Jackie Chan's Action Kung Fu

"Jackie's 15 minutes of game-fame"

One day, Jackie Chan was on a first date with his girlfriend Josephine, and was feeling a little nervous. They were probably talking about politics or something. All of a sudden, an ancient warlock who has been hibernating for about 5,000 years attacks the young couple! Typically, Jackie risks his life to save his chick...and looses. The bad guy takes away his girlfriend and leaves him for dead. Fortunately, he is magically revived, and his quest to rescue his girlfriend begins. This game is probably Jackie's best game ever. Although he has stared in numerous games, this is probably his best. This game was also released on the NES. This version for the Turbo is much better. The graphics and sound are much better than that of the 8-bit NES.

In your quest to find Jackie's girlfriend you will encounter beautiful terrain including temples, volcanoes, glaciers, and a forest or two. The enemies in this game are very well drawn and at some points, very obscure. These include eagles, bandits, snakes, cyclops', giants, tigers, yetis, kabuki performers and many more.

The game offers you a chance to redeem yourself if you struggling with the game. If you are down to your last point on the health meter and you hear a chime, then just kick or punch towards the sound and you may find a magic bell! Pick this up to go to a special bonus stage! Your wise, old Kung-Fu master will take Jackie to a stage where he can fill up his health meter or gain extra lives. These stages include collecting fruit, beating up wooden men, fish bashing, and crushing mushrooms. These stages are relatively easy but still offer a challenge. They are timed events. When it is over, you get to see how you did. You get one extra point on the health meter for every two items that you collect, and one continue for every eight items that you collect. After this is over you are returned to where you last you last left off.

Besides the method that I described above, you can gain more health by attacking a frog. There are frogs throughout the levels that puke something up if you punch or kick them. The health points that they throw-up look like little bowls. They also up-chuck ''special moves''. These are special moves that Jackie can do. You get to use the special move only nine times. You can execute these moves by pressing up on the d-pad and button 2 simultaneously. These moves are also twice as powerful as a punch or kick. These include the 360 degree spin-kick, the headstand kick, the 180 degree spin-kick, and the leg sweep. You can also throw a fire-ball by holding button 2 until Jackie starts blinking. Then release the button.

The sound on this game is superb. The music is good action type music and seems to had been really worked to perfection. The sound effects aren't too bad either. Jackie says something like ''YAH'' or ''WAH'' when he punches or kicks.

The difficulty in this game is at a 6 out of 10. Even though this game is pretty easy the difficulty starts to increase in the automatically-scrolling stages. On some levels you will have to clear your mind of conscious thought and use your ''chi'' to overcome the obstacles and crush the enemies.

The controls will never fail you (unless you accidently hit the wrong button). Simple up, down, left, right, punch, kick. They controls are very quick and not clunky.

This game was definitely worth the money. I play this game almost everyday. If you have a Turbo and you come across a copy of this game, get it! Don't pass it up! Purchase it, and give it a try. You won't be disappointed!

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 11/22/00, Updated 01/18/01