Kick, Punch, It's All in the Mind

Kung Fu (NES) Review

Genre: Beat-’em-up
Number of Players: 1-2
Developer: Irem/Nintendo EAD
Publisher: Nintendo
Release Date: October 18, 1985 (US), June 21, 1985 (JP), 1987 (EU)
Platform: NES
Also Available On: Arcade, Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, Apple II, C64, Atari 2600 / 7800, MSX, ZX Spectrum, Game Boy

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A rather unassuming title, Kung Fu has an intriguing history behind it. It started as an arcade game from Irem called Spartan X, aka Kung Fu Master in the US. In Japan, the story and characters were loosely based on the 1984 film Spartan X (Wheels on Meals in the US), starring the Hong Kong martial arts trio of Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, and Yuen Biao. The protagonist and damsel in distress in the game are named after their counterparts from the movie.

Kung Fu Master also took inspiration from the 1978 film Game of Death — Bruce Lee’s final movie before his, well, death. The initial draft for the film had his character fighting his way to the top of a five-story pagoda. The idea was later scrapped for the film, but was later used as the central setting in Kung Fu Master.

Most noteworthy about the game was its genre-defining gameplay elements, which were considered by many to be the first example of what would be known as a “beat ‘em up”. On October 18, 1985, the Nintendo Entertainment System was launched in the US. The game was released alongside the console, with a slight renaming to simply Kung Fu.

That Kung Fu is inspired by the martial arts movie craze of the ‘70s and ‘80s is evident in the game’s plot. You play as Thomas, a man on a mission to save his girlfriend Sylvia from the clutches of Mr. X and his goons. You’ll have to fight it out as you ascend five floors. In addition to beating your enemies, you’ll also need to beat the timer before it reaches zero.

Thomas is armed with two fists of fury and deadly footwork. With them, he can punch, kick, and perform aerial variations of both. Interestingly, punching an enemy nets you higher points vs. kicking them. I believe it’s because his punches have a shorter reach than his kicks, which makes punching a somewhat riskier move than the relative safety of a kick.

Although Thomas’ repertoire of moves is very basic, that simplicity works in the game’s favor. It avoids the trap of doing too much with a limited set of buttons and instead allows you just to enjoy knocking out hordes of enemies with a single hit. This makes Kung Fu a game that is easy to pick up and play — a testament to its arcade roots from which it is based.

The goal of each stage is to reach the stairs to the next floor. And of course, before you make it to said stairs, you’ll have to get past the boss. Most of them aren’t too difficult to defeat once you learn how to attack while keeping your distance. The only exception is the boss in stage four, who can fake you out by disappearing briefly after being hit and taking no damage. Depending on your approach to the fight, he can initially seem impossible to defeat. But once you figure out (or ask Google) what to do, he becomes less intimidating to battle.

During the first level, you can easily carve a path through the endless parades of henchmen. But as you go further into each level, the attack patterns of some enemies change up a bit. The standard henchmen, known as Grippers, attack more frequently in larger groups. The diminutive Tom Toms will sometimes surprise you and perform an aerial attack instead of walking straight into your low sweeping kicks.

The Knife Throwers become especially troublesome when they attempt to evade you after chucking a knife your way, often when the floor boss walks onscreen. They also have high and low attacks, so you must either jump or crouch, depending on which attack he uses. So you’ll have to decide if it’s worth the trouble to go after him or defeat the boss and get on with things quickly.

Thomas’ health is managed by the red meter at the top of the screen. If a standard Gripper or similar henchman touches him, his life drains slowly. Taking damage from weapons or other hazards depletes it in larger chunks. Enemies attack from both sides, making spatial awareness a must, especially when playing through the second game loop and beyond.

The controls are very responsive as long as Thomas is on the ground. He feels swift when switching directions — a necessity since you’ll have to fend off attacks from both sides. Sometimes his jump kick feels stiff, which causes problems when attempting to dodge a thrown weapon while avoiding contact with other enemies.

I rarely bothered with doing an aerial punch, as they don’t connect as well as a standing or crouching attack. No matter, the game’s mechanics are far from broken. It just could have used a little more polish, perhaps.

While Kung Fu is a fairly decent port of the arcade original, it’s a rather brief game with only five stages that loop back to the beginning with a harder difficulty each loop. Once you defeat Mr. X on the top floor, you’ve seen all the game has to offer. To be fair, this was commonplace in most video games back then, especially arcade-to-home conversions.

Kung Fu offers a humble visual presentation. The detailed background with windows and support columns found in the arcade original is missing from the console port. Here, the characters are smaller, and the colors are simplified to accommodate the limitations of the NES. Even so, Thomas is well-animated with his various moves, and the boss characters look pretty good as well. I’d venture to say that this game had a better visual presentation than other NES launch titles.

The audio quality was a good attempt at emulating the arcade version. What stands out to me the most is the digitized voices. Each time you kick or punch, Thomas makes a realistic quip. The same occurs when bosses sustain damage as well. They also give a taunting laugh if they defeat you. Besides the brief tunes that play at transition segments (beginning a new game, moving to the next level, etc.), there is only one main melody throughout the game. But it’s a good one.

If you played more polished brawlers like Final Fight or Streets of Rage, or River City Girls, then you’ve played remnants of this game in one way or another. Kung Fu introduced the idea of taking on multiple enemies at once, culminating in a fight with a boss character at the end of each level. The player and boss characters’ energy meters and the one-on-one nature of the boss fights would later inspire the core design of the Street Fighter series.

The game’s brevity and repetitive nature may keep this from being a must-have for some. Nevertheless, Kung Fu was still a decent foray into a genre that would later see many more games refine the work that started here.

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