MARTIAL ARTS, SPORT, PINBALL OR
POOL?
take your pick, it's
all here
Microdeal
£24.95
Microdeal's latest
offering for the ST is a fine beat 'em up game with a few extras,
including digitized graphics and sound effects.
The game is based on the film of the same name, and
although I have not seen the film, I would imagine the plot is the
same. The town where Myagi, the old man, was born has been taken
over by a bunch of pretty mean looking bad guys, and you, playing
the part of Daniel must fight your way past several different
opponents and eventually get to the final encounter. Why you want to
do this I am not entirely sure, as the instructions don't really
tell you.
The first thing which you notice when the game has loaded is the
excellent picture of Myagi and Daniel, on the title screen. This
picture, I would imagine, is digitized as I seem to recall seeing
the same picture on a film poster somewhere.
The first two scenes have you fighting against two of
the 'tough guys', first Toshio and then Taro. These two fighters are
experts in the martial art of karate, and on your first few goes
with the game they will give you quite a beating! To wipe out a
fighter you must hit him a certain number of times, gradually making
his energy level decrease until eventually he falls over and can't
get up again. The first two fights take place indoors, and the
graphics here are extremely good. You are in a room, which has a
tiled floor, there is an opening at the back of the room through
which some beautiful scenery can be seen. This scene can be one of
the following - Pagoda, Lake, Mountain, Sea port or Villa and
Mountain. On the wall next to this opening there is always a
delicate oriental illustration of some sort, for example a Dragon,
an Elephant, a Tiger, a Swallow, or a Fish, these illustrations have
a lot of detail in them and add considerably to the general
atmosphere of the game.
If you manage to defeat the first two fighters, you
must go onto the 'concentration test'. Here you are magically
transformed into a digitized picture of Myagi, and you must catch a
fly with just a pair of chopsticks!!! Believe me, it is very
difficult, but possible. If you succeed you receive a bonus, but
even if you fail you will still go onto the next stage. You must
again take on the two fighters, Toshio and Taro, but this time, in
Myagi's ruined garden. Again the graphics are first class, and
consist of ruined buildings on either side of a small grassy area.
On the right hand side of the screen there is a small pool in which
you can see reflections of the buildings. Toshio and Taro fight
slightly more fiercely on this stage, but the level of difficulty is
not significantly harder. So once you become a reasonable fighter it
shouldn't be too difficult to bash these two guys about a bit, and
get on to the next 'concentration test'. This test has you karate
chopping sheets of ice! To do this you must build up Daniels
concentration by 'waggling' the joystick, making a small drum in the
top right hand corner beat faster and faster. Then when you push the
button,
Daniel will let out a blood curdling scream and smash the ice. The
animation is made up of a series of digitized (yet again) pictures.
The whole thing is over in a flash, and the next thing you know you
are moving onto the next scene - 'The Final Encounter' where you
must fight Chozen, who is a rather nasty piece of work. He is quite
a violent little chap and it will take you a while to work out a way
of beating him. The fight takes place at the castle of King Shohashi
(bless you!), where the scene is really shadowy and spooky.
You fight as before until you have reduced his
strength. Then, according to the manual, just as Daniel did, you
must learn the secret of the drum, or die! Whenever I play it is
always the latter!
When controlling your fighter, you have a choice of
sixteen moves. These moves include the usual jumps, kicks, punches,
etc, which you find in most karate games. Each move is accompanied
with a very realistic scream or cry, which I would imagine is - yes,
you guessed it - digitized.
The title screen and high score table have the music
from the film playing in the background -'The Glory of Love'. It is
quite a good tune and it doesn't sound too bad considering the ST's
mediocre sound chip. However if you are lucky enough to own a MIDI
synthesiser, you can play the music through that. The program is set
up for use with a CASIO CZ 101 or compatible. but it should work
with other synths.
My only niggle with Karate Kid II is that after
playing it many times, and each time reaching the final encounter,
it annoyed me intensely when I kept getting nobbled whilst trying to
discover the 'secret of the drum'. On the whole this is an excellent
beat 'em up game and in my opinion is far superior to Paradox's 'ST
Karate' (reviewed Jan/Feb).
What is the secret of the drum? Answers on a postcard
please!
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