Vimm's Lair: NES Reviews - Karate Champ
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Nintendo
Karate Champ

Graphics:
Sound:
Gameplay:
Overall:
5.38
5.31
5.75
5.69
Votes: 16
Reviews: 2


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Reviewer: Stephen Date: May 17, 2003
This game was WAY ahead of its time for fighting technical realism. I know the characters are square fisted cardboard cut-outs, but you have an impressive collection of moves at your disposal (including jump kicks, spinning back kick, high kick, low kick, sweep-the-floor kick, crouching...and different punches too). Too many fighting games of this time or even way after this game came out were simply tests of how quickly you could hit punch-punch-punch-punch and eat away at your opponents health. This game offers a more accurate approach where, as in real karate tourneys, there are many blocked attacks until one successful strike pauses the fight and a 1/2 point, full point, or point and a half is awarded before the fighters seperate, and then continue the fight. This game has always had a special place in my heart ever since I played it in the arcade with the dual joystick control.

Graphics: 8
The fighters are not going win any beauty pagents, but you can definetly tell what's going on and where you should strike your opponent next.

Sound: 5
Sound is pretty bland in this game, you here a few different grunts, whoa's, and hi-ya's, and that's about it. There is a short repetative celebration sequence after you beat each opponent with music, but there is no in-fight music, but real fighters don't need any pansy music anyways right?

Gameplay: 9
The gameplay, as in so many other nintendo games, redeems all the aspects that may not be attractive about this game. Pretty much any button combination you can punch in results in a different move, something unheard of at the time of Karate Champ's release. I would give it a 10, but when you spin your character around, you have to remember to reverse all of you directional-sensative attack commands(I know it makes sense, but it's still a pain in the butt).

Overall: 10
For what this game set out to do, it succeeded with flying colors. With technical gameplay and intelligent opponents, this rare gem challenges not only your finger speed, but your mind as well.

This is the ultimate cheap/cheat-proof game for any pair of hardcore video fighters. There's no move on here that doesn't have an attack to counter it. Jump on a 2 player game and learn what all of the moves are then test your skill against the computer, and occassional flying vases in the bonus stages, and see if you have what it takes to be the Karate Champ! (yeah a little over the top there, but for real, it's a good game.)

 

Reviewer: Peach Date: Jul 15, 2001
This has got to be THE WORST game ever created! No, I do not mean that I have played, I mean, in the history of this world. This game contains almost a whole dozen different levels for you to play in. Not only that, you get to choose from an exceptional line-up of Karate fighters; First or Second Player. To top it all of, the bullfight arena, which was shown on the back of the box, only existed in the arcade! You wouldn't know this from the ROMs, no; instead, you would have actually had to buy this thing to find out that you just wasted your money. From the time you turn it on, you realize that your money could have been better spent; you could have bought a good houseplant, a cactus, a Christmas tree, or even taken your own Karate lessons. That way, you wouldn't have to deal with the horrible play control. This game allows you to jump, kick, and get the crap beat out of you by your rigid opponent. A one-legged man would have a better chance of winning an ass-kicking contest than you would have winning a fight. I won't even go into the bonus stages, except to say that your timing had to be not just good, but absolutely perfect. For some reason, the announcer for the game sounds like he is uttering two seperate words;
""Be"" and ""Gin."" Maybe the NES could only handle single-syllable words back then, or maybe this game just sucks. Overall, this game blows... Its sounds are enough to make a deaf man scream, its play control causes Thing to want to cut off his fingers, and its graphics are enough to make Helen Keller want to poke out her own eyes. If I were you, I would not go anywhere near this game; remember, you have been warned...