GlassJawBoxer
Member
A while back a remade version of Karateka came out on Xbox live it was originally 800 Microsoft points but now is down to 400. The game is a steal at that price. The original game was the first professional journey by ingenious game designer Jordan Mechner who use the skills he learned from that game to create the infamous Prince of Persia. Jordan broke barriers, all you have to do is look at the original Karateka and then look at every other game around at the time to realize his extraordinary accomplishment and all of this in his late teens.
Though I may be a bit of a Jordan Mechner fan boy the remake really is something special. It maintains that linear simplicity but sporting a modernized mechanic that is as easy to pick up as it is impossible to master. Along with that you got the art direction of Jeff Matsuda from Batman the animated series fame and an amazing score by composer Christopher Tin from CIVILIZATION IV fame makes it stand out amongst everything else but still like the original Karateka it's been almost completely overlooked. Also like the original it's extremely short but again like the original it's unforgivingly hard. Not for the casual or easily frustrated you get three chances that come in the form of three suitors to rescue the princess. It's the first game that I've seen in decades that start off on the hardest difficulty and then goes backwards as you get your ass kick.
Not a single line of dialogue is spoken instead everything is perfectly aligned from the visuals, music and atmosphere you completely forget that no one's talking. You start off with the true love coming to rescue the princess the moment you're defeated his lifeless body is thrown off the mountain then your introduced to the second suitor the loyal monk if he's defeated he's thrown off the mountain you're introduced to the final suitor the savage brute. So it's basically like hard medium and easy. When you get down to the brute he is a huge hulking figure and unlike the other two who use skill and grace in their martial art this guy just monkey smashes though he can still be defeated, all the points you've accumulated before hand become extra lives costing 2000 points to revive himself. Even with that I still haven't been able to beat the game even when I'm whittled down to the brute. The warlord is just nasty prick, just like he was in the original!
Though I may be a bit of a Jordan Mechner fan boy the remake really is something special. It maintains that linear simplicity but sporting a modernized mechanic that is as easy to pick up as it is impossible to master. Along with that you got the art direction of Jeff Matsuda from Batman the animated series fame and an amazing score by composer Christopher Tin from CIVILIZATION IV fame makes it stand out amongst everything else but still like the original Karateka it's been almost completely overlooked. Also like the original it's extremely short but again like the original it's unforgivingly hard. Not for the casual or easily frustrated you get three chances that come in the form of three suitors to rescue the princess. It's the first game that I've seen in decades that start off on the hardest difficulty and then goes backwards as you get your ass kick.
Not a single line of dialogue is spoken instead everything is perfectly aligned from the visuals, music and atmosphere you completely forget that no one's talking. You start off with the true love coming to rescue the princess the moment you're defeated his lifeless body is thrown off the mountain then your introduced to the second suitor the loyal monk if he's defeated he's thrown off the mountain you're introduced to the final suitor the savage brute. So it's basically like hard medium and easy. When you get down to the brute he is a huge hulking figure and unlike the other two who use skill and grace in their martial art this guy just monkey smashes though he can still be defeated, all the points you've accumulated before hand become extra lives costing 2000 points to revive himself. Even with that I still haven't been able to beat the game even when I'm whittled down to the brute. The warlord is just nasty prick, just like he was in the original!