When comparing Code of Princess vs Shank, the Slant community recommends Code of Princess for most people. In the question“What are the best Beat 'em up games on Steam?” Code of Princess is ranked 6th while Shank is ranked 15th. The most important reason people chose Code of Princess is:
Players can go back to any completed level and play them with any of their unlocked characters. This can be done to earn more points to put into their skills in order to level each character up. While it may be a bit repetitive, it does allow the player to go back and play as much as they want, giving the game some longevity.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Easily extended gameplay
Players can go back to any completed level and play them with any of their unlocked characters. This can be done to earn more points to put into their skills in order to level each character up. While it may be a bit repetitive, it does allow the player to go back and play as much as they want, giving the game some longevity.
Pro Fun combat mechanics
The game focuses on 2D side scrolling beat em up combat, with light and powerful moves that can be easily chained together. The game also allows for quite a lot of juggling of enemies, which works great with all the chains one can make. While it may take a minute to get the timing down, once it is understood, the game offers quite a lot of brawling action. On top of this there are RPG elements where the player can constantly upgrade their players, making for a good way to keep the player interested throughout the game.
Pro Good localization
The translation of the game done by Atlus is top notch, the story makes sense and there is no issues with things being changed too much. The voice work is also great and quite a surprise for originally being a 3DS game as the cart sizes limit the amount of audio contained in the game. Luckily all of that voice work still remains in the PC version.
Pro Silly story that allows itself to have fun
While the main story arch is not anything new (Princess and friends need to save the world), the game allows itself to have fun as it can be very silly at times. This can make for an enjoyable story for the game despite the generic plot thanks to the humor contained within.
Pro It's got 2 player couch co-op
The co-op is pretty nice, and is a welcome addition. Couch co-op is pretty uncommon for PC games, but Shank really pulls it off.
Pro Surprisingly good story for a beat-em-up style game
The story in Shank is, surprisingly, pretty great. It's got a pretty large comedic aspect, and while it's not the core of the game by any means, it's definitely a welcome addition and will allow you to enjoy it even more.
Pro The action is over-the-top and just all around great
Shank gives you the ability to launch into ridiculous combos at any given time, blood spatters and death are all over the place in this game, comedically so. It fits with the story of the game, everything is fairly light-hearted and it doesn't take itself too seriously.
The look and feel of all the different ways you can attack and chain those attacks together is really satisfying. The bosses take a little getting used to, and the higher difficulties can be pretty challenging, if that's what you're in to. Combat is pretty much everything in this game, and it's very well done.
Cons
Con Odd display options
Since this is a port from the Nintendo 3DS, the screen size is not uniform to what is found on most PCs. This means there may be some letterboxing on the sides of the screen depending on what resolution one chooses to play at. luckily the secondary background for the letterboxing can be removed, as it may be distracting to some. This also means that the game is quite pixelated due to the original source material being sub HD quality. So there is a lot of pixelation, which may turn dome people off from the game.
Con Character can get hidden when a lot of enemies are on screen
When on the rear plane, the character can easily be hidden behind many enemies on the screen. This makes it difficult to tell what one is or needs to be doing, which can be frustrating.
Con 3DS 3d mechanic does not work that great on PC
The game is set up for the player to be able to jump in between three different planes on each level. Fore ground, mid ground, back ground. This was done to take advantage of the 3D view that the 3DS offers. On PC though this does not work as well as the cool visual element of 3D is not there, which means it can just be a pain to hop between planes.
Con Repetitive gameplay
Something many beat em up style games have trouble with is that the game can become repetitive. This is true of Code of Princess as well, as the gameplay may get stale after much time is spent in the game.