Grab the grenades and go

Shank
For: PS3 via Playstation Network and Xbox 360 Live Arcade
From: Klei Entertainment/EAPrice: $US15 ($NZ20.50)

Everything about Shank has been done before and will be done again, but maybe no game has put it all together and made it look this easy to do so.

Like Metal Slug, Shank is a cartoony sidescroller that outfits players with some guns, a few grenades and a jump button.

But Shank also borrows the melee combat of a Devil May Cry and, like that game, lets players mix the two styles on the ground, in the air and in whatever combination they please.

A handful of hand-to-hand attacks - including the magnificent pounce ability last seen in the Wolverine game - further expands the arsenal, and the ability to scale ledges and run along walls lets players perform stunts normally reserved for the Prince of Persia.

Shank is by no means an easy game, and some of the tougher enemies and bosses have some pretty cheap attacks in their bag.

But the game's rich arsenal of abilities is outclassed only by its ability to tuck everything into a dead-simple control scheme that turns even middling players into supermen, and a generous checkpoint system allows players to play dangerously without worrying excessively about the consequences.

Shank sports a single-player storyline as well as a separate suite of co-op (local or online) missions, and it bakes both inside an outstanding graphic novel presentation that's refreshingly minimalist, beautiful to look at and bursting with awesome character designs.

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