SHADOW: War of Succession
Developed by: Unknown (Possibly Tribeca Studios)
Published by: Tribeca Studios
Released: 1994
System: 3DO only
Rating: 17+

Introduction

Many moons ago, in the land of fighting games, Mortal Kombat enjoyed the spotlight, managing to take away some air time even from influential games like Street Fighter II.

During MK's reign, many games trying to be its contenders. Unfortunately, many of those games were pretenders. Amongst the most pathetic was Shadow: War of Succession. This game dared challenge Mortal Kombat's greatness, and was smote on the spot!

Cheesy stories on videogame history aside, now onto my criticism...err...review of Shadow: War of Succession. If you think Rise of the Robots was the worst game on the 3DO, think again.

Story: S:W.O.S.'s story takes place on the mean streets of New York, hometown of the game's developers (quite convenient for you little bastards, huh?). After a crime syndicate leader has been blown to pieces by a missile fired at his office, three of his best lieutenants, a Navy SEAL seeking revenge for his brother's death, a mysterious Ninja dressed in a Ski Mask, a broken FBI Agent seeking redemption, and a SHADOW lieutenants ghost all combat with one another in an attempt to earn a position as the new SHADOW Leader.

Unlike other fighters, S.W.O.S. has a plot AND a twist at the end...if you dare to play it.

Pretty cliched and corny story, but it tried, so I'll give it that much. 6/10.

Graphics: Okay, here's where S.W.O.S. fell apart. This game makes Way of the Warrior (WOTW) look infinitely superior graphic wise.

In a way, I feel bad for Tribeca Studios. They must've been broke and only used what they could afford, so I'll throw 'em a bone on that part...but it's not gonna stop me from telling the truth about the graphics.

Rants aside, the graphics looked extremely choppy. Even choppier than WOTW. Simultaneously, the characters look blurry. Moreover, the costumes look like they've been bought at a thrift store, proving the low budget these poor buggers had.

Conclusion, this game's graphics were terrible.

1/10.

Music/Sound: Cover your ears. This soundtrack hurts.

The music in this game sounded like a crappy mix of techno-pop crap mixed with corny borrowed sound effects from movies made in the 50's. Hell, even a few SoundFX sound as though they've been ripped from other games.

One of the worst parts about the music...it cuts off very abruptly and leaves two seconds worth of silence before finally loopping.

Oh yeah, one more thing. This game actually had voice actors in it. Let me tell you, they sucked! One guy named Viper sounded as though he was trying to impersonate Bruce Lee...shittily. And it showed. Everytime he made his deafening karate-yell, you'd cringe. Needless to say, acting was terrible.

3/10.

Gameplay: OUCH!! IT HURTS! IT HURTS! S.W.O.S.'s gameplay was absolutely terrible.

First off, I've never seen a game with hit-detection this terrible. My fireballs clearly hit my opponent, yet they seemed able to cheat it by teleporting away. Moreover, the SAME EXACT MOVES ARE AVAILABLE FOR EVERY SINGLE CHARACTER. Not one friggin' bit of uniqueness. That SUCKS!

2/10

Control: Read a movelist (if it's available), try entering the moves, and you'll see why this game failed. I've made my point by just saying it.

1/10

Replay Value: Except seeing each characters individual endings, there's absolutely NOTHING here. Don't even bother. Just pick up another 3DO fighter instead.

2/10.

Conclusion: DO NOT GET S.W.O.S. EVER!
1/10.

It's good to see more reviewers posting stuff here and more stuff on the 3DO even.

If you wanna see some screenshots of this game...here's a peek. Watch out, though! This game isn't how it seems.






[img=http://img135.imagevenue.com/loc598/th_19979_sh13_122_598lo.jpg][img=http://img151.imagevenue.com/loc454/th_19983_sh15_122_454lo.jpg][img=http://img175.imagevenue.com/loc349/th_19994_sh16_122_349lo.jpg][img=http://img23.imagevenue.com/loc439/th_20001_shadow_1_122_439lo.jpg]
[img=http://img28.imagevenue.com/loc541/th_20013_shadow_2_122_541lo.jpg][img=http://img135.imagevenue.com/loc434/th_20024_shadow_3_122_434lo.jpg][img=http://img23.imagevenue.com/loc385/th_20029_shadow_4_122_385lo.jpg]
[img=http://img18.imagevenue.com/loc345/th_20034_shadow_5_122_345lo.jpg][img=http://img150.imagevenue.com/loc416/th_20041_g04s5_122_416lo.jpg][img=http://img24.imagevenue.com/loc549/th_20046_shadboxf_122_549lo.jpg]

Hey man! I've been posting all kinds of stuff for the 3DO and nobody really reads it! I do agree with this review though 100%. This game is easily the shittiest game released for the 3DO. It was bad! Sad as it is, this game makes DOOM on the 3DO look awesome, and that is saying alot as we all know I HATE DOOM on the 3DO.

This game was a pile of smelly jobs!

I know you have and I wasn't downplaying your efforts, I was just saying that in addition to seeing more suport for the forum he's the first person besides yourself to write about the 3DO. It certainly wasn't a slam on you.

Oh, I know man. I am still shocked that people actually even know that this game was even released. Terrible stuff. This is easily one of the worst fighting games EVER!

Yet it strangely was ignored by some douches on a popular website - oh that's right, they ignore many games as it would obviously be too much work to actually track things down, silly me!

Yeah, then they may not be able to bitch about the Jaguar all the time either!

True. Had they reviewed this game they may have very well turned it more into a 3DO Bash session than a bash on a specific game like they are supposed to. Funny how so many of those crappy games they talk about are on the SNES and Genesis yet those systems can't suck the same since they grew up playing them!

No shit, huh? Remember, according to these sad folk that lay with rubber women at night and sleep in an endless wet spot, the Jaguar had nothing good on it, and if it had, the control pad would have ruined it anyway. Funny that these little bastards will fight you about how great the Playstation pad was when I thought it was garbage.

Interesting - GAmetrailers recently put up a video about Road Rash and they mention the 3DO version was first without bashing the 3DO. Still, I could swear that this game was on the Genesis first. Either way they make the review more about the Saturn version than anything else, you may want to check it out T2k.

I remember the Gamepro review for this game, it got alot of 2.0's hah hah. Carlos is so doofy looking

They are reffering to the CD Version of Road Rash when they say that the 3DO had the first. 3DO did have the first CD version of Road Rash, and it was indeed damn good too!