Kung Fu [NES]

emwearz · January 14th, 2009, 06:05

Before Streets Of Rage. Before River City Ransom. Even before Double Dragon one game was released that put Beat em ups on the map in a big way. That game was Kung Fu for the NES, a port of the arcade hit Kung Fu Master which we wont reference from here on out as the review is on Kung Fu, not Kung Fu Master. Anyway the main object of Kung Fu, like every other beat em up you have ever played is to beat the utter **** out of everything that comes onto your screen. So how do the **** get kicked more than 20 years after the games release? Read on to find out.

Gameplay (7 out of 10)
To start off Kung Fu is a movie tie in to Wheels on Meals staring Jackie Chan, In stereotypical fashion the movie involves Chan's character Thomas saving the Damsel in distress, named Sylvia. I wont go into too much detail about the movies plot as it doesn't really effect the game, however if your really interested just go see it.

Does this remind anyone else of Mario?

Anyway, you play as a Thomas(Chan) who must save the damsel in distress (Sylvia)You do this by making it from the start of a level to the end of a level by walking from one side to the other in a traditional side scroller style.Sounds simple enough? Well it is, other than the fact there is a whole range of enemy's just waiting to belt the crap out of you. From those who just run and hug you to death (Yea I know, What the hell is that all about!) until you can shake them off, knife throwing enemy's who you have to watch to decide weather you need to duck or jump to dodge getting sliced open, snakes, dragons that breath fire, front flipping midgets and more. But the most challenging thing is that every level has its own unique boss. For an early Beat Em Up Kung Fu had a great range of enemy's.

Jump or crouch, you have about 2 seconds to decide.

The controls while basic are everything you could ask for in a NES game. Up/Down/Left/Right to move left,right and to jump and crouch. B to Kick and A to punch. You can (And need to for certain enemy's) do fly kicks/punches and duck while kicking and punching. The thing that makes the controls so great is that Kung Fu is not a button masher, if your hoping you will fire your NES up and click A and B as fast as you can your not going to get very far. You need to time every attack, remember how to attack every enemy and so on. That being said one of the games biggest downfalls is that is it a fairly hard game, not that hard that it will turn you off if your a beat em up fan, if anything it will make you play more and get better but I imagine those with a short gaming attention span will be turned off by the fact the game is hard if your not willing to learn how to fight each enemy.

Sound (6 out of 10)
Now the sound is pretty solid but nothing great (I am of course comparing it to other games in the NES library) While the level intro tune in unforgettable and the sound effects for kicking, etc are great the game feels very quite at times (as there is no background music playing). It doesn't really hurt the experience but it does make it feel a lot slower than it should at times. Overall though the sound is a solid effort.

Graphics (6.5 of 10)
Again the graphics are solid for its release date but there nothing really that special by comparison of other NES titles, what they do right however is the fact the characters are quite large on screen when compared to many other future beat em ups like Double Dragon, you can always clearly see what the characters are doing and the animation is fairly solid for the time. There is nothing really that special that stands out but the game is still very playable by today's standards and a lot of that is because the graphics while basic mean that they don't look as dated as many other NES titles.

Yep....Its a midget....humping your leg!

Replay Value (8 out of 10)
Because of how hard the game is you will more than likely be playing it quite often, it has the tendency to leave you with close to no health by the time you reach the levels boss meaning you die, but being so close you can help but want to do it all again. The game also features a MODE B which is the same game only harder. It also has 2 player in both MODE A and MODE B so if you can find a friend who has an eye for either beat em ups or just retro games in general you can get them in on it, that being said the Multiplayer is just 'take in turns' gameplay where you compete for the high score (much like the original Super Mario Bros.)

Whats a Kung Fu game without dragons?

Overall (6.95 out of 10)
Kung Fu is one of the Granddaddy's of the beat em up genre. Its an early example of why so many of us love these types of games. Its a solid beat em up and solid example of a game based on a movie done right.

Bottom Line: Its a worthy addition to any Retro gamers (Or Beat Em Up lovers) NES library.

__________________

- No Jobs On A Dead Planet -
Welcome to EMerica .:|:. You're mine now

Rebel_X · January 14th, 2009, 06:09

nice review emwearz, I used to play this game a lot in the past , but didn't finish it though..

Fadingz · January 14th, 2009, 06:24

It reminds me of World Heroes 2 Jet Tech on GB T^T

__________________

redlofredlof · January 14th, 2009, 06:25

Umm that game is not kung fu, its name is SpartanX. But still a very nice review emwearz

__________________

MT · January 14th, 2009, 06:33

JESUS CHRIST MAN, I REMEMBER THAT GAME!!!

Like, twelve years ago! Damn, awesome. Man. Hahahahaha. XD

Emmy, I love you. :3 And please, keep making reviews of old games!

Ah, I will send you the link to the image you asked too.

__________________
I do flash and photoshop... stuff.

Rebel_X · January 14th, 2009, 07:37

^ one day I might make a review about Metal Gear Solid 2 (for MSX) released in 1990.
it's an awesome game, it was mentioned in Metal Gear Solid for PSX under previous missions.. I play it right now, once I finish playing it I will write a review about it

emwearz · January 14th, 2009, 08:05

Cheers for the kind words everyone, once I get my site up and running I plan on pumping out quite a few more reviews (That being said I only post reviews to games I own, so its really what I can get my hands on) on normal basis.

Quote:

Umm that game is not kung fu, its name is SpartanX. But still a very nice review emwearz

Its known as SpartanX (The Japanese name for the movie its based on) in Japan.
Kung Fu Master in some places and just Kung Fu in others.

Quote:

Ah, I will send you the link to the image you asked too.

Cheers!

__________________

- No Jobs On A Dead Planet -
Welcome to EMerica .:|:. You're mine now

snickothemule · January 14th, 2009, 08:19

Oh yeah, retro review for the win! Great stuff emwearz.

__________________
My grass is the greenest.

redlofredlof · January 14th, 2009, 08:45

Quote:

Originally Posted by emwearz

Cheers for the kind words everyone, once I get my site up and running I plan on pumping out quite a few more reviews (That being said I only post reviews to games I own, so its really what I can get my hands on) on normal basis.

Its known as SpartanX (The Japanese name for the movie its based on) in Japan.
Kung Fu Master in some places and just Kung Fu in others.

Cheers!

Oh good you cleared my doubt

__________________

**SCHUMI_4EVER** · January 14th, 2009, 12:58

Awesome review.

It's amazing how you and snick make me want to play games I never would have considered.

__________________

Intel Core2Quad Q9550 (2.83Ghz stock) | ASUS P5Q | 2x2GB Transcend JetRam DDR2-800 | ASUS ENGTX260\HDTP\896M | Windows Vista Home Premium 64bit SP1

The Champ has retired but may his Legacy live on FOREVER !!!!

No$GBA DS FAQ 2.0

Get it right fools! The glass is HALF-EMPTY, not half-full!!!

!!! WARNING: Emulation requires a brain !!! WARNING: Emulation =/= Piracy !!!

emwearz · January 14th, 2009, 21:11

Quote:

Oh good you cleared my doubt

Thank god for that!

Quote:

It's amazing how you and snick make me want to play games I never would have considered.

Its not that amazing, we are just pure awesome on a stick.

__________________

- No Jobs On A Dead Planet -
Welcome to EMerica .:|:. You're mine now

**SCHUMI_4EVER** · January 14th, 2009, 22:48

On a stick? Been watching Jeff Dunham?

__________________

Intel Core2Quad Q9550 (2.83Ghz stock) | ASUS P5Q | 2x2GB Transcend JetRam DDR2-800 | ASUS ENGTX260\HDTP\896M | Windows Vista Home Premium 64bit SP1

The Champ has retired but may his Legacy live on FOREVER !!!!

No$GBA DS FAQ 2.0

Get it right fools! The glass is HALF-EMPTY, not half-full!!!

!!! WARNING: Emulation requires a brain !!! WARNING: Emulation =/= Piracy !!!

emwearz · January 15th, 2009, 05:57

No idea who that is!
If anyone is interested the website is pretty close to being online in its basic form (needs a fair bit of tweaking). Anyone wants to come on board feel free to drop me a PM. As it stands we have Cid and myself, cheers to all.

__________________

- No Jobs On A Dead Planet -
Welcome to EMerica .:|:. You're mine now

**SCHUMI_4EVER** · January 15th, 2009, 10:31

You need to know of his brilliance then
Jeff Dunham - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jeff Dunham

__________________

Intel Core2Quad Q9550 (2.83Ghz stock) | ASUS P5Q | 2x2GB Transcend JetRam DDR2-800 | ASUS ENGTX260\HDTP\896M | Windows Vista Home Premium 64bit SP1

The Champ has retired but may his Legacy live on FOREVER !!!!

No$GBA DS FAQ 2.0

Get it right fools! The glass is HALF-EMPTY, not half-full!!!

!!! WARNING: Emulation requires a brain !!! WARNING: Emulation =/= Piracy !!!

jordybb · July 4th, 2009, 14:35

Nice arcade game ...
but still it is unable to give a tough competition in arcade world
by the way nice review .......

Wangan Midnight

Last edited by jordybb; July 10th, 2009 at 03:14..

January 14th, 2009, 06:05	#1
emwearz Moderator Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Melbourne, Australia Posts: 3,604	Kung Fu [NES] Before Streets Of Rage. Before River City Ransom. Even before Double Dragon one game was released that put Beat em ups on the map in a big way. That game was Kung Fu for the NES, a port of the arcade hit Kung Fu Master which we wont reference from here on out as the review is on Kung Fu, not Kung Fu Master. Anyway the main object of Kung Fu, like every other beat em up you have ever played is to beat the utter ** out of everything that comes onto your screen. So how do the get kicked more than 20 years after the games release? Read on to find out. Gameplay (7 out of 10) To start off Kung Fu is a movie tie in to Wheels on Meals staring Jackie Chan, In stereotypical fashion the movie involves Chan's character Thomas saving the Damsel in distress, named Sylvia. I wont go into too much detail about the movies plot as it doesn't really effect the game, however if your really interested just go see it. Does this remind anyone else of Mario? Anyway, you play as a Thomas(Chan) who must save the damsel in distress (Sylvia)You do this by making it from the start of a level to the end of a level by walking from one side to the other in a traditional side scroller style.Sounds simple enough? Well it is, other than the fact there is a whole range of enemy's just waiting to belt the crap out of you. From those who just run and hug you to death (Yea I know, What the hell is that all about!) until you can shake them off, knife throwing enemy's who you have to watch to decide weather you need to duck or jump to dodge getting sliced open, snakes, dragons that breath fire, front flipping midgets and more. But the most challenging thing is that every level has its own unique boss. For an early Beat Em Up Kung Fu had a great range of enemy's. Jump or crouch, you have about 2 seconds to decide. The controls while basic are everything you could ask for in a NES game. Up/Down/Left/Right to move left,right and to jump and crouch. B to Kick and A to punch. You can (And need to for certain enemy's) do fly kicks/punches and duck while kicking and punching. The thing that makes the controls so great is that Kung Fu is not a button masher, if your hoping you will fire your NES up and click A and B as fast as you can your not going to get very far. You need to time every attack, remember how to attack every enemy and so on. That being said one of the games biggest downfalls is that is it a fairly hard game, not that hard that it will turn you off if your a beat em up fan, if anything it will make you play more and get better but I imagine those with a short gaming attention span will be turned off by the fact the game is hard if your not willing to learn how to fight each enemy. Sound (6 out of 10) Now the sound is pretty solid but nothing great (I am of course comparing it to other games in the NES library) While the level intro tune in unforgettable and the sound effects for kicking, etc are great the game feels very quite at times (as there is no background music playing). It doesn't really hurt the experience but it does make it feel a lot slower than it should at times. Overall though the sound is a solid effort. Graphics (6.5 of 10) Again the graphics are solid for its release date but there nothing really that special by comparison of other NES titles, what they do right however is the fact the characters are quite large on screen when compared to many other future beat em ups like Double Dragon, you can always clearly see what the characters are doing and the animation is fairly solid for the time. There is nothing really that special that stands out but the game is still very playable by today's standards and a lot of that is because the graphics while basic mean that they don't look as dated as many other NES titles. Yep....Its a midget....humping your leg! Replay Value (8 out of 10) Because of how hard the game is you will more than likely be playing it quite often, it has the tendency to leave you with close to no health by the time you reach the levels boss meaning you die, but being so close you can help but want to do it all again. The game also features a MODE B which is the same game only harder. It also has 2 player in both MODE A and MODE B so if you can find a friend who has an eye for either beat em ups or just retro games in general you can get them in on it, that being said the Multiplayer is just 'take in turns' gameplay where you compete for the high score (much like the original Super Mario Bros.) Whats a Kung Fu game without dragons? Overall (6.95 out of 10)** Kung Fu is one of the Granddaddy's of the beat em up genre. Its an early example of why so many of us love these types of games. Its a solid beat em up and solid example of a game based on a movie done right. Bottom Line: Its a worthy addition to any Retro gamers (Or Beat Em Up lovers) NES library. __________________ - No Jobs On A Dead Planet - Welcome to EMerica .:\|:. You're mine now

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January 14th, 2009, 06:09	#2
Rebel_X Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ 龍我雷 Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Oak Lawn, IL Posts: 1,200	nice review emwearz, I used to play this game a lot in the past , but didn't finish it though..

January 14th, 2009, 06:24	#3
Fadingz 代言人 Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: 應許之地 Posts: 7,056	It reminds me of World Heroes 2 Jet Tech on GB T^T __________________

January 14th, 2009, 06:25	#4
redlofredlof folder chan Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: C:> Posts: 7,055	Umm that game is not kung fu, its name is SpartanX. But still a very nice review emwearz __________________

January 14th, 2009, 06:33	#5
MT Totally crazy Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Brazil Posts: 3,200	JESUS CHRIST MAN, I REMEMBER THAT GAME!!! Like, twelve years ago! Damn, awesome. Man. Hahahahaha. XD Emmy, I love you. :3 And please, keep making reviews of old games! Ah, I will send you the link to the image you asked too. __________________ I do flash and photoshop... stuff.

January 14th, 2009, 07:37	#6
Rebel_X Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ 龍我雷 Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Oak Lawn, IL Posts: 1,200	^ one day I might make a review about Metal Gear Solid 2 (for MSX) released in 1990. it's an awesome game, it was mentioned in Metal Gear Solid for PSX under previous missions.. I play it right now, once I finish playing it I will write a review about it

January 14th, 2009, 08:19	#8
snickothemule Hello Cudie Pie! Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Coffs Harbour, Australia Posts: 4,874	Oh yeah, retro review for the win! Great stuff emwearz. __________________ My grass is the greenest.

January 14th, 2009, 12:58	#10
SCHUMI_4EVER Hackin 'n Slashin Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Most-expensive-Internet-on-the-Planet Land : South Africa Posts: 26,393	Awesome review. It's amazing how you and snick make me want to play games I never would have considered. __________________ Intel Core2Quad Q9550 (2.83Ghz stock) \| ASUS P5Q \| 2x2GB Transcend JetRam DDR2-800 \| ASUS ENGTX260\HDTP\896M \| Windows Vista Home Premium 64bit SP1 The Champ has retired but may his Legacy live on FOREVER !!!! No$GBA DS FAQ 2.0 Get it right fools! The glass is HALF-EMPTY, not half-full!!! !!! WARNING: Emulation requires a brain !!! WARNING: Emulation =/= Piracy !!!

January 14th, 2009, 22:48	#12
SCHUMI_4EVER Hackin 'n Slashin Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Most-expensive-Internet-on-the-Planet Land : South Africa Posts: 26,393	On a stick? Been watching Jeff Dunham? __________________ Intel Core2Quad Q9550 (2.83Ghz stock) \| ASUS P5Q \| 2x2GB Transcend JetRam DDR2-800 \| ASUS ENGTX260\HDTP\896M \| Windows Vista Home Premium 64bit SP1 The Champ has retired but may his Legacy live on FOREVER !!!! No$GBA DS FAQ 2.0 Get it right fools! The glass is HALF-EMPTY, not half-full!!! !!! WARNING: Emulation requires a brain !!! WARNING: Emulation =/= Piracy !!!

January 15th, 2009, 05:57	#13
emwearz Moderator Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Melbourne, Australia Posts: 3,604	No idea who that is! If anyone is interested the website is pretty close to being online in its basic form (needs a fair bit of tweaking). Anyone wants to come on board feel free to drop me a PM. As it stands we have Cid and myself, cheers to all. __________________ - No Jobs On A Dead Planet - Welcome to EMerica .:\|:. You're mine now

January 15th, 2009, 10:31	#14
SCHUMI_4EVER Hackin 'n Slashin Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Most-expensive-Internet-on-the-Planet Land : South Africa Posts: 26,393	You need to know of his brilliance then Jeff Dunham - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jeff Dunham __________________ Intel Core2Quad Q9550 (2.83Ghz stock) \| ASUS P5Q \| 2x2GB Transcend JetRam DDR2-800 \| ASUS ENGTX260\HDTP\896M \| Windows Vista Home Premium 64bit SP1 The Champ has retired but may his Legacy live on FOREVER !!!! No$GBA DS FAQ 2.0 Get it right fools! The glass is HALF-EMPTY, not half-full!!! !!! WARNING: Emulation requires a brain !!! WARNING: Emulation =/= Piracy !!!

July 4th, 2009, 14:35	#15
jordybb Registered User Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: usa Posts: 14	Nice arcade game ... but still it is unable to give a tough competition in arcade world by the way nice review ....... Wangan Midnight Last edited by jordybb; July 10th, 2009 at 03:14..