Shank

Shank is a 2D sidescrolling beat-em-up released in 2010, built around a simple revenge premise and an aesthetic that wears its grindhouse influences loudly. You play as Shank, a former hitman working his way up through cartels and crime bosses with a toolkit of knives, guns, and a chainsaw that never feels less than satisfying to rev up. The combat loop is combo-driven, urging you to chain light attacks, heavy attacks, grabs, and weapon switches together in ways that gradually start to feel fluent. It is not a deep system, but it clicks when you let it breathe. Klei's hand-drawn animation is the main reason to care about this one in 2025. Every enemy crumples, every execution has weight, and the backgrounds have that slightly pulpy oil-painting quality that the studio was refining at the time. This was before Klei became known for Don't Starve and Invisible Inc., and Shank sits in an interesting early chapter of their catalogue. The aesthetic is consistent: exaggerated silhouettes, splashy color, framing that borrows from exploitation cinema without ever tipping into mean-spirited territory. For a game about a man who murders approximately everyone, the tone stays almost playful. The campaign is short, somewhere in the four-to-six hour range, and that is probably the right length given how much it asks you to repeat similar encounters. Enemy variety is limited. The later sections lean on difficulty spikes rather than new ideas, and a small number of boss fights stretch longer than their designs justify. There is a co-op survival mode included, which adds some replayability if you have a friend to drag in, but the offline couch setup is where it works best. The PC release does not have the richest feature set, and controller support is essentially required because keyboard inputs make the combo system feel clunky. Mecritric sits at 67 and the player reception tells a different story: 90% positive across thousands of reviews suggests that the audience who found Shank found it on its own terms. It is not a genre-defining game. It is a well-crafted, handsome, limited thing that does its specific job and exits cleanly. For fans of games like Viewtiful Joe or the original Scott Pilgrim beat-em-up, the DNA is obvious and the comfort is real. For anyone who wants mechanical depth or a long campaign, the appetite will outrun what is on offer here. As an early Klei release, Shank carries the kind of intentional craft you can feel even in something modest. The soundtrack pushes a Latin-inflected, guitar-heavy pulse that fits the cartel setting without becoming parody. The sound design on the chainsaw alone communicates a kind of absurd joy that the game never apologizes for. It is a short, punchy, handmade thing that knew when it was done. I have a soft spot for that.

Kai · Scout Team

Indie & narrative

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