International Karate

Advanced

Is everyone here as big a fan of the Commodore 64 as I am? Probably not. Anyway, the Commodore had an interesting series of fighting games which were less manic than Street Fighter, less complicated than Killer Instinct, less violent than Mortal Kombat, and yet had a lot of fun about them. These games were called "International Karate" and by the way, if you already guessed as much, I don't care. Just let me finish my review.


Shane is lethal with the headbutts.

To be fair, the game that started it all was "Way of the Exploding Fist" which I played an insane amount of times as a kid. You fight one on one against a computer opponent (or another player) with a series of simple moves. Some are helpful for dodging, most are for attack. Each attack move has a slightly different range and speed, and by memorizing the various moves you learn what is often the best move for every situation. When you hit your opponent, they are knocked down and you are awarded a half-point or full point depending on how well timed and powerful the move is. When you get two points, you win, and move on to the next opponent. The main problems with the game were that it was a little slow-paced and the controls were a little difficult to master; A forward flip would be done by moving the joystick up and back. A backward flip would be down and back . . . whatever.

International Karate came out just a year later, which added some adrenaline. Defensive moves were eliminated--or doubled as offensive moves, it became a little more fast-paced, and there were some fun sound effects and animations added for getting knocked out. A fun way to add to the game was the addition of belts. The higher your score became, the higher rank you would get. You would continue in a quest to get a black belt against a series of opponents who move and react more quickly as you go along.


Purple Belt is the first belt that you really want to get rid of.

International Karate 2 - well it's exactly the same game as far as I can see. I can't see the slightest bit of difference. It came out in the same year. I think maybe they're just the same game and C64 collectors accidentally split it into two games somehow. I really have no idea.

And then the year after that came International Karate Plus (IK+) which was a very interesting variant.

Whatever happens next won't be pretty.

The red guy jump-kicked me. I don't know what the hell the blue guy was doing.

It's three players instead of two. One on one on one. When opponents are knocked out, instead of the round renewing, the character stays down for a moment and comes back up. In the meantime the remaining fighters can fight it out, and the gameplay can still continue. Whoever gets last place is eliminated, the other two move on.

Blah blah blah, right?

Okay, history lesson's over, you ingrates.

This game is a very nice recreation of both games. It's sort of a two-in-one idea. The main game plays like IK+ and the practice game is more like the original IK.


CHOOSE YOUR FIGHTER

In this version you can pick one one of twelve characters, each with strengths and weaknesses. Whatever. You're just going to pick Lee.

Okay, so now you're Lee, and you're ready to kick butt. WRONG, little grasshopper. You must learn the way of the exploding fist . . . I mean, you need to figure out what does what.

I'll use a simple graph.

Assuming you're facing right, move the directional pad in up, down,
left, or right to do the following:

Jump   Backward   Forward   Duck

While holding A   High Kick   Spin Kick   Forward Kick   Low Kick

While holding B   High Punch   Headbutt   Forward Punch   Low Punch

Besides that, hold down any button to block, push L to turn left, push R to turn right.


He blocked my exploding fist.

Also, if you move up, just as you begin to jump, hit A to do a jump kick.

If you hold down to duck, and press A, you do a sweep kick. Otherwise press B to do a ducking punch.

That makes a total of 17 moves (I'm counting the turn-around as one single move).

Well, that's great, except that each original International Karate game had a wider range.


Say my name, bitch . . er, uh, sensei.

Should I use another graph? Yes, that seems to be in order.

International Karate

Turn and High Punch Jump High Punch Backward   Forward Ducking punch Sweep Kick High Kick

While holding the fire button Backward Flip Jump Kick Forward Flip Spin Kick   Forward Kick Turn and Low Kick Turn and ducking punch Low Kick

Also, if you held backward it doubled as a block move (like many other fighting games after it)

So that's also 17 moves. But like I earlier mentioned, most of the defensive moves double as offensive. The turn-around moves were also attacks. Rather than ducking, you'd do a sweep kick.

IK+

Turn and High Punch Jump High Punch Backward   Forward Ducking punch Sweep Kick Low Kick

While holding the fire button Double-jump kick Jump Kick Headbutt Backflip   Forward Kick Turn and High Kick Turn and ducking punch High Kick

Here, the forward and backward jumps were removed to allow for more offensive moves. The double-jump kick if timed right can be very lethal, knocking both opponents out. A new defensive move, however, adds a very nice touch. The backflip allows you to quickly leap backward away from an attack.

The point I'm trying to make is that the GBA version can do more with the moves it has. However, to be fair, having A do kick moves, and B for punch moves really simplifies and makes moves easier to memorize. I just think the need for two turn-around buttons could be eliminated. It takes precious time to turn around before attacking, when you can automate into one move.

Besides that, my complaints are few and far between. It really is a good recreation of the originals, right down to the music. I was amazed as I played it that they managed to hold on to the original C64 music with barely any instrument conversion. And you have to love the roundhouse kicks.


I rather like this animation.

All in all, it captures the feeling of International Karate nicely. Good. I guess I won't have to steal someone's ass virginity with a ten foot pole. Hah! Kiwibonga, I stole your phrase! And I bet you'll never even notice. You can't touch me, I am invincib.....(crack, a long dragging noise, a shuffle and clunk)

Readers, do not be alarmed. I am okay, and am definitely not a robot that has replaced Hyena for the continuation of this review. My further comments on said game are that I consider it to be satisfactory and in some places I find it to be of considerable content.
(discussion in background between two unknown voices, one of which may be kiwibonga)

. _LOAD "HYENAS VOCABULARY",8,1 SEARCHING FOR "HYENAS VOCABULARY" LOADING READY. _LOAD "REVIEW",8 LOADING READY. .

So to further accentuate my enjoyment of this game, I would have to say that it kicks anii and that I like Transformers. Doom is a cool game but my favourite game is Super Metroid you ass-burger-turd.

The fighter known as Lee performs a jumping kick which knocks over he who is known as Chips or Ben.

A sweep kick is attempted on Ben or Chips who manages nonetheless to avoid it.

This is a roundhouse kick.

At various points throughout the game, the player must participate in a bonus game that consists of bouncing deadly balls off of a shield of sorts without getting hit. This existed in IK+ as well, although the original bonus game lasted until the player was incapacitated whereas the new version only continues until a score of 2000 is reached for the round.

There also is.......NO, FAILURE! MALFUNCTION! ERROR!

. ?SYNTAX ERROR IN 1200 .

Sorry about that everyone. Somebody, and I won't name names kiwibongakiwibongakiwibongakiwibongakiwibongakiwibongakiwibongakiwibonga
thought it would be funny if I was replaced by a Commodore 64. But there's no way I'm going to let someone else take away my fun in reviewing the next bonus game.

By the way, I thought it was funny that if one of those glorified beach balls hits you, you're knocked out as if you were hit with a baseball bat.


I regret nothing!
What's that quote even from, anyway?

The other bonus game requires you to dodge bombs. Or to put it into the words of Oh Honourable Sensei:

In any case, this is a fun little fighting game you can play anywhere. And from the complaints I'm getting about Mortal Kombat Advance I'd say this is the way to go.

Have some fun going from place to place and making fun of people's names.


A winner is you!