Audience-Alienating Premise: The game was doomed from the moment someone decided it would be a smart idea to try and float a fighting game on the star power of a professional athlete. Fans of fighting games walked past it because it focused on Shaquille O'Neal throwing punches at martial arts champions in "the Second World", fans of sports games passed it up because it didn't focus on Shaq throwing down dunks in the court, and fans of both genres simply weren't interested in such a mediocre game playing the unbelievably ludicrous concept of Shaq using mystical basketball arts to fight martial arts champions in a parallel world completely straight.
Critical Backlash: Shaq Fu was ripped apart by reviewers on arrival and the memetic internet backlash against the game in the next decade destroyed what little reputation it had. While nobody will claim it is a good game, more than a few people are willing to refute that to say it is "one of the worst games ever made" is overblown, as early 1990s had plenty of mediocre-to-bad fighting games both on consoles and computers that are no better than Shaq Fu (Power Athlete, Rise of the Robots, Doomsday Warrior, to name a few) and laser-focused condamnation toward this game is rather mean-spirited when there's some value in its So Bad, It's Good quality.
Low-Tier Letdown: Shaq is the worst fighter in his own game due to an oversight that causes him to stand up defenselessly for a moment after blocking a low attack.
Nintendo Hard: Most notable in the sense of its shoddy controls and hit detection.
So Bad, It's Good: The fact that they made a fighting game based around Shaq is hilarious in and of itself, but the glitchiness of the game itself only adds to the charm.
Visual Effects of Awesome: Another plus side to the game is that the sprite animations are very fluid.
Tropes for the reboot
Disappointing Last Level: The final stage has no new enemies or gimmicks and is mostly just using all the weapons and power-ups you've learned to bash waves of enemies. And the music cuts out halfway through. The boss is kinda neat, but mostly relies on more waves of foes to fight.
Heartwarming Moments: In the GameXplain interview, Shaq makes it clear that he's grateful to the people who did enjoy the first game and really wanted to make this one something that could be enjoyed.
So Bad, It Was Better: The general consensus is that A Legend Reborn is largely forgettable. No longer bad enough to be infamous, but not good enough to be memorable.
The boss of the fourth stage is...a butt. A human-sized butt with eyes and claws. And attacks that one would associate with that body part.
Shaq catches the fifth stage boss in a portapotty. We thankfully don't see anything, but from the description of what's happening inside, that's for the best.
Surprisingly Improved Sequel: A Legend Reborn; reviews are mixed, but if nothing else it's playable and has actual effort put into it. One of the Taglines lampshades this.
.