Yie Ar Kung Fu

"Yie Ar!"

This is a very primitive kung fu game from Konami in which you take the role of Lee (and no, he doesn`t look like Bruce, not even a little), a kung fu wannabe with pink trousers (no comments about this) that probably wants to become the greatest kung fu master in the world.

Graphics:
We have two contenders in a black scenario with six red/pink windows, four lamps, a gong, and some kind of signal with two Chinese or Japanese symbols that I don`t know what in the world they mean. That is as much as you are going to see, in any case, the five characters, which probably are the most important part of the game in terms of graphics, are quite good, you can even say they have their charm, some of them have weapons and deadly special skills such as fire balls or ninja stars. The graphics are very cool for a 1985 game actually.

Music:
The music is neat, there is only one theme (excepting for that little one played when you win) in the whole game but it is very nice for a Kung Fu game. I don`t know why but I have a feeling that I have heard this tune somewhere, maybe this is because this is the music from a show or a movie or something, no surprise if it is true because games this old tend to use famous melodies for their games, but I don`t know exactly

Gameplay:
The gameplay is fairly interesting and I would say that pretty well done. Our enemies have their own ways of attack and everything, the first one has a bo (a long stick like the one Goku has but shorter, much shorter), the second one spits fireballs, the third one chains, etc, don`t forget we are talking about a game from 1985, and for that reason I would say this game is revolutionary in this aspect.

Our Lee pal only has basic movements, a simple and a low punch, a high, mid and a low kick, the flying kick (the most useful movement by far), and that is all, no special movements like Kame Hame Has nor Sonic Booms, Dragon Uppercuts or anything like that. The problem here is that all the movements do the same damage, if we hit an enemy nine times he or she will be dead, no matter if you use your fists or your legs, a low punch is as powerful as a flying kick; and the same happens with you, if the enemy harms you, nine hits and you are history, and you only have two (although you can obtain more with your score).

Once we beat all the five contenders happens what always happens with this archaic games, the scenario changes its colours and we have to beat the same enemies again. I don`t know how many times we have to do this to beat the game, but I wouldn`t be surprised if you have to repeat this process ninety nine times (the battle counter has two digits, so probably it ends or starts again once you reach ninety nine, but I`ll never know I guess). Of course the enemies, although they are the same ones, keep getting tougher and tougher each time, not too much really, but they get harder.

What could have been great is a two player option, due to the gameplay and controls fighting against a friend could have been something great an extremely challenging, it is a real pity and something very odd because normally games this old always had two player options.

Difficulty:
After some practice you will find the best ways to beat all the enemies fairly easily, the only one that`s hard to beat is that Chen guy because of his chains that sure are a pain, but this is only until you find out the technique to get rid of him easily. Overall you will have no problem beating all the enemies at least one or two times in a row, later as they get harder and you only have a like three lives you will die, but after you beat all the enemies for the first time you have seen everything the game has to offer.

Then:
As you can see Yie Ar Kung Fu is not exactly a fighting game (or a Kung Fu fighting game whatever you want), but you can take it as one I guess. As far as I know, there are only three fighting games for the Nes, Urban Champion, which is boring as hell after five minutes, this one, and the absolutely mind blowing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Edition (the Nes version), Tournament Edition eats this game alive (as well as most Snes Street Fighter clones believe it or not), but given how old Yie Ar Kung Fu it is, it is a very cool title, really, I found it fun and badass.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 06/22/04