Shing! PlayStation 4 Review

Shing! is an adventure beat’em up that takes place in a Japanese Sengoku-Edo period inspired world. Characters and places are given motifs of feudal Japanese design - ninjas, Yokai demons, Shinto architecture, and sprawling wilderness. Players can select from four different heroes: the balanced katana wielding mountain guardian Tetsuo, the speedy dual bladed and book smart Aiko, the city guard captain Bichiko who gains extra reach with her halberd, and the brutal axe carrying Wilhelm who hails from the Northern lands. 

 

The story begins with a legion of Yokai attacking a mountain sanctuary and succeed at stealing the Starseed, an artifact that contains “Essence” the power source that governs the world of Shing!. Tetsuo and Aiko set out to recover the Starseed, at first assisted by two generic ninja acolytes (essentially Bichiko and Wilhelm with alternate skins and no dialogue). Even after making this initial choice, one can quickly switch between characters at the press of the D-Pad. The game is balanced around rotating these characters in and out, so it becomes less of a player preference and at times a need to use a fighter in a specific situation.

The game focuses on a single player controlling all four characters, however Shing! also allows for local multiplayer of up to four combatants. In two and three player modes players are still free to switch to the unused character on the fly. There is no on-line multiplayer support, so players will need to use Share Play and its time limitations if they want to play with a friend residing elsewhere. The only other community mechanic is leaderboards which track each stage’s high score.

 

Shing!’s big gimmick to set it apart from other beat’em up games is the experimental controls. By default, the right analog-stick governs attacking and defense. Tilting in certain directions and speeds decides the power and angle of attack, can trigger jump attacks, and blocks or deflects if timed correctly. Players can also use the shoulder buttons to manually jump or dash out of the way of danger. While this control scheme can lead to a barrage of fast attacks, to many players it can instead feel very awkward to use the same stick to weave between offense and guarding. Thankfully, one can also remap controls to more traditional face buttons. However, the position of attacks between high, medium, and low will still play a key role in combating enemies.

Nearly every early enemy is a variation of the basic Yokai fighter: a sword wielding enemy that attacks in a basic pattern. However, many have already consumed Essence giving them new abilities. This can include armor that makes a certain section of their body immune to damage, invincible barriers that require projectiles to break it, bombs thrown in an arc, and even a spinning ball attack. While these enemies have new and varied attacks, they will now also drop Essence power-ups when defeated. 

   

These power orbs can include life restoration, electric charges that shoot with each attack, energy bombs that detonate when dashing, flaming blades, and more. Each of the four characters can carry their own individual stock of these powers, holding on to them until used, reaching a game over, or purposely returning to a check point. However, very often it may be beneficial to restore health by resetting a check point even if it means forfeiting these powers.

As the game goes on, new levels will introduce more interesting enemy designs. Some foes like the Tengu will only ever fly above and rain down crossbow bolts. Another enemy is a Treant who is immune until they attack with their branches, though this assault can easily ensnare characters. However, even on normal difficulty the game often relies on encounters with too many enemies at once. Suddenly, the arena may be filled with multiple invincible enemies that need to have their guard broken, supported along with missile shooters, and foes that can pin down; then suddenly poison begins to cover half of the zone, limiting the safe place to fight. Worse yet, the player heroes lack enough invincibility frames or recovery, which can lead to long strings of being juggled between foes, stunned, and/or downed. It can feel extremely frustrating to receive a relentlessly combo leading to death due to a split second error in reaction time.

 

Boss fights can also be slogs, requiring some kind of puzzle mechanic rather than being a straight fight. For instance, the first level boss will devour the fire Essence enemies and be allowed to unleash a high damage area of effect attack. By blinding the boss with the laser beams in the area, it will no longer be able to tell which Essence its minion has. While it can still accidently eat the fire ones and unleash the same burst, it can also wind up eating the lightning enemies. This will leave it vulnerable from behind, although the boss also unleashes a projectile vomit that can leave the player grounded far too long to exploit this opportunity.

Aside from the initial adventure mode, players can also select lore mode to go to specific story points (these locations are also scattered inside the levels themselves). While these spots are meant to give more insights on characters and world, it is often filled with cringe dialogue, poor voice acting, and jokes that miss the mark. Shing! tries to emulate the tone of recent snappy beat’em ups like Double Dragon Neon or River City Girls, but comes off more like a bizarre teenage aimed cartoon. Characters seem more concerned with food, killing, and dating than the actual mission at hand. However, exhausting all of these lore sections are a means to unlock new costumes.

 

Shing! teeters between generic and irritating. The unique controls never feel exactly right for the situations, most of which can be overwhelming and challenging the first time through. The game fails to fully click and finally become fun. The setting and humor further detract from the experience. Only dedicated beat’em players should pick this up, for the rest there are far more superior options available on PlayStation 4.                

Kurtis Seid, NoobFeed
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