KARATE CHAMP
Original Release: Data East, 1984, Arcade
Other Releases: Apple II/Commodore 64 (1985), NES (1986), PlayStation 2 (2005), Wii/iPhone (2010), PC/PS4/Xbox One/Switch (2014)
One of the very early fighting game titles, Karate Champ remained unique in fusing more of a simulation of actual competitive karate with some extremely goofy elements
Karate Champ (Arcade, Data East, 1984)
Where to Buy: eBay
How to Emulate: Arcade Emulation Guide
Review by: C. M0use
Before Street Fighter, there was ... this. As to how popular it was, I do remember seeing it pretty frequently in mid/late 80s arcades, but people weren't exactly stampeding to play ... though Wikipedia says it was 1985's top grossing game, so go figure.
Any lack of interest was very probably because of the unfriendly play control, made worse by the bizarre collision detection. Isn't the easiest game to emulate either, given it used two joysticks (for each player) instead of buttons. I suppose it was a creative simulation of actual competitive karate and has some depth if you spend enough time with it to get used to its weird little hinks, but doing that in an actual arcade in the 80s was an expensive proposition as you'd spend a quarter for less than 60 seconds of futzing around trying to get a feel for the game and getting instantly obliterated by the computer. And if someone who actually learned the machine was on it? Forget it, no one is beating them.
Anyway, the game documents the stages of life of a young Segata Sanshiro as he packs out to his first karate dojo and eventually makes his way through the All Valley Tournament or something. The main thing saving the game is the cute, sometimes bizarre presentation which has all sorts of little graphical flourishes. It also surprises you with weird bonus levels where you do things like stop a bull, or test your karate accuracy (and get trollfaced by the opponent when you mess up and viral video yourself).
Certainly easier and more accessible to learn and play now with emulation, but I don't know if it's really worth beating your head against the wall.
Links
Arcade flyers by famed manga artist Mitsuru Adachi
Videos
Karate Champ (NES, Data East, 1986)
Where to Buy: Amazon
How to Emulate: coming soon!
Review by: C. M0use
The NES/Famicom port of Karate Champ does give you the opportunity to learn its fussy style without having to spend a small fortune in quarters, but I'm not sure its weird collision detection/hit priority lines up with the arcade game's weird collision detection/hit priority.
We see a lot of NES ports of 80s arcade games actually end up being better than the original, or at least have lots of effort put into them with new stuff on offer. Karate Champ isn't one of those, it just kinda downgrades everything a little bit. The core gameplay and karate moves are pretty much the same, but with an altered system to learn as the game shifts duties from its 2nd joystick to the A and B buttons. Sprites are bigger and blockier, backgrounds are much simpler, and some of the bonus games seem to have been omitted.
It ends up losing a lot of the graphical charm, which was really only thing making the arcade original's weird system any kind of tolerable.
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