Following Absolver’s stylish multiplayer sandbox combat, developers Sloclap have announced a return to fisticuffs. Their next game is Sifu, a beat ’em up inspired by “kung fu movie classics,” starring a young college student seeking revenge for the murder of his family. It will work its way through a city in style, as you can see in the announcement trailer below.
It’s hard not to think of Old Boy with that rumble in the hall. This revenge story is set in a fictional Chinese city, full of bad guys in places from dingy streets to corporate towers. And yes, I’m in for more fists from Sloclap.
Our boy Brendy called Absolver one of the best fighting games and that’s it, it’s good. Part of Absolver’s joy was building your own moveset, which flowed between modes and fell brutally as you learned new moves. Sifu’s announcement does say that players will “unlock unique abilities,” although I suspect they’d make a bigger deal out of it if Sifu had an Abosolver-esque complexity. That’s fine, it’s not like Sifu is a sequel.
It is also unclear what is going on with that magical amulet that revives and ages you. “The price of magic is expensive, however, and you will age significantly every time you come back to life: time is the price you pay for your revenge,” the announcement says. I can’t tell you whether that affects anything other than your appearance. The game has only just been announced, you know. I can only hope that when you reach the age of Pai Mei, you too will be able to suck in your genitals with such force that not only can attackers not kick you in the dick, their foot gets stuck like they try.
Sifu will launch on the Epic Games Store this fall. It also comes on PS5 and PS4.
I’m not a kung fu movie buff, but enjoyed a lot of old Shaw Brothers movies. I still think Return To The 36th Chamber has the best conceit for a sequel ever. The first movie is a serious affair about a legendary monk, then Return is more comical because the same actor plays a con man pretending to be that monk. Have fun using trickery to fake kung fu, until it fails and he has to go to Shaolin temple to learn the real thing from the great man. Delightful.