Kung-Fu Master

aka: Karate Champ, Kung Fu, Seiken Achō, Spartan X, Taekwon-Do
Moby ID: 7511

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Critic Reviews add missing review

Average score: 62% (based on 16 ratings)

Player Reviews

Average score: 3.2 out of 5 (based on 36 ratings with 2 reviews)

A strange game that's probably valuable only to those who have nostalgic feelings for it

The Good
It's a funny game. The storyline and cutscenes are cheesy such that they are hilarious instead of annoying. You're a Kung Fu master trying to save your girlfriend, Sylvia, from Mr. X (5th level boss). The game is driven by the old 5 story pagoda thing, where you have to beat the story's boss to climb the stairs to the next story of increasing difficulty. It's kind of fun going through the varied levels to see the different bosses and such. The 3rd level has a large black guy for its boss, whom my little brother as a 4 year old kid dubbed "George Bush."

The Bad
The worst thing about this game is that it repeats and doesn't resolve. Once you beat Mr. X, your happiness doesn't last long, and you're back at the bottom of the pagoda (with the bad guys moving slightly faster and sneakier). The game just sort of goes on like this until you either die or become so fed up you turn your NES off. The midget boss on the 4th level is also extremely irritating.

The Bottom Line
It's an odd little game that kind of has its own personality that's hard to describe. It has purple guys trying to hug you, little greet midgets that jump at you, and knife guys that throw knives at you, all of whom you must knock off the pagoda with kung fu moves (high kick low kick, high punch low punch, or jump kick or punch.) Then there are the 5 bosses (Sword Guy, Boomerang Guy, George Bush, Midget Guy, and Mr X.) It's a game worth playing, for the experience, but it's probably not the most well made game in the realm of the NES.

NES · by Feem (30) · 2004

Judo Chop!

The Good
Kung-fu was certainly an interesting game, if not odd. The storyline was quite the same as a dubbed Japanese kung-fu movie, with the fighting styles of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and the graphics of Excite Bike.

The basic drive of the game was that you were a kung-fu master, determined to rescue your girlfriend. You must reach the top-most level of the pagoda, while facing enemies and bosses along the way.

The moves you have at your disposal are finely crafted. It has a total of six moves, combining A, B, and the up and down buttons on the D-pad. This is a nice refresher from Ice Climber and Mario, both of which had very limited ways of defeating your foes.

The graphics you do have to give a hand to. As soon as you see then you will be instantly reminded of Excite Bike, Ice Climber, Clu-clu Land, Pinball, etc. To put it simply, the graphics are no more remarkable than any other graphics at the time.

The Bad
The game has some flaws which really bring it down.

The game play, you will discover, is quite repetitive and hard. The only strategy which seems to work is trial and error, accompanied with luck. It took me at least ten tries to figure out how to successfully beat the first level, only to die on the even harder second level and have to restart. Even when you finally get up to the top level and beat the ending boss, there is very little replay value in it. Enemies do not change, they only get faster, and the game will get very old.

The sound is not magnificent for the time. This game, like Excite-Bike, Clu-clu Land, and Pinball, did not bring us catchy tunes that stick as icons even today, like the Super Mario Bros. and Zelda theme. Most of it is NES midis (do not get me wrong, a lot of NES midis sound great!) and are typical of cheesy kung-fu movies back in the 80’s. SFX is not notable here either.

Lastly, the two player mode is not much of two-player mode. Players take turns, which makes it fairly easy for the person not playing to lose interest and wait until you are gone to play one-player. I am fairly impressed at the nice number of co-op games such as Clu-clu Land, and Ice Climber, but I am disappointed at the lack of co-op in other games such as this. Truly two players is not an incentive to get this game

The Bottom Line
The game, while it does entertain you for a while, will slowly frustrate you with its hard, repetitive game play and cheesy music and sounds. Unfortunately, it adds to this with a very bad replay value and a bland two player mode. The game is probably best for those who like to collect NES games, or for someone who had it as a childhood favorite. Otherwise, this game might just collect dust.

NES · by Matt Neuteboom (976) · 2005

Contributors to this Entry

Critic reviews added by RhYnoECfnW, Alsy, Patrick Bregger, chirinea, sayewonn wisseh, ☺☺☺☺☺, RetroArchives.fr, Ryan DiGiorgi, Big John WV.