Karate Champ

"one of the better 2 player versus NES games"

When I saw the large amount of negative reviews for this game I was disheartened since it was one of my favorite NES games, as well as the origin of the modern 2D arcade fighting genre. As an aside, it's worth noting that Karate Champ is actually a port of an arcade game. I think a lot of animosity towards the game is due to unrealistic expectations. This is a NES launch title. It's not going to look like Kirby's Adventure and the hit detection and fighting mechanics aren't going to be as advanced as a game like Street Fighter 2.

Graphics:

Compared to some other games released in 1986 (ie:Donkey Kong), this game looks really good. Nothing to complain about. Obviously it looks very dated nowadays, though.

Story:

Since it's a fighting game, the story isn't great. I've never seen a fighting game with a story that wasn't laughable, so you can't really fault the game for that.

Controls/Hit Detection:

The controls and hit detection aren't very good, but they're better than most games like this until the SF2 era came along. Many other NES launch titles (KC was released in 1986) have pretty poor hit detection as well. Still I have to admit the hit detection is a bit worse than average, even for the launch titles. The controls are about on par with Donkey Kong, but nowhere near as good as Metroid.

Gameplay:

Essentially, the gameplay is like this: you beat each other up and are awarded points for doing so. It's a nifty concept, and differentiates the game from the fighting games that would follow by keeping score in a way that resembles an actual karate tournament.

The game includes a variety of different backgrounds/levels and fairly good graphics (for the time). Sounds simple? It is. That's the beauty of it. As far as I'm aware this is the first two player versus title release for the NES. It's also one of very few.

KC has a variety of moves including standing and crouching punches and kicks, and other moves that vary based on the position of your character. Pretty original, even if rounds sometimes turn into button mashfests and at times scoring may seem almost random and the rounds can be very short because they end with scoring a point.

Overall the game plays well, despite some flaws.

Sound:

There doesn't seem to be any music, but sounds are decent otherwise. So, so-so.

I gave this game a 7 because it's above average, but it's hit detection and control are off, at times the rounds turn into mashfests, scoring is at times almost random, and music is pretty much nonexistent .

Despite its flaws, Karate Champ is the origin of the modern 2 dimensional fighting game and has strong NES graphics, nice levels, 2 player versus, and an innovative scoring system. Without this game, there would be no SF2 or MvC2. Maybe it's not quite a classic, but it's still a really fun game to play with a friend.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 07/19/05