Shaq Fu is a 2D fighting game

Fighting game

Fighting game is a video game genre where the player controls an on-screen character and engages in close combat with an opponent. These characters tend to be of equal power and fight matches consisting of several rounds, which take place in an arena. Players must master techniques such as...

 released on the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis, Sega Game Gear

Sega Game Gear

The was Sega's first handheld game console. It was the third commercially available color handheld console, after the Atari Lynx and the TurboExpress....

, Super Nintendo

Super Nintendo Entertainment System

The Super Nintendo Entertainment System is a 16-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America, Europe, Australasia , and South America between 1990 and 1993. In Japan and Southeast Asia, the system is called the , or SFC for short...

, and Game Boy

Game Boy

The , is an 8-bit handheld video game device developed and manufactured by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on , in North America in , and in Europe on...

 game platforms on October 28, 1994

1994 in video gaming

-Events:*Nintendo calls this year "1994: The Year of the Cartridge".*Nintendo Australia Pty. Ltd, the Australian subsidiary of Nintendo Co., Ltd is established and opened by Hiroshi Yamauchi and effectively ends Mattel Australia's distribution of Nintendo's products throughout Australia.*"Project...

. It was later ported

Porting

In computer science, porting is the process of adapting software so that an executable program can be created for a computing environment that is different from the one for which it was originally designed...

 to the Amiga

Amiga

The Amiga is a family of personal computers that was sold by Commodore in the 1980s and 1990s. The first model was launched in 1985 as a high-end home computer and became popular for its graphical, audio and multi-tasking abilities...

 platform, exclusively in Europe. The game was published

Video game publisher

A video game publisher is a company that publishes video games that they have either developed internally or have had developed by a video game developer....

 by Electronic Arts

Electronic Arts

Electronic Arts, Inc. is a major American developer, marketer, publisher and distributor of video games. Founded and incorporated on May 28, 1982 by Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer games industry and was notable for promoting the designers and programmers...

 and developed

Video game developer

A video game developer is a software developer that creates video games. A developer may specialize in a certain video game console, such as Nintendo's Wii, Microsoft's Xbox 360, Sony's PlayStation 3, or may develop for a variety of systems, including personal computers.Most developers also...

 by the now-defunct Delphine Software. It features former professional basketball

Basketball

Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...

 player Shaquille O'Neal

Shaquille O'Neal

Shaquille Rashaun O'Neal , nicknamed "Shaq" , is a former American professional basketball player. Standing tall and weighing , he was one of the heaviest players ever to play in the NBA...

 (also known as Shaq) as a playable character

Player character

A player character or playable character is a character in a video game or role playing game who is controlled or controllable by a player, and is typically a protagonist of the story told in the course of the game. A player character is a persona of the player who controls it. Player characters...

.

Story

In the game's storyline, Shaquille O'Neal wanders into a kung fu dojo

Dojo

A is a Japanese term which literally means "place of the way". Initially, dōjōs were adjunct to temples. The term can refer to a formal training place for any of the Japanese do arts but typically it is considered the formal gathering place for students of any Japanese martial arts style to...

 while heading to a charity basketball game in Tokyo

Tokyo

, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...

, Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

. After speaking with a kung fu master, he stumbles into another dimension, where he must rescue a young boy named Nezu from the evil mummy

Mummy

A mummy is a body, human or animal, whose skin and organs have been preserved by either intentional or incidental exposure to chemicals, extreme coldness , very low humidity, or lack of air when bodies are submerged in bogs, so that the recovered body will not decay further if kept in cool and dry...

 Sett

Set (mythology)

Set was in Ancient Egyptian religion, a god of the desert, storms, and foreigners. In later myths he was also the god of darkness, and chaos...

-Ra

Ra

Ra is the ancient Egyptian sun god. By the Fifth Dynasty he had become a major deity in ancient Egyptian religion, identified primarily with the mid-day sun...

.

Variations

The Sega Genesis version of Shaq Fu has five more playable characters (Auroch, Colonel, Diesel, Leotsu and Nezu) and three more stages (The Lab, The Wasteland, and Yasko Mines) than the Super NES version, therefore the Genesis version has a longer story mode. The North/South Gate stage is accessible in the SNES version with a cheat code, whereas the Genesis version has the North/South Gate stage available from the start. The Amiga version is the same as the Genesis version, but the backgrounds have no animation. It also only has three songs; there is no music during the fights.

The Game Boy port has the same seven characters as the Super NES version, whereas the Game Gear port only has six characters. Both the Game Boy and Game Gear versions have no tournament mode or in-game voices. Due to the Game Boy's monochrome screen, the Game Boy version is not in color.

Reception

Gametrailers

GameTrailers

GameTrailers is a media website that specializes in video game related content. It provides free access to original programming , game trailers and recorded game play. Along with standard definition , many of the video clips are offered in a higher resolution .Users can upload videos, create...

 rated it #4 Worst in their "Top Ten Best and Worst Video Games". Allgame

Allgame

Allgame is a commercial database of information about arcade games, video games and console manufacturers.Allgame is owned by All Media Guide, along with Allmusic and Allmovie....

 gave it a negative review, commenting that whie "Shaq Fu is a dud" in terms of fighting games based on a basketball players. GameInformer magazine placed it #2 on the Top 10 Fighting Games We'd Like To Forget. In response to the negative feedback to the game, Levi Buchanan from IGN

IGN

IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...

stated it was undeserved as a result of collective exaggerations.