Shing! review

Shing! tells the story of a band of wisecracking warriors, Yokai hunters – deadly warrior monks trying to recover the legendary stolen Starseed. They will go through the land of mythical monsters and mysterious machines. As Wilhem, Tetsuyo, Bichiko and Aiko embark on a quest to recuperate the Starseed and save the land from monstrous and mechanical threats.

Shing! is a beat’em up where players will face off against waves of enemies, from small to big, in order to reach the end of the level; pretty typical stuff. Each character has a weak and strong attack which mixed up can create efficient combos to beat up any threat in front of you; although some enemies are more resistant to attacks, it’ll require a bit more strategy and persistence. You can also parry, block and dash.

As you kill enemies, a power meter that fills up and can be unleashed with RT and will give your character a temporary power boost. This comes in handy at especially against bigger non-boss enemies. The enemy diversity is pretty interesting albeit there are some of most infuriating enemies I’ve seen in my 30+ years of gaming. For example, a tree lady sprouts from the ground and if you touch her roots, you’ll be stuck and need to mash X to free yourself. Or there’s an umbrella-like enemy that spins and hunts you down until it gets dizzy.

Other enemies require you to break down their shield by bouncing their projectile back at them. It mixes up combat a bit as opposed to the traditional button mashing beat’em up. Once dead, some enemy types will drop electrifying power-up which will temporarily add lightning to your attacks. Or others will drop bombs that you can use while dashing. While interesting, both of those have their problems. For the lightning power-up, sometimes it’s mandatory against bosses meaning you need to kill minions to pick it up and then attack the boss. And the bombs are dropped as you dash; so if you’re carrying bombs, ideally, dashing should be avoided so you don’t waste them.

While the game offers local split-screen co-op with up to four players, if you play solo, you can switch between all four characters at any time during the game. If one of your soldiers should fall into battle, you can select among the three other characters and keep playing. Not much differentiates the four protagonists aside from the fact that they have their own weapons and that the two ladies are slightly quicker than the two guys and damage wise, there isn’t much of a difference.

While there’s a bit of combat gameplay and temporary power-ups, it feels like there’s a missed opportunity here to inject a bit of RPG lite elements with Shing!. Having a level up system that would have allowed players to increase various criteria of the characters and give them a sense of customization. In the long run, it would also feel like the characters’ skillset would match the game’s slightly increasing difficulty.

The main nuisance with the game is the controls. Now don’t get me wrong, overall they work fine; there’s nothing overly wrong here. When you start the game you can choose between two control schemes: the regular one where you use face buttons to attack and there’s one where you can use the right joystick. The problem comes in where certain enemies will have a shield that will jump from their heads, body and legs so you have to align your attacks. If you use the standard method of attack, pressing up on the joystick to attack its head, for example, it will hinder your combo as you’ll end up throwing it in the air. And on the flip side, if you press down, you’ll move down mid-combo.

Shing! looks great with its unique cartoon-like visuals; colorful with each level having its own unique theme. Protagonists and enemies do have a certain level of details; whether it be in their overall design and movement. The soundtrack is a bit hit or miss; some tracks will be forgettable as you focus on pulling off combos while others are a bit more entertaining and captivating. Voiceovers are overall well-delivered with a pinch of humor; it would make a great Saturday morning cartoon.

Overall Shing! is a fun addition to the beat’em up genre. While it does lack a bit of depth and feels a bit too simplistic, its unique combat mechanic makes it stand out from the rest despite being unnecessary and lazy in some aspects of the game. With its challenging boss and unique levels, fans of the genre should definitely look this one up.