KUNG-FU MASTER
Original Release: Irem, 1984, Arcade
Other Releases: C64/MSX/NES/ZX (1985), Atari 2600 (1987), Atari 7800 (1989)
Aka "Spartan X", this title is widely regarded as the foundation of the beat-em-up genre
Kung-Fu Master (Arcade, Irem, 1984)
Where to Buy: eBay
How to Emulate: Arcade Emulation Guide
Review by: C. M0use
Good ol' Kung-Fu Master from Irem, the unofficial video game adaptation of Bruce Lee's film Game of Death. Martial arts master Thomas has his girlie Silvia randomly kidnapped by karate thugs, and now has to storm their dojo where "five sons of the devil wait to entertain him".
This game actually had impressive graphics for its time, and the use of digitized sound clips was pretty awesome as well. Unfortunately it's very difficult, the play control is stiff, and it's one of those hardcore old-school arcade games that makes you restart from the beginning when you lose all your lives. It's thus pretty frustrating to play, and most people tend to get fed up with it pretty quickly. Thomas can only jump stiffly upwards in place, which is a big problem as you face many knife-throwing enemies and others that require you to take to the air to dodge their attacks.
If you like a perfectionist game that you have to spend a lot of time learning the rhythms of (and dying over and over again in the process), this is the one for you, but everyone else may just want to give it one play to see the cute graphics and sound effects (or pay genre respects or whatever) and then move on.
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