S.H.A.D.E.s of Manhattan 2

 


S.H.A.D.E.s of Manhattan is a long time 2d fighting game project and series made with the Mugen engine for the most part by Sean Altly. The 18+ Characters of S.H.A.D.E.s of Manhattan 2 and their 20 background stages are completely original designs, some animations and moves are based on characters from other games like the King of Fighters though.

The Character Select

Snow Vs Apollo

The first works which lead to the whole game were made in 2007 already with characters like Snow and Adamas released for Mugen, in October 2008 S.H.A.D.E.s of Manhattan (1) was released, somewhen later, Sean begun development for part 2 which had improvements like EX-Moves, Chain Combos, Overhead Attacks, Super Moves. After a lot work done, S.H.A.D.E.s of Manhattan 2 was released in October 2011.

 

It has to be said, that those are all gameplay features which were seen in other games before though, but the combination and most important, the functionally of them is done flawless.

The game features music by CVSNB and Nemesis Theory which fits the game and mood of it totally.

 

Bloodtide Vs Ruckus

Kane Kelly Vs The Specialist

The unavoidable roundhouse kick screenshot

Its snowing…

Sean told me that S.H.A-D.E.s of Manhatten 3 is planned by him for sure, he already has plans for the new plot and also characters.

 

You can read more about the characters, see videos and also move-lists on the official homepage of S.H.A.D.E.s of Manhattan 1+2

 

S.H.A.D.E.s of Manhattan 1+2 can both be downloaded at shadesofmanhatten.com

S.H.A.D.E.s of Manhattan 2 has a size of 433 MB compressed, for the uncompressed game you need 720 MB on your HDD. The installation of the game is very easy, you just have to click on the mugen.exe file. The game is playable with the keyboard and most controllers for 1-2 players. It is possible to play the game in a window or full screen, it is also possible to change the music used for the game

Like many fan-made games, it gets updated and enhanced from year to year, S.H.A.D.E.s of Manhattan is a 2D fighting game project with expected updates in the future, this article might be updated as well.

 

  Rating Details
Game-play  8

The game has everything a good fighter needs, many characters, many moves, balanced gameplay.

Nothing to criticise here except that there are no new /unique gameplay features
Graphics & Character design  6  Hard to rate, the backgrounds and the overall design of the game is good, the game suffers from a low resolution though
Music   10 Absolutly fitting to the mood of the game
Sound Effects &Voices   8 Most sound effects seem to be borrowed from other  fighting games, but the voices are original. Like the music they are fitting to the game and their characters
Replayability   7 Its a fighting game, and balanced enough to play it in a competitive way with friends, sadly Mugen supports no online play yet. Beside endings there is nothing to unlock in the game
Controls  10 Many moves, configurable keys, the controls are absolute fine
Features & Unique Content   7 It has a unique story, interesting character designs and moves, there is nothing to unlock really though and gameplay wise its not that unique
Story  8 The story is interesting, especially the background bios of the characters. Its a nice change from the typical Martial Art Tournament  experts from around the world joined
 Overall 8 You get a full 2d fighting game with an interesting story and characters which can rival some commercial released games of the last years for free, i can recommend it to 2d fighting game fans which like to try out something beside Street Fighter, KOF and BlazBlue

Review by GBK