficial word on the PC version? Shank was announced for PC as well, but the two recent press releases only mentioned the PS3/360 versions. I assume that it’ll pop up on Steam and the like at some point in the near future?
