We’ve once again arrived at the Holiday season, and as
always I like discussing games I’ve gotten as a gift. However, in the past,
I’ve always talked about good games and expressed how I probably wouldn’t have
taken the chance with some of them (like B.O.B. or Maximum Carnage). However,
with that risk of getting a good game, you also run the risk of getting a bad
one, especially when it’s gifted from people who have no gaming knowledge and
just pick something that looks interesting. Well here’s a game that I got, and
if you know about it, you know what a lump of coal it is; here’s Karate Champ
for the Nintendo Entertainment System.
The game quickly disappoints you with its poor graphics. The
cover doesn’t promise anything great, with two poorly drawn fighters attacking
the air in different direction, but the graphics are STILL a let down. They’re
big, blocky and undefined, even worse than Renegade, the other Technos Japan
developed game I’ve reviewed (though Data East are the publishers here). The
characters just look like box people with big noses and while some of the
backgrounds might be good (with shading and details added), they can be lack
luster and are all at different angles, so I don’t know how in the hell we’re
looking at the fighters.
The sounds are a little better, as the music is alright:
it’s obvious they tried a sort of oriental influence, like something out of a
kung-fu movie, and it’s decent. They also have digitized voices and I’ll admit
for the time it was pretty good. However, every other sound effect is pretty
grating, and they’re a lot more common. I’d suggest playing this game on mute,
but that doesn’t help you with the graphics, or the fact that you’re playing
Karate Champ.
Unlike what you’d expect from a fighting game, Karate Champ
actually tries to stay true to the sport. Instead of just beating your opponent
unconscious, you just need to be the first to reach 2 points. You earn points
by making contact with your opponent and after every contact you go back to
your corners. Some moves are naturally worth more than others, and there are
multiple button combinations you can press to pull off different moves.
And that is where this game falls apart. Some of these moves
have vague controls so I’m not sure if I’m doing it right, but I’m convinced
that it just might not be programed correctly, as I’ve gotten two different
moves from the same buttons. There is also the problem of DIRECTION. In GOOD
games like Street Fighter, your character turns around to face the enemy. Here
they decided to make turning around into a move! But, it’s maybe unfair to
compare this game to one that came out almost a decade later… Is it fair to ask
that the buttons respond when I press them? There’s honestly like a 1 second
delay, and since most moves feature a painfully slow 2 frames of animation, it
takes even longer. Plus with all of this, you have to have the hope that the
contact counts. You can repeatedly punch with your fist going THROUGH your
enemy, but it’ll never count as a hit for some reason. Everything about how
this game controls makes me feel like I’m playing with boxing gloves on.
The really perplexing thing about Karate Champ
is that, despite how awful it is, most NES game collections I’ve seen have it.
Sure, it’s not a rare game, but people don’t seek it, they just tend to “have
it” (maybe they all get it like gifts as I did). I’m sure that the timing with
the Karate Kid movies helped produce an abundance or cartridges (as the second
one came out right before this port), but I have one honest question; with the
reputation that this game has gathered, WHY WAS THIS RELEASED FOR THE VIRTUAL
CONSOLE? I am serious, you can buy it there. It was a neat idea to make
something closer to the sport of karate, but every single aspect of this game
failed in execution. This is not only the worst game I’ve reviewed so far, but
among the worst games I’ve ever played. I give Karate Champ for the NES 1 level
out 10.
