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There are a lot of things I like about Shadow Warrior, Flying Wild Hog's modern reimagining of 3D Realms' ageing, racially insensitive first-person shooter, but I think the thing I like most is the level design, which is pure 90s. Remember key cards? Pulling levers to lower water levels? Magically sealed doors? It's all here. Each chapter is a labyrinthine sprawl of arenas, locked doors and secret areas. If you ever looked at the top-down map of a Doom level and marvelled at its intricacies, you will probably enjoy Shadow Warrior.Actually, you will probably enjoy it anyway, because even if this cartographical nostalgia isn't doing it for you, there's plenty more to like, if not admire. Shadow Warrior is a game of simple pleasures - bad jokes, gorgeous graphics, florid decapitations - and as long as you don't expect too much from it, you are unlikely to be disappointed.
It begins in style. The game's star may have inherited his dumb name from 3D Realms, but this Lo Wang is immediately likable as you meet him speeding along a forest highway singing along to "You Got The Touch" by Stan Bush. Then his phone rings. "You got Wang." We discover he's on his way to buy an ancient sword called the Nobitsura Kage for his employer, Orochi Zilla, and if it's not for sale then he's to obtain it anyway.
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