Karateka

STORY / GAMEPLAY
Written on an Apple II by Jordan Mechner in his Yale University dorm room, Karateka became a bestseller and affected a generation of gamers with its groundbreaking animation and cinematic cut-scenes.
Evil Akuma kidnaps and holds the lovely Princess Mariko. You must defeat the guards of the castle as well as Akuma's eagle and eventually face Akuma himself in order to rescue the princess. The game's perspective of the two combatants is based on the typical 2D arcade fighting style. Your fighter can perform 3 different kicks and 3 different punches, depending on where the hits land: high, medium and low. Thus, the control layout becomes quite intuitive after just a few minutes of play time. A classic energy indicator is used at the bottom of the screen to display the amount of damage you and the enemy can endure. Each time you or your enemy retreats both of you regain health. The controls are slow and that's really the only hiccup of this fun fighting game.

GRAPHICS / SOUND
The Amstrad CPC port is amazing, with colorful graphics and an excellent character animation (vector graphics). There isn't much to say about the background details but the color palette is fine for its age. Its loose controls, high difficulty and rather slow action cannot keep someone away from this game. The game's sound on the CPC is good and includes typical sound effects but no music except of the game's opening and between each level scenes (as in all versions).