Haha! You no mess with the Lo Wang!
Ahh... The days of the Build engine... That's back when developers actually cared about making their games fun AND interesting, even if they weren't extremely innovative. Then again, as I've said a million times, who ever said a game needs to be innovative to be fun? It certainly doesn't, and this game is a fine example on how a game that isn't terribly innovative manages to be one of the best shooters around. Let's find out why:
Story: So your name is Lo Wang, some shadow ninja assassin that works for the Zilla Corporation, and is Master Zilla's body guard. But one day our hero finds out that the zilla corporation is attempting to take over japan using monsters from the shadows. In discovery of this, Lo Wang quit his job as a bodyguard. Master Zilla realized that not having a warrior as powerful as Lo Wang would be dangerous, and sent his creatures to battle Lo Wang.
Nothing special, huh? But why does it matter? It is just an excuse so we can get to battle weird ninja monsters, half-naked ninja ladies with crossbows and everything 3D realms is famous for. Take Duke Nukem 3D, throw in the "East meets West" feel without having it look retarded (that is, by adding in a lot of humor, because the game doesn't take itself too seriously, maybe even less than the Duke). But yeah, who cares about the story, this game is all about the gameplay, like most old shooters.
Graphics: The graphics are pretty much what you would expect to see in a Build engine game, especially one that is closely affiliated to Duke Nukem 3D: they're excellent. Yeah, I know this came out when games like Quake were starting to make everything 3D so this looked dated at the time, but who cares really, even if the sprites are 2D they look really good and are very detailed, and most enemies feature multiple death animations, such as when you pierce their faces with bullets from your uzi, you blow them up to pieces with your rocket launcher or you can even cut them in half with your katana, which believe me, is one of the most satisfying things in the whole game. Nothing looks out of place in this game, either.
Gameplay: As mentioned, this game is all about the gameplay, and it really does a great job on that field. You're equipped with a variety of weapons, some of which are pretty ninja-like (the signature katana and shurikens, that are very fun to use (especially the katana with which you can literally cut in half enemies). Then you got firepower of course, with shotguns, uzis, rocket launchers, sticky bombs, railguns, and just about everything you could ask from a FPS arsenal. Be prepared though, as the game is indeed challenging and you'll have to get used to move quickly and shoot often because Zilla really sent A LOT of enemies to claim your head as a trophy. You visit many kind of levels, including the city, some ninja temples, a forest, a cave, a lake, military bases, more temples, a volcano, underwater bases, and so on. Just like Duke 3D, each level is different enough in its own right. There's also a big inventory at your disposal with some items that can be pretty useful (some of which are homages to ninja tricks, like the smoke ball :P)
However Shadow Warrior does have its share of problems. First of all, a few of the levels are unnecessarily confusing, and sometimes I just couldn't figure out where I had to go, something that never happened in Duke Nukem 3D so I don't get why it happens here. That, and some of the levels are also not as fun as others, either, being a little too tedious at times. Most of these are however fixed in the expansion, that I found to be much less confusing in terms of level design and actually also more enjoyable.
Let's talk about the expansion then: Wanton Destruction was developed by Sunstorm Interactive and was meant to be released to the market, however that never happened due to the disappointing sales of Shadow Warrior (how could a good game like this have disappointing sales anyway? Because it was 2D? Oh, go to hell.). But it was released for free some years later. The plot is a follow up to the original and Lo Wang has to finish Master Zilla off once and for all this time. There are some new enemies, like some sort of criminal guys that may get on your nerves at times, and the overall new graphics are really good and fit the SW theme, as do the new textures. I think the levels in this one are superior, as they're less confusing and there's even more action going on.
In conclusion, you should get this game and its expansion at all costs because they are pure fun.