We fell in love with Shank 2 long before we turned the spade shovel back on our attacker, running him through the gut with the unassuming garden tool. But dammit, after that ultraviolent counter we simply couldn’t wipe the smile off of our faces.
Welcome back, Shank, we missed you.
Yes, the hard-livin’ desperado is back home after the events of the first game, but there’s no rest for the wronged. The militia has rolled into town and begun kidnapping and hurting those Shank cares about, and so he sharpens his blades and leaps back into action.
Veterans of the original bloody action-platformer will be right at home. Swing Shank’s knives with the X button, press Y to unleash the chainsaw, and use B to fire his pistols akimbo. Combo the crap out of your foes by juggling the three weapons in order to keep the carnage flowing and maximize your score.
Everything is presented in limb-lopping detail, with crazy counter-moves available by pressing RT anytime an enemy who’s about to attack has an exclamation mark over their head. Those we saw included turning a baddie’s shotgun back on himself so that he blows his own head off, grabbing a meathead’s incoming fist and snapping his arm at the elbow, and the aforementioned shovel-shiv.
The fast-moving, hyper-violent gameplay is enough to hook us on its own, but Shank’s signature Venture Bros.-esque animation returns with double the fidelity, lending the ’toon visuals an even more jaw-dropping look. In short, Shank 2 simply oozes style in a way most other games — Xbox Live Arcade or otherwise — cannot claim, and we’re stoked for another round of the series’ boss fights, such as the flamethrower-guy battle we raged at the end of our demo that culminated in the foe’s face being slashed many, many times.
The solo campaign won’t be all this time, however. A new two-player, single-screen Survival co-op online mode will test your shanking prowess. Think Gears of War meets Donkey Kong as wave after wave of A.I. scumbags jump into the screen to try and kill you and ignite the bombs scattered about the stage. Cash you earn from kills can be redeemed for bacon-saving turrets and missile barrages, though you can revive your co-op partner if he goes down.
We admit we kind of hope that Shank never finds happiness, if only because it’s so much fun to play out his revenge in all its cel-shaded glory. No offense, Shank. We hope you understand.
