Man, I love Karate Champ, used to pump so many 10p's into that as a young kid. Cant wait for this one to be released. Are you guys planning on any other retro releases? Kung-Fu Master perhaps
Woohoo! Guys just a quick one. We'll have a video out tomorrow, final final testing through the weekend and the game submitted next week! The moment we submit we'll have reviewable copies to the review sites inc the TA crew, and so hopefully -if there's sufficient interest- you'll be reading their impressions very soon Of course I'm biased but can I just say as a gamer that rockin it ol'school with KC with 2 players head to head on iPads (scaled of course) via bluetooth with dual joysticks = priceless! Thanks for your patience, we hope the wait will be worth it and that you guys have even half the fun we had playing this way today Ha Jime! Fight!
That's great! I have to say that back in the day, I was the Karate Champ master...but mostly because of a particularly cheesy move. There's an interesting technique that allowed me to use one or two moves to take out the opponent. The AI walked into it every single time. Can't wait to see if that still works. --DotComCTO
Looks great! You were robbed though, flying kick was nailed, surely a "FULL POINT!" Cannot wait to try this one out on the iPad.
hehe yeh I forgot to enter the secret move combo that gives a full point everytime * *Disclaimer: secret move combo may not actually exist
Was playing Zanshin (Lite) today, and it just doesn't cut it. Zanshin seems to be undecided if it wants to be Street Fighter or a Karate Champ clone. It ends up being a dissapointment on both sides.
Yeah, this games gonna be great. The sound and controls seem about perfect according to the video. Is the movement a little sped up though in comparison to the original? Either way, I'll be grabbing this for sure.
Had a chance to beta test this, and it's coming along really nicely! To address a couple of points I've heard discussed here: The sound effects are all just the way you remember them in the arcade, all the "Begins" "FULL POINTS" "Hi-ya!"s and "whack" "thuds" you could ever ask for. The intro music is also included in all its glory. The controls are working really well, very responsive and easy to use. Basically, the same 2 joystick controls you grew up with in the arcade. They've also got the "holding" and "releasing" moves working really well (ie, in the original arcade, you could fake out your opponent by starting a kick and releasing the joystick and then going into a quick punch). The game plays really nicely. They've also included some really cool display options. You can play it in a way that simulates the arcade experience (smaller sprites with scanlines), or can set the options to larger sprites and no scanlines to make things a bit easier to see. Both of them look great on the iPhone's screen. Revolutionary Concepts have really done their homework in providing an old-school arcade experience, as well as including options and bells and whistles that make the game feel fresh again. I can already say that this is among the best retro arcade ports I've played on a touch device (and I've played them all). If you were a fan of the game back in the day, this is a no-brainer buy, and if you've never played it before it's a great conversion of a great game that is certainly worth playing. This is one to keep your eyes on!
The finished game is currently in the hands of some expert Karate Champs who frequent these parts (yes they walk among you) and will be submitted before this week (all seven days of it) is over, as promised. Ha Jime! Fight! 13 May: Front page of Gizmodo woo! And you just know they read it here first With Frogman that's 2fa. Nice one TA (again)
Really, really loving this port. I was scared about the controls (i don't like most virtual sticks), but they are very sharp and precise here. You don't get that "too loose" feeling from some of the iPhone games. Almost everything about this game is perfect. The sounds, the graphics (you can change them on the options screen - i like smaller sprites + scanlines), the controls. Besides the controls, my biggest surprise was the practice screen. I don't know if they expected fans to notice it, but they got their hands on a original Data East arcade intallation guide, and the practice screen looks exactly like it - with a bonus: the movelist light up as you attack (so you'll memorize as you're doing). Definetly a must-buy if you liked the game back in the day, or if you like precise fighters. Whack! Full point!
Hi gang! As our friends from Revolutionary Concepts mentioned, there are some of us here that are play-testing Karate Champ. After exchanging some emails back and forth about impressions/feedback, I got permission to post some info here at TA (thanks, guys!). First some background: I've been playing video games since there were only pinball machines in arcades! I played tons of the early arcade games while in college, and spent tons of time with Karate Champ...to the point where I had my own "patented" approaches to creaming the game even on the higher "Dan" levels. The folks at RC were nice enough to ask me if I would do some play-testing. Impressions: Firstly, I'm playing on my iPhone 3GS, and can't wait to get this running on my iPad (the game is set to my 3GS UUID). The game is spot on. It's a perfect port of Karate Champ. Now, the big pleasant surprise for me is that the controls work perfectly. The virtual joysticks are absolutely perfect. The RC team must have spent a ton of time getting that right, and the investment was well worth it. Now, I have to say that I've gotten spoiled by the super large screen of my iPad...I find my iPhone screen to look positively tiny now! That said, I am quite pleased with the pure playability of the game. The display proportions are great. There are options for original (smaller) characters, or larger sized. Both look great. The difficulty settings are there to bump up the AI level (e.g., start playing level 1 with level 5 AI difficulty). FYI - the game only plays in portrait mode, which makes sense given the proportions of the game. FYI - in my email exchanges with RC, I asked whether they just embedded the ROM in the game and just added a Z80 emulator. They didn't. They were absolutely insane, licensed the game from Data East and then recreated it from scratch into an optimized iDevice game. Just...plain...insane...but their effort is what made this game so smooth and responsive. It's Karate Champ, and if you were ever a fan of the game, you owe it to yourself to pick this up. The guys at RC certainly put a lot of time, energy and care into the game, and it shows. Great job! Thanks for letting me play test, and thanks for reading... --DotComCTO
Indeed, I can confirm what's been said of it so far. The controls are smooth and responsive, and despite the fact that this is technically a remake that shares no code with the original, it feels precisely like the original. I've been comparing to the original in MAME and frankly I can't tell the difference. The attention to detail is painstaking. Anyone who loved the original will get exactly that here. The added bonus of a practise mode will get everyone quickly up to speed with the moves for those who aren't familiar with them or, like me, are a lot rustier than they thought. Absolutely an instabuy for any fan the moment it hits the store.
I loved the original. However, I would like to see an enhanced version of the game, with new stuff added. Is there nothing new added here? Here's what I would like to see: - different characters, both enemy and player, with slightly different move sets - new voices and music - new backgrounds I could add more ideas, but at this point it's all wishful thinking. I'm very curious about the controls, because KC had some of the most physical controls ever (i.e. you had to really grab those sticks and make highly coordinated and precise, decisive motions). Hard to believe it's been done well on touch screen, but I'm open minded.
Hmm what say we release the classic arcade game we set out to recreate first, with the (new) 2 player peer to peer mode, and various (new) options described above, then if there's sufficient interest we'll add more features We have a few ideas ourselves too which I could tell you about but then I'd have to karatify your a$$ For this first release respecting the original material is the most important thing!
Adding new moves is an iffy idea. I think if they ever did something like that, would have to be in a separate mode. The idea of adding new backgrounds/modes, the japanese version of the game has some slightly different backgrounds and even a intro/cutscene: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vU5OO4q8lSg Granted, i've yet to get past level 8 of this port, so...
