When doing our retrospective on the best games of 1984, we mentioned, how could it be otherwise, the name of Kung-fu Master , by the legendary Irem, although in the end we highlighted the work of the Karate Champ of Technos Japan (yes , the Double Dragon) for being one of the driving forces behind fighting games three years before Capcom’s groundbreaking Street Fighter in 1987.
1984 was a year of martial arts , since Jordan Mechner’s Karateka also came out (yes, the father of Prince of Persia in 1989), now wanting to pay tribute to the aforementioned Kung-fu Master , a classic of the time to which they owe him a lot Bad Dudes vs. DragonNinja and all the games of that guise in the eighties.
But what does Jackie Chan paint in this story?
When it came to highlighting an image for the cover of the Kung-fu Master article, it caught my attention not to remember that it came from a movie. Specifically, Spartan X, with Jackie Chan as the protagonist . Outside of Japan here we knew it as The Supercamorristas, with one of the best fight scenes in the history of cinema. And it’s not strange either, since Jackie Chan is a teacher.
Technically, the game was based on the 1978 movie Game of Death by Bruce Lee, but for commercial reasons the current movie was referred to (at that time, because game and movie are from 1984) to achieve a greater pull towards the public. In fact, Jackie Chan’s character is called the same in the game (Thomas) and the girl to rescue is still Sylvia, seeing how the video game in Japan was called Spartan X to make it more obvious.
Curiosity aside, Irem created a limited horizontal scrolling beat ’em up in which we had to climb five floors from left to right (or right to left) facing a lot of enemies and traps, until we found Sylvia and rescued her. The problem? It had no end as such, since when we rescued it, we went back to the beginning and the game got harder. So over and over again. It was the way that the Japanese study devised to limit its more than very poor duration.
And we are talking about a game that can be aired in about ten minutes, although logically it is not a simple task. After all, it is Irem’s game. Which game of Irem is easy? None. Here we had to watch our rear, calculate the jumps well and hit each of the blows.
Kung-fu Master, a classic from 1984
These techniques were summarized in fists and kicks, being able to hit also crouched or make a jump with a kick of the most powerful, although somewhat cumbersome. The kick was the easy resource , but with the (shorter) fist we won double the points. The important thing was that the enemy did not catch us, because they immobilized us for a few moments, taking life from us, to top it all. And with a few blows they killed us, having to redo the entire phase.
The toughest enemies were the bosses, making use of different weapons, although their attack patterns were very limited and it was not difficult to get the point. Worse were those that we saw throughout some phases, such as those who threw knives at us, forcing us to jump or bend constantly . And that there was some trick, as in the first phase: when the one with the knife came to us from the right, we would move away from him to the left without stopping until the boss, causing that no more enemy came out on that route. Curious.
Once we memorized where each enemy left us, the journey became more bearable, especially in those parts with vases that released various dangers if we did not destroy them first. There you could see its seams, in addition, since it was not a game with a very comfortable jump. But we were also facing a pioneer of the genre, that without Kung-fu Master there would be no Double Dragon or other beat ’em up .
Without going any further, after a mutation, the spiritual sequel to this 1984 classic would arrive in 1988 under the name of Vigilante , with a more American touch in between. Do you mean it had no official sequel? Not at all. It took until 1991 with Spartan X 2, exclusively for the Famicom in Japan . The curious? That an international adaptation was included in Retro-Bit Generation under the name of Kung-fu Master 2 in full 2016, with the fever for the Mini NES.
Has it stood the test of time well?
Not much , because of how limited its proposal is or how improvable it is when jumping. But Kung-fu Master is living video game history and its recognition cannot be denied. We owe him much more than meets the eye …
Kung-fu Master
| Platforms | Arcade (analyzed version), NES, Atari 2600, Commodore 64, Apple II, MSX … |
|---|---|
| Multiplayer | Not |
| Developer | Irem |
| Company | Irem |
| Launch | 1984 |
| Price | Not available |
The best
- One of the great pioneers of the beat ’em up
- Being able to switch between punches and kicks
- The fists were short, but they had a prize
Worst
- The jump was quite improvable
- Being caught by the enemy was tedious
- See how it lasted so little and had no “end”
- Retro Games
- Analysis
