Opinion Back Then
Altogether the package is a winner with its international background and terrific speech. If you already have The Fist this may not be on your list. However, I’ve got both and play them equally.
Altogether the package is a winner with its international background and terrific speech. If you already have The Fist this may not be on your list. However, I’ve got both and play them equally.
Fighting games are all the same. As soon as you’ve found out how to activate the killer-special-mega-move of the character you’ve chosen, you’re practically unbeatable. To still make the ‘playability’ last a bit, these special moves are usually either completely impossible to figure out (because they are undocumented on purpose) or impossible to activate (because they usually require the player to hit the 8 fire buttons in a certain combination and order along with movements of the joystick/joypad into certain directions – never less than 10 complicated steps). Usually both.
There are usually between 6 and 10 different fighters to choose from. There is the small and weak, but fast one (usually a woman), there are the allrounders (usually the best choices) and the huge, but slow brutes. Similar ‘standard moves’ (as opposed the the ‘special moves’ discussed before) are often activated in completely different ways, depending on whom you choose. So basically, you’re stuck with the one you’ve learned to handle.
IK goes a completely different way. All fighters are basically identical, both your alter ego and your opponents. You all have the same speed, the same strength and the same moves. In addition, the old problem of ‘pushing the opponent down immediately every time he stands up again and thus win without real resistence’ can’t occur. This is because IK isn’t some street brawl, but an ‘honourable duel’ (if that’s not typically Japanese….). Every time one fighter hits the other, the elderly (and presumably very wise) karate grand-master-teacher pauses the fight and awards some points. The opponents both go into position again and it continues. The fighter who first manages to get his score up to a certain amount wins. Alternatively, the trophy goes to the one who has scored better after thirty seconds (if nobody achieved enough to win earlier).
Two player mode works a little differently. Again, the fighters have to score points, but their ‘meter’ isn’t one-way, but when the opponent scores, you automatically lose one points yourself. Might be a bit hard to imagine, but to quote a well-known example: It’s like in ‘head-to-head’ races in Micro Machines. After one player has won two fights, he can continue fighting against the computer. Pretty strange considering that the second player can do nothing but watch then.
The controls work via a one-button-joystick. All gamepad-loving kids of today might not be able to imagine that, but all the moves are actually very easy to do: you just have to move the joystick into a direction and sometimes also push the fire button (each direction ‘has’ two moves: one is done by simply moving into that direction, the other by simulatiously pressing fire). Makes you wonder why most fighting games rely on these ridiculously hard combinations to achieve the same effect.
Graphics are really nice, animation is smooth. Every few fights, the background (or ‘arena’ to use a modern hyped word) changes: beach, desert, in the theater, middle of the city,….
IK doesn’t stress the quick clicking of fire buttons as much as other games of the genre do. That sets is positively apart – especially for someone like me who simply…. sucks at anything controlled by gamepads with thousands of buttons. Not having different ‘characters’ makes your start into the game incredibly easy. In spite of what you might think, the fun lasts… seemingly forever. One of the best fighting games of the 80s and of all times!
A well-known classic from the arcade from 1986. Business as usual: Fight against your opponents who become more stronger from round to round and try to collect as many point as possible…
You start as Karateka with the white belt – you can choose Egypt or Australia. It does not matter at all because the starting location has no influence on the game itself. After 3 rounds of fighting you either go to New York or to Rio de Janeiro – and that already was the little excursion because after round no. 3 the background graphic does not change any more. At least as far as I could play…
At the very beginning your opponents are very easy to be beat so you are able to try all the different moves and kicks. It’s learning by doing – a training session does not exist. The number of different actions is limited and after a short while you will master it while sleeping. You win a round by getting 2 points, while there will be differed between half and full points depending on the fighting situation. The points are given by a referee who reminds me a bit of a mixture of Mr Miyagi and the Fist-of-Zen guy from MTV…
Between the rounds are try-outs for bonus points. They come up rarely and don’t affect the gaming fun. The main target is – like I wrote above – collecting points to rise up as a Karateka in the ring: from the white belt to yellow, green, purple, brown and finally black. But to reach it, you have to play on for a certain time and you must win all the time! One single defeat and the game’s over. So for the missing High-Score-Saver one point is stripped off!
Much more entertaining than playing against the computer is playing against a second player. Put your joystick where your mouth is and let’s go! Graphics are up-to-that-date, just like the sound effects. The music is state-of-the-art, the controlling is direct easy to be done. Fun playing against the computer does not last very long and there is no long-time motivation.
Conclusion: A typical game of this genre, but nicely done. 3 out of 6 points.