Yie Ar Kung Fu

"Bad port of a bad game"

Besides having one of the most annoying names out there this was also one of the few games I truly hated as a kid. I actually had no desire to ever return to this game but alas the oh so wonderful 360 had it ported to the Live Arcade. Is it better than I originally though?

Graphically the game looks alright. Not sure if it got a total overhaul in this department but the characters look okay. Backdrops are a bit bland and tend to be one color. It's kind of cool that enemies have weapons and it's easy to make out that the chubby girl is in fact throwing a star.

The sound his annoying. Odd little grunts are about all you have for sound effects. The music has an Asian flair to it but with its 5 notes it gets old very quickly.

Sadly this is another game that dies due to the bad 360 d-pad. The idea is to pull off moves but you control as if you're in slow-mo and while you only have a punch and kick button, it really isn't very smooth when it comes to actually moving around. Very stiff and slow.

The idea of the game is that it's a one on one fighter using kung fu. It's an interesting idea for the idea but not only was it iffy then it's really bad now.

While I could blame it all on the control I think the entire game is a bit sluggish in its actions. Or should I say your character is a bit sluggish as the opponent moves silky smooth.

The moves list is a bit short but for the time it's good. But again the d-pad throws a few kinks into the mix so it becomes a random guessing game of what moves you will pull off.

A vs. mode via live rounds the package out and while a nice addition, no one is playing this game at all. Also there are achievements but I didn't even bother to see how easy or hard they would be.

It was a bad game then and with the lousy d-pad on the 360 it becomes a worse game if that's possible. Slightly enhanced graphics and some achievements are worth the 400ms points this title is going for.

Story - N/A
Graphics - 6/10
Sound - 6/10
Control - 3/10
Game Play - 4/10
Replay Value - 2/10

Final Score - 3/10

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 12/21/07

Game Release: Yie Ar Kung Fu (US, 07/18/07)