Karate Champ

"Despite a good premise and decent 2-player mode, its a rather below average disappointment of a game."

Karate Champ, early Data East game that is often known as ''one of the first Fighting Games'' like the other NES game with a similar reputation which is Urban Champion. While both Karate Champ and Urban Champion were action games with simplistic gameplay. One had a main advantage over the other. Urban Champion's gameplay could've went a bit further while Karate Champ's gameplay fits its purpose rather decently. (For a early NES action game it actually has a pretty decent amount of attacks such as Reverse Punch, Roundhouse Kick, Leg Sweep, Back Kick and more.) However unlike UC, the controls here are weak while the Collision Detection was... lets just say could've been done better. (You have to get real close in order for the attacks to actually hit your opponent. While it can be a terrible problem for you, your opponent has to get real close as well.)

The purpose of this game is a simple 1-on-1 match of you (the man in the White Gi) against your opponent whom its been said that he is dressed in a Red Gi. (Even though it looks more like purple to me.) Its a traditional Martial Arts Match which the purpose is to hit your opponent before he hits you. And fortunately like I said before the variety of attacks you can do is actually pretty decent here. Aside from fighting the same-colored opponent very repeatedly the gameplay pretty much goes with its premise rather well. (A pity that the difficulty is too high and the control & collision detection is weak. Otherwise this would've been a pretty good game.)

Though what is quite possibly THE biggest pain in this game is that the 1-player mode is TOO hard (not too mention the ''Breaking Pots'' bonus rounds, even you do hit them it does seem like you get knocked down anyways). Its bad enough the control and collision detection is weak but your opponent seems to move JUST fine and quite fiercely too. (Granted its not impossible to last for more than a few seconds. But it'll be awfully hard to last for than one full match.) However its 2-player mode is better, not great but better. (While the control and collision detection is not much better here it doesn't feel quite as frustrating for obvious reasons.)

However one thing that it does do pretty good on is the Technical aspects. The Backgrounds are actually pretty well done and while the character sprites aren't great I have seen a lot worse. The music may not be grand but its never really annoying however the SFX work surprisingly well.

Overall one of the best thing I can say about this game is that its still better than the likes of Top Gun, Back to the Future and X-Men which are still worse NES games than this one. Granted thats incredibly light praise but this innocuous mediocrity is harmless compared to those duds. And even though this game is still a disappointment it only costs about $1.99. And as the old cliched saying goes ''You get what you pay for''.

+ Its actually not bad within 2-player mode (and the gameplay is not as bad there as well)
+ The background graphics are actually pretty darn good (Not to mention music and SFX too.)
+ The structure of the gameplay itself is not bad
+ There are worse NES games out there
+ It generally only costs $1.99
- The Collision Detection is sub-par
- The control is awfully awkward
- The 1-player mode and the ''Breaking pots'' bonus rounds are WAY too hard
- Once you go through enough stages you just start all over again.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 01/07/04, Updated 02/16/04