Best Of The Best: Championship Karate

STORY / GAMEPLAY
The game features both single and 2-players mode. In single player mode there’s also career game where you start off with a kick boxer sporting random and low physical capacities, namely strength, stamina and reflexes. You can train your boxer to improve these stats by and then use his massive array of badass fighting moves to punch and kick each and every other incredible fighter until you win the title of the best fighter in the world. You can improve your stamina with jump-rope, your strength with weightlifting and finally your reflexes with kicking moving targets. However, the training sessions are quite tough to master. Your training partners can make you stronger and enable you to challenge more advanced foes. The list of moves is huge and counts 55 different moves available (in contrast to its predecessor's 35 moves)! There are the usual low-kicks, high-kicks, punches, back-fists and a lot more to use in your fights. Ultimately, you can also challenge the best boxer, Andre Panza himself –who is actually a world champion.

GRAPHICS / SOUND
Best of The Best features better graphics than its prequel and several new options, like street fighting. It’s a great sequel that features the best details found in the previous game. The NES version offers some pretty good graphics and fantastic fighter animations. Note that, the characters move more smoothly than in Panza Kick Boxing (which was not released for the NES)! What is really impressive is the number of available moves for each fighter (55) all of which are greatly animated! According to the developers, coming from the original Panza Kick Boxing title, it took them two years work to digitize all the blows and fall and to recreate more than 120 combat positions, with the assistance of Andre Panza himself! The sound is good, offering an intro tune and some nicely done sound FX during gameplay, like kicking, punching or getting hit.