Under the microscope: Wu-Tang — Shaolin Style (PlayStation)
Cheats rule everything around me
Wu-Tang: Shaolin Style is a fighting game from Paradox Development. It stars, of course, members of the hip hop group Wu-Tang Clan.
The game has lots of unlockable bonuses. There’s a well-known cheat code to unlock all of the secret characters. But what about the arenas and chambers? Do you really have to grind through the whole game to access those?
No. The time has come: I’m going to reveal the Wu-Tang secret.
Unlock everything
At the mode select screen, enter this sequence:
Right, Left, Circle, Right,
Left, Square, Right, Left,
L1, Right, Left, L2
Right, Left, R1, Right
Left, R2, Circle, Circle
Square, SquareThis unlocks all characters:
And all arenas:
Every character’s chambers are marked as complete:
And all of the special features are unlocked:
Not bad!
Technical details
I found this new code by looking into how the existing “unlock all characters” cheat works. Using the RALibretro Memory Inspector, I searched for values that changed as I entered that sequence:
Right, Right, Right, Right,
Left, Left, Left, Left,
Square, Circle, Square, CircleThat led me to the value at 801e9c04 (NTSC-U version), which increments when you get a button right. Tracing writes to that address led to the function at 8018b8d0. It’s tracking button presses for three cheat codes.
The first one is this:
Right, Right, Left, Left,
Right, Left, Right, Left,
Circle, Circle, Square, SquareIt’s also previously undocumented! I think this unlocks all the fatality moves. The effect is a subset of the “Unlock everything” code, and seems to get reset if you visit the Chambers screen.
The second sequence that the function tracks is the one that unlocks all characters.
Right, Right, Right, Right,
Left, Left, Left, Left,
Square, Circle, Square, CircleThe third sequence is the “Unlock everything” one above.
For the sake of completeness, I looked at the Parental lock screen that you see when the game starts up. You need this to see some of the more mature elements like blood:
It only recognizes the one sequence printed in the manual:
Triangle, Circle, X, X,
Square, Triangle, Circle, SquareSo there are no mysteries to be solved there.
Outro
You have no idea how much restraint it took to not put references to Wu-Tang lyrics in every paragraph of this article.
Feel free to reproduce the cheat codes and screenshots in this article on your favorite websites. Spread the word!
Also, send me your suggestions for games to examine! Games that have unlockable elements are prime candidates for hidden cheat codes.
