Shank

Shank is a 2D side-scrolling beat 'em up developed by Klei Entertainment. It features melee and ranged combat. It was announced at Penny Arcade Expo 2009. The game was released on Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network, and PC.

The game was written by God of War co-creator Marianne Krawczyk.

On August 5, 2010, Klei announced that they would release Shank's OST for free to download on their official website, if 1500 people joined their community on Facebook. They reached their goal in 3 hours and, thus released the full soundtrack for free which has been remastered to be "suitable for consumption".

Gameplay
Playing as Shank, players must travel on a 2D plane through each level defeating enemies in their path. Three buttons are respectively used for attacking with knives, a chainsaw and one of various guns, which can each be combined into various combos. Players are also able to leap onto or grapple enemies, as well as throw grenades.

Multiplayer
Shank features a cooperative campaign designed to be played locally, which is a prequel to the single-player campaign. The multiplayer allows players to play as Shank or his partner-in-crime Falcone.

Reception
Shank received mostly mixed to positive reviews from critics. The PlayStation 3 version of the game hold an average score of 77% on the game aggregator Metacritic, based on 8 reviews, and 74% on the Microsoft's Xbox 360 version based on 9 reviews.

IGN gave it a score of 7.0, stating whilst its graphics are some of the best 2D work seen in a long time, quirks with animation system, wonky collission detection and poor level design hurt the game. GameTrailers echoed these statements, giving the game a 6.6 score. GamesRadar gave the game 6/10, criticising some annoying control issues and uneven boss difficulty, along with the 2D plane the game is restricted to. Gamespot gave the game 6.5, criticising its repetitive combat and inconsistent controls. 1UP.com, on the other hand, gave the game an A rating calling it "the freshest, most unequivocally rewarding beat-em-up game to come along in almost a decade."