# Shenmue

6 Hacker News commenters recommended Shenmue and 0 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 5 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** People call it a wonderful cult classic that defined Sega's design philosophy, with visuals that looked amazing for the Dreamcast era.

## Why people recommend it

- Cult classic status (1 comments): "Shenmue made you take on a partime job doing fork lifting, yet it is a cult classic." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45845612))
- Defined Sega's design philosophy (1 comments): "it was among Shenmue the game that defined Sega's philosophy" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47612281))
- Visuals that looked amazing (1 comments): "how amazing games like Soul Caliber and Shenmue looked" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46421951))
- Described as an absolutely wonderful game (1 comments): "Absolutely wonderful game." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46206320))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Helldivers 2](https://hackerapproved.com/p/helldivers-2.md): 50 recommend
- [Triple-A Minesweeper](https://hackerapproved.com/p/triple-a-minesweeper.md): 40 recommend
- [Quake II](https://hackerapproved.com/p/quake-2.md): 33 recommend
- [Red Dead Redemption 2](https://hackerapproved.com/p/red-dead-redemption-2.md): 28 recommend
- [Grand Theft Auto (1997)](https://hackerapproved.com/p/grand-theft-auto.md): 28 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Shenmue", https://hackerapproved.com/p/shenmue/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).