Kung Fu (NES) Review
System NES
Developer Nintendo Publisher Nintendo Genre Side Scrolling Beat'em Up # of Players 1-2 Release Date October 18th, 1985 |
Pros
Decent Game play Cons Short Game Little reason to come back to constanly |
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Review
by Thonos
1/13/2017
Kung Fu is a launch title for the NES. The game is a port of the Japanese arcade game Kung Fu Master. In the game the player controls Thomas, an expert Kung Fu fighter whose goal is to rescue his girlfriend Sylvia from Mr. X. This is the only story we are given for this game.
Gameplay involves you moving from right to left (or left to right depending on the floor) defeating any enemies that come at you. Once you advanced far enough through the stage the floor boss will appear. Defeat him and you go to the next floor. Once you make it to the 5th floor and defeat the final boss the game is over but you just restart from the beginning again (or as the manual says the next round). This does is make the game a little harder but I found nothing else added to the gameplay.
While going through each floor enemies come from both sides to attack the player. The most common enemy is grippers who just run at you, latch on and drain your health. The knife thrower is a little more interesting that he can throw his knives low or high so you have to dodge accordingly. Then you have Tom Toms, (or as a like to say running gnomes), who can occasionally do a spinning jump onto your head. Floor 2 has some snakes you have to jump over, fire breathing dragon illusions and confetti balls. Floor 4 has poisonous moths that attack you. Not the most exciting enemies but the is some variety.
Each of the five floor bosses are more interesting than the enemies and require a little more skill to beat. Unlike the normal enemies the bosses have a health bar directly under the player's health. The bosses are not hard to beat, but you do need to learn how they attack to beat them. And even then, there is still some randomness as to what attacks they will use on you. For example, the third boss can beat you in one or two hits while the fourth boss is just annoying. However, each one is unique and fighting them was one of the stronger points of the game.
To fight back Thomas can kick, punch and do a jump kick. When crouching he can do a low punch and a low kick. As a expert Kung Fu fighter I would have expected to have more ways to fight but these options get the job done. Kicking is the most common way of attacking while punching does have its uses and a jump kick can do a lot of damage to the boss when it connects. The only complaint I have is that when switching the way you are facing to fight enemies coming behind you I had a slight delay in the response time in my attacks. This only becomes an issue if you wait until the last moment to turn around and attack. I also noticed some hit detection issues that affected my attacks and the enemy ones, but this was not widespread.
Graphically, for a launch title this game looks alright. Stage design is pretty much the same on all stages and the enemies look basic but not horrible. The game music and sound effects are basic but do work for the game. The only exception is when you lose to a floor boss they make a laughing sound at you, similar to when you lose in The Legend of Zelda II. Again, for a NES launch title expectations need tp set accordingly.
One factor with this game is replay ability. Each floor gives you one full health bar; at the end of each floor your health goes back to full. You have two extra lives and if you lose all three lives on one floor the game ends (you do gain a extra live at 50,000 points). There is also a timer and if that hits zero you lose a life as well. This game is short though, it only took me about nine minutes to complete one round through the game. Beating the game and going through again with a higher difficulty adds to some replay ability and there is even a harder mode that you can start the game on. Also, while some enemy placement on each floor is set, other parts of the floors seem to throw random enemies at you. Ultimately though, if you beat the game once, you see the ending and to keep going with the game is just to see how high of a score you can get.
I still enjoy playing this game today. It is not a complicated game, it is actually a pretty basic game in every way, shape and form. But sometimes being basic is enough to make a game worth playing. With that said though, this is a game you play for about 30 minutes and put back down type of game.
This game does have a two player mode, however it is an alternating turn two player mode and was not tested for this review.
by Thonos
1/13/2017
Kung Fu is a launch title for the NES. The game is a port of the Japanese arcade game Kung Fu Master. In the game the player controls Thomas, an expert Kung Fu fighter whose goal is to rescue his girlfriend Sylvia from Mr. X. This is the only story we are given for this game.
Gameplay involves you moving from right to left (or left to right depending on the floor) defeating any enemies that come at you. Once you advanced far enough through the stage the floor boss will appear. Defeat him and you go to the next floor. Once you make it to the 5th floor and defeat the final boss the game is over but you just restart from the beginning again (or as the manual says the next round). This does is make the game a little harder but I found nothing else added to the gameplay.
While going through each floor enemies come from both sides to attack the player. The most common enemy is grippers who just run at you, latch on and drain your health. The knife thrower is a little more interesting that he can throw his knives low or high so you have to dodge accordingly. Then you have Tom Toms, (or as a like to say running gnomes), who can occasionally do a spinning jump onto your head. Floor 2 has some snakes you have to jump over, fire breathing dragon illusions and confetti balls. Floor 4 has poisonous moths that attack you. Not the most exciting enemies but the is some variety.
Each of the five floor bosses are more interesting than the enemies and require a little more skill to beat. Unlike the normal enemies the bosses have a health bar directly under the player's health. The bosses are not hard to beat, but you do need to learn how they attack to beat them. And even then, there is still some randomness as to what attacks they will use on you. For example, the third boss can beat you in one or two hits while the fourth boss is just annoying. However, each one is unique and fighting them was one of the stronger points of the game.
To fight back Thomas can kick, punch and do a jump kick. When crouching he can do a low punch and a low kick. As a expert Kung Fu fighter I would have expected to have more ways to fight but these options get the job done. Kicking is the most common way of attacking while punching does have its uses and a jump kick can do a lot of damage to the boss when it connects. The only complaint I have is that when switching the way you are facing to fight enemies coming behind you I had a slight delay in the response time in my attacks. This only becomes an issue if you wait until the last moment to turn around and attack. I also noticed some hit detection issues that affected my attacks and the enemy ones, but this was not widespread.
Graphically, for a launch title this game looks alright. Stage design is pretty much the same on all stages and the enemies look basic but not horrible. The game music and sound effects are basic but do work for the game. The only exception is when you lose to a floor boss they make a laughing sound at you, similar to when you lose in The Legend of Zelda II. Again, for a NES launch title expectations need tp set accordingly.
One factor with this game is replay ability. Each floor gives you one full health bar; at the end of each floor your health goes back to full. You have two extra lives and if you lose all three lives on one floor the game ends (you do gain a extra live at 50,000 points). There is also a timer and if that hits zero you lose a life as well. This game is short though, it only took me about nine minutes to complete one round through the game. Beating the game and going through again with a higher difficulty adds to some replay ability and there is even a harder mode that you can start the game on. Also, while some enemy placement on each floor is set, other parts of the floors seem to throw random enemies at you. Ultimately though, if you beat the game once, you see the ending and to keep going with the game is just to see how high of a score you can get.
I still enjoy playing this game today. It is not a complicated game, it is actually a pretty basic game in every way, shape and form. But sometimes being basic is enough to make a game worth playing. With that said though, this is a game you play for about 30 minutes and put back down type of game.
This game does have a two player mode, however it is an alternating turn two player mode and was not tested for this review.