Way Of The Exploding Fist

STORY / GAMEPLAY
You are a martial arts fighter and your main cause is to compete in a series of one-on-one karate matches, all supervised by a wise old master. The game offers up to 18 different movements, including jumping kicks, roundhouse kicks and a variety of punches and other high and low kicks. In this game there is no health bar or something similar but a unique for its time point system with yin-yang signs. A loosely timed or borderline kick or punch will grant you with half a yin-yang token, while a well executed move will give a full ones. Get two full yin-yangs and you win the round! The game features 3 different stages, each one with its own level design and backgrounds. The game also supports a two-player mode, in which you can fight with a friend for the honor! The Way of the Exploding Fist is am addictive fighting game, and the greatest advantage that it has over many others is that it's well designed and instantly playable!

GRAPHICS / SOUND
The graphics detail and color usage are certainly pretty good, but it can't compete whatsoever with C64's or CPC's version. Backgrounds are nicely detailed for for a BBC Micro back in the mid 80's, and the sprites although nicely detailed, the animation is weak at times here due to the high detail of the backdrops (that certainly impact gameplay). Sound and music are similarly effective for the 8bit Acorn/BBC computer, featuring an in-game music (missing on the ZX and CPC versions!) along with a variety of sound effects when punching and/or kicking the opponent.