10 Video Games That Tried To Exploit Nostalgia (And Failed)

Its one thing to see publishers try and reboot classic franchises but Shaq-Fu was certainly no classic. Released in 1994 across SNES and Mega Drive, it starred Shaquille “Shaq” O’Neal within a 2D fighting game.

It released to negative reviews and retrospective opinions have been even less kind, so its baffling anyone thought a sequel was a good idea. The developers at Big Deez Productions seemed to think otherwise, believing in the brand power of Shaq and launched a crowdfunding campaign via Indiegogo in 2014.

After little word on it’s development for several years, it eventually released in 2018 across all major platforms. Changing from a 2D fighting game to a beat ‘em up, it was just as badly received as its predecessor and was even given away for free on Switch to early adopters of NBA Playgrounds on Switch.

We all love Shaq but we certainly did not love this.