Please login to submit a screenshot

"Sure to place you on the Road to addictive gameplay"

Shaolin's Road: "fast-paced" action in a 2-D fighting style game! Yes, I'm talking about an arcade game! With a great gameplay to occupy your time, graphics to entertain your eye, and more bang for your buck (or quarter, rather), you can't go wrong with twenty-five cents!

You play the role of a gaijin (that's Japan-speak for foreigner) who is running through several levels of temples and fields, beating the lo mein out of Chinese fighters and disproportionally attractive women in tight dresses in a never-ending attempt to get to a shao-lin temple. You yourself have three lives, and in each life you can take three hits before you die. The good news is enemies are easy to beat. The bad news is they come in swarms and the bosses spawn right along side them (they take three hits, by the way).

A clone of other 2-D fighting games? Yes. Monotonous? No. Shao-lin's Road is by far worth your quarter or MAME.

Graphics: 7/10
The graphics aren't the greatest, but who expects good graphics from an arcade game? The sprites gave the game a decent, quasi-realistic look to it, while retaining the cartoonish feel. Realistic in that the animations don't look choppy or awkward, and cartoonish because, hey, its a 16-bit system.

Gameplay: 10/10
Addicting, grabs-your-attention, holds-your-every-thought, robs-you-of-every-penny-you-have action! Yes, I know, it's just a clone of a 2-D kung-fuey fighting game, but this one holds a quality that arcade games could have aspired too. You think it's a cheesy statement, but there's always something that draws you back to jumping the feet into the air on roofs and kicking one-hit baddies, then fighting the fearless three-hit boss.

Sound: 6/10
I gave this a lower rating because while the sound isn't a musical virtuoso or a digitally remastered Lucas, it isn't as good as they could make it. The music was cheesy, but decent. The sound of the fighters, or rather no sound, was a bit disappointing. If this game needed any improvement, I would have concentrated on sound.

Cost: 8/10
For your quarter, you can't go wrong! Three lives gets you far in this game, and if you flip a few switches in the back when nobody's looking... (just kidding, DON'T do that, the Pizza Hut owner will get ticked at you).

Shao-lin's Road. Great game, great fun, great cost, so what more do you need? Start down the Road to the Shao-lin!


Reviewer's Score: 8/10 | Originally Posted: 11/03/04