The Kung Fu
THE 功夫1987The Kung Fu
THE 功夫ALSO KNOWN AS CHINA WARRIOR
Wang fights his way through China with huge, screen-filling sprites.
The Kung Fu is a side-scrolling martial arts beat 'em up that Hudson Soft made for the PC Engine. It was meant to be a launch title. A bug found just before release delayed it.
| RELEASED IN JAPAN | 21 November 1987 |
|---|---|
| DEVELOPER | Hudson Soft |
| JAPANESE PUBLISHER | Hudson Soft |
| PLAYERS | One |
| GAMEPLAY RELATED TO | Irem's Kung-Fu Master |
Wang punches with one button and kicks with the other. He can attack in mid-air too. The game has four levels, each split into three stages, and each stage ends with a boss.
When Wang is knocked out, the stage restarts, so you learn enemy patterns and try again. Each hit taken removes one point from the power meter. Oolong tea and some defeated enemies restore it.
The meter shows up to ten points in silver and more in gold. Some stages end with a nunchaku bonus, where you smash pots. Finishing a loop starts the next one.
Wang is a martial artist whose style resembles that of Bruce Lee. He sets out to defeat the enemies of China's martial arts world. He also goes after the Dark Emperor, who rules from a castle called Luo Yang Ge.
Hudson gave the characters very large sprites that fill the screen without flicker. The sprites take up half the screen height, and damage shows as bruises and cuts.
Critics gave the game mixed to unfavourable reviews. Electronic Gaming Monthly praised the large sprites but criticised the simple gameplay. In a 1993 PC Engine Fan reader poll it scored 16.68 out of 30.
Later releases included mobile phones in 2004 and the Wii Virtual Console in 2007. Reviewers on the Wii Virtual Console called it repetitive.
It shows how far the console's sprites could go early in its life.
- Computer and Video Games reviewed a version called Drunken Master and rated it 58 percent.
- 1UP's Broken Pixels show, which mocks bad games, featured it.
- The nunchaku bonus stage scores each swing by its timing.
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