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Friday Flashback: Shadow Warrior

Considering all the hype surrounding the surprise revelation at PAX that Duke Nukem Forever will be completed and published in 2011, and that Gearbox will be doing the deed, it's time we look at a certain FPS game. It's a game with an in-your face hero, who runs around different levels and uses tons of weapons to reduce his enemies to bloody chunks, all while making funny quips while he does it. It's a game where you can find naked or almost naked ladies in various places. It's a game made by 3D Realms.

That's right, I'm talking about Shadow Warrior.

Shadow Warrior it's basically a Duke Nukem 3D clone with so much Asian kung-fu/ninja flare it's borderline racist. You play master assassin Lo Wang, who must fight his former boss Master Zilla before he can summon demons to take over Japan. It's as ridiculous as it sounds, and it sounds only slightly more ridiculous than Duke Nukem 3D.

You get some pretty awesome weapons, including a katana, shuriken, double Uzis, a riot shotgun, and even a stickybomb launcher (which, according to Wikipedia, is the first instance of a stickybomb gun in an FPS). You can also use the head and heart of certain enemies as a flame thrower and bezerker-summoning-button, respectively. Since you're a ninja-type person, you can also use gas bombs, smoke bombs, and flash bombs to distract enemies, and even throw down caltrops to create painful hazards on the ground.

All those weapons prove useful as you fight different colored ninjas, assorted ghosts and demons, and even sumo wrestlers through the game's 22 levels (with 25 additional levels available through the free expansions Twin Dragon and Wonton Destruction). The levels range from a construction yard to a bath house to a floating fortress, and are full of as much variety as you can get with the Build engine.

There's also sort-of nudity in the game. Periodically, usually in bodies of water, you can find bathing anime girls. They don't show anything really naughty, but they're still naked and offer the same awesome-if-you're-14 titillation the strippers in Duke Nukem 3D offered.

Surprisingly, you can still buy Shadow Warrior direct from 3D Realms. The full game is $10, with another $4 if you want to back up the download and $10 if you want a physical disc. Fortunately, the game's shareware episode is still available for free, also direct from 3D Realms. It's not the whole game, but the 4 episodes will give you a taste of Shadow Warrior without you having to pay a dime.