If you grew up on the classic kung-fu action films from the 1970s and 1980s, you probably enjoyed the the one-two style choreography and the different styles clashing with each other in the various films. Well, one indie dev has decided to take the inspiration from those kung-fu classics and make a game that pays homage to those classics.
The name of the game is Shaolin vs Wutang, and if you enjoyed awesome flicks like the 36th Chamber of Shaolin, The Five Deadly Venoms or Shaolin vs Llama then you’ll likely take a liking to the style and presentation of Shaolin vs Wutang.
The game is being made by one lone fellow named Jae Lee from Jae Lee Productions. This kid has done his own mo-cap work, animation, fight choreography and design for Shaolin vs Wutang. He’s filtered up the aesthetics to give it that old crackly film gauze and he’s focused on making the fighters fight with grounded martial arts, something we don’t see often in today’s market. You can see the game in action with the rather endearing and enticing Early Access trailer.
And yes, the game is on Early Access, but that doesn’t stop it from being pretty awesome. If you check out some of the screenshots you can see that all of those 14 fighters on the roster are mirrored after the legends of kung-fu classics, including a nice nod to Jet Li’s Wong Fei Hong from his Chinese classics back in the 1990s.
Lee writes on the Early Access page…
“It is not my intention to provide the same experience as big budget fighting games. But rather I hope to provide players with a satisfying gaming experience blended with nostalgia and reminiscence of the great Kung Fu films.”
I’m loving what I’m seeing so far and have already added it to my wishlist. Given that it’s in Early Access some users are noting a lack of polish, but they expect this to improve as the game makes the journey through development. Lee expects Shaolin vs Wutang to stay in Early Access for around eight months.
He plans on adding in more characters and stages as the game progresses, and has already been consistent in updating the game and fixing some of the more pressing issues with nearly daily updates and patches. You can learn more about Shaolin vs Wutang or pick up a digital copy for $12.99 by visiting the Steam store page.
