 The Karate Kid When I first found about Karate Kid on Smackdown GT (one of the many prized sites that make up the NES Scene), I was immediately told by their webmaster, twitch, that the game was just flat out terrible and that it was easy except for the last level. When I finally played through the game, I realized that twitch was right . The game is about as fun as mowing your parents’ lawn.
The graphics in the game are the only good thing The Karate Kid has going for it. They look like the only thing Acclaim cared about, since they rushed this out while The Karate Kid Part Two was still hot. At least you can tell what everything is supposed to look like, as the graphics don’t look like anything from an Atari 7800 game. Sadly, there isn’t really that much detail in the enemies, who look like mere palette swaps of Daniel-san. The scenery doesn’t look much better either, so if you’re looking for a artistic masterpiece, you might as well look elsewhere. The Karate Kid definitely isn‘t one.
The play control is where the game really falls apart. Fighting enemies is a pain in the butt. It seems easy, since you have arcade style controls (Up to jump, B to punch, A to kick), but it’s really not. Whenever you have any Drum Punches or Crane Kicks, it’s too easy to use them up. They could have at least let you switch between your normal and special attacks with the Select button, but apparently Acclaim was too dumb to even think of that. You have to hold Left or Right and then attack, meaning you have to walk more than a couple feet to attack normally whenever you have any power-ups. Also, when you’re in mid-air, you basically do the same punch and kick that you do on the ground, which makes Daniel-san look ridiculously stupid. Because of this, jump punches are completely useless and jump kicks are the only real way to mow through the stages in record time.
If Mr. Miyagi made me play this game and promised that he would declare me a master at the basics of karate if I beat it, I would kick him in the nuts and strangle him with the controller. Yeah, that’s right! Who’s the martial arts master now, you old fart? If Acclaim had worked on this game a little more, it would be a lot more fun. The difficulty would've been evened out, the play control would've been better, and the game would have soundtrack music and more detailed graphics. That, and LJN would actually be famous for publishing at least one game that was only mediocre. Instead, I have in my hands something that was probably churned out in three weeks just to tie-in with a movie, just like E.T. for the Atari 2600. It's games like this that make me glad that I’ve played worse... far worse. So if you’re a masochist who’s curious about how terrible the games published by LJN are, go ahead and get this game. Otherwise, stay away.
English (Plot and Storyline): 2.0 (C) Final GPA (Overall): 0.84 (D) Wax on, wax off this, LJN and Acclaim.
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The storyline is actually based on Karate Kid parts One and Two. You play as Daniel-san (of course), who has been trained in karate by none other than Mr. Miyagi. The game begins at the tournament from the first movie. Once you get through that, the storyline from the second movie kicks off with Daniel-san heading off to Okinawa. Here, Daniel-san has to confront Chozen (another martial artist he makes an enemy out of) to get Kimiko (Daniel-san’s new girlfriend) back.
The music and sound are nothing extraordinary. Acclaim obviously couldn’t even get the rights to Glory of Love by Peter Cetera or Cruel Summer by Bananarama, both of which were songs from the two Karate Kid movies. All you get is just some lame filler. It’s like Acclaim didn’t really try... and that makes their company name look ironic, don’t you think?
The game could have been worked on a little more. There could have been more levels, since four levels in a game is just way too short. The four levels could have been at least divided into three or four stages each, just to make the game longer. Attacking is a pain as well, since your punch has no range and sets Daniel-san up to get hit all of the time, unless you have a Drum Punch on hand. This leaves you to kick your enemies every single time. Also, the only way you can get your hands on a bunch of the Drum Punches at one time is to do well on the bonus games. Acclaim could have at least made it easier by actually putting the power-ups at certain points in the levels. The fly catching and ice block breaking games are all right, but the swinging hammer could have been worked on a lot more. What’s really worth mentioning, however, is the difficulty. The game is really easy right up to the last level, where all the enemies take two hits to kill and the guys with spears eat away at your health. At that point, the game becomes really difficult, and that nitpick could have been done away with. Also, the bosses can be beaten by simply standing and kicking over and over again. The bosses will run right into your foot every single time. The sad fact that this trick works even on Chozen signifies that the bosses are much easier than the levels themselves. When that happens, something is obviously wrong. In short, if this game had better controls, better challenge, and better everything, it would have been much more enjoyable.