NES Challenge - Karate Champ in 35 24 [185/714]

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Karate Champ by Data East lives up to the Data East reputation. Decent graphics, ok sound, near trash controls. Now this was an arcade conversion and they couldn't really swap over 2 joysticks, but the game seems to read the inputs poorly and the hit detection is questionable at best... like many Data East games.

This is an ok game to switch out to when a friend is over, particularly if you grew up with it on say an Apple II, but you'd rather play any number of other 2 player games available. Really the game is good just to change it up and for $5 it's not a waste of money as you will get your entertainment out of it.

Throughout the game I used a cheese strat like we did as kids. Wait for the referee to stomp his foot a second time and then as he is about to lift it do a jump kick. If it misses, the opponent will either stay in front of you and you can try some quick punches and then mix it up with kicks, or he will try to jump kick you back and many times you have a moment to hit B to do a reverse kick and get him while in mid air. After that you just need to mix it up.

The game does have some strategy. There are short, mid, high range attacks as well as high, mid, and low attacks. EG a punch is short, mid; a kick is middle, middle, a high kick or jump kick with be on the high side but I'm not sure the distance. Regardless, the hit detection ALWAYS feels wonky. There are plenty of times it feels you should score a hit but don't; the reverse could be said too, but we don't talk about that because the computer cheats. :)

This is another of those low to mid tier game due to its age and lack of variety. There are plenty of backgrounds/locations, but it is always the same thing. We won't talk about the extra point challenges either. I'll place this in the Top 550 -650. The change of gameplay feels good, but only for an Atari duration. Toss it to the side and play something else after 10 minutes.