NES Player - Kung Fu NES Review

NES
1 Player
Beat 'Em Up

Kung Fu is quite possibly THE greatest Kung Fu game that has ever graced the NES. Better than Yie Ar Kung Fu, better than the Karate Kid, Kung Fu is the venerable God of 8-bit Kung Fu games. Released in 1985, the game is a port of the arcade game Kung Fu Master, by Irem. And while the graphics of the NES version are predictably inferior to the arcade version, the controls are a lot smoother and looser, the game is slightly faster and more exciting, and jumping attacks are noticeably easier than in it's coin-op counterpart.

As for the sound, it's not all that great, but is certainly better than many other first-generation Nintendo games. It should be noted that the music in the NES game is 99.9% arcade perfect, and while it's missing a couple of sound effects from the original game, Kung Fu still holds its own in the audio department. I admit that the music is repetitive and can be annoying after awhile, but the fast pace lends itself well to the theme.

The game, depth wise, is roughly on par with first generation NES titles, although it's probably a little better. The backgrounds throughout the 5 levels are all the same, which is a bit of a downer, but the designers took care to set a couple of extra themes to the levels. For example, while Levels 1, 3, and 5 are all straightforward levels, 2 and 4 create new dangers in the form of falling orbs and wasps, respectively. Although there are only 3 main enemy types, they are reasonably diverse: you have your basic cannon fodder, dangerous knife throwers, and little dwarven creatures who cannot be hit with normal height attacks and bounce off your head in later levels. The bosses are also fairly varied, including a stickman, boomerang thrower, strongman, magician, and the final boss, Mr. X.

......BOTTOM LINE: All in all, Kung Fu is a great addition to any NES collection. It's very common (E) and can be found at low prices at most Funcos, Ebay, etc. I give it a strong recommendation, and despite the fairly easy difficulty level, it's worth a few bucks and a couple hours of playing time.

-Lanny Cox