Sifu has finally been released on Steam and Xbox, ending its year-long Epic store/PlayStation exclusivity. To celebrate the milestone, it’s getting a free Arenas expansion aimed at die-hard players who have mostly been twiddling their thumbs since the game ended in early 2022. If you’re new to the game on Steam and Xbox, before checking out Sifu Arenas, check out our Sifu review back from the game’s first release to see why we gave it an 8/10.
Sifu Arenas are… arenas. A group of fairly simple yet challenging skits designed to test your skill and make you cry. They are available after completing the tutorial chapter, but the game dutifully prompts you to finish the story before trying to win them. You should heed this warning religiously.
The Sifu Arenas mode consists of forty-five challenges divided into separate unlockable levels. To open a new piece, you need to earn enough stars in the previous ones. For example, you can get fifteen stars in the first segment, but you only need five to unlock further progress. Points and unlocks are cumulative, so in theory it should be easier to collect new stars. More different challenges at your disposal means there will be more that better suit your play style. In other words, success creates opportunity.
But I vowed never to fight again!
Speaking of variety, there are five different mission types – Survival, Efficiency, Time Attack, Capture and Hunting. I never made it to the last two modes because I’m not good enough; or rather, not enough patience to recover the muscle memory that got me through the main game. In Survival, you only have to survive a fixed number of waves, earning stars based on your final age – the less you die, the younger you stay. In performance mode, your final score determines how many stars you earn (obviously you still need to survive the waves). Time Attack, on the other hand, values speed above all else.
Some challenges have an extra touch. The last one in the first tier, appropriately named I Know Kung Fu, recreates the famous Matrix Reloaded mass fight scene. Here you’ll play as a Neo wannabe, dispatching hundreds of drones and occasionally battling Agent Smith’s elite. neatly Others have different mutators such as deadlier enemies, indestructible weapons, inability to heal, etc.
So, forty-five new challenges, nine locations and five modes… The developers predict that you will need at least ten hours to complete the content offered in Sifu Arenas. In my case and yours, if you also belong to the sacred order of the Nubs, multiply that number by at least five. Anyway, it’s all pretty generous for a freebie, and they promise more challenges in the coming months! Even if you vowed never to fight again, you should change your mind given this opportunity.
