Taste The Pain, Smell The Marketing

"If what you say is true... the Shaolin and The Wu-Tang could be dangerous" - Bring Da Ruckus Wu-Tang Clan

The above is the intro to Wu-Tang Clan's debut album Enter The 36 Chambers. While the the game here could be based on anyone, the fact that you're controlling the foul mouthed rappers seem to make things all the more sweeter.

The main difference between these and other fighting games of it's kind is that fights have up to more than 4 players at the same time. Chaotic? You better believe it. But that's what makes this game incredible fun. Hook 4 players up to this and the fights onscreen will quickly become wars as words turn the air blue and your characters turn the screen red.

Single Player

Games in general nowadays are fairly easy but Shaolin Style is as tough as nails. You start off with no chambers but in order to complete the game you need all, yup that's right, 36. Chambers can be earned by defeating certain levels, not losing energy or performing combos. Performing combos is essential to survive in this game but that makes them no easier to pull off, and you can officially consider a fighting master if you do a 10+ combo with Ghostface Killah. Chambers can also be earned by performing fatalities.

Ah yes fatalities. You thought Mortal Kombat had nasty fatalities? Well these are right in their league. Each character has 4 fatalities and they range from stupid to grizzly. Ol' Dirty B-stard slams his opponent into the ground several times until they simply disintegrate. RZA pins his victim to the wall with his sword before kicking the other sword in their face. The word "ouch" springs to mind.
To access this gore, a code has to be entered at the title screen which can be found in the manual. So concerned parents, you don't want kids to see the gore, nick their instruction manual. Problem solved.

The game pits you in several different scenarios which makes things interesting. One scenario sees you warding off two enemies from an injured member of the clan. In another, you have to survive five minutes of constant attacks and in the hardest scenario, you have to defeat 3 of your arch enemies while fighting them AT THE SAME TIME. As for the final two bosses, they are ridiculously hard; among two of the hardest I've ever had to fight.

This rock solid challenge will either drive players into deep depression or make them grit their teeth and swear a bloody revenge. If you fall into the latter category well done, you can get a lot out of this game.

Multiplayer

Gaming heaven, that's all there is to it. There's various different ways of fighting such as in teams, the first to get ten kills and so on. As with most games, you'll find your eventual favourite (even if the in game characters do look nothing like their real life counterparts, with the possible exception of Method Man). This game could easily earn 5 stars for it's multiplayer mode alone, it really does rock. Whether you like Wu-Tang Clan or not, this feature will totally blow your socks off. Even once you've completed the game, you'll come back to this again and again. If you're bored of normal one-on-one fighting games such as Tekken, then try this out. You'll get far more multiplayer action from this!

If you have a multi-tap then you should just go out and buy this now. If not then it's worth buying if you like fighting games or just want a challenge. Be warned, I will not be held responsible for any damage caused to yourself or loved ones because of the high difficulty level of this game!

"You must think first before you move" - Da Mystery Of Chessboxin' Wu-Tang Clan