Karateka

1984 retro games Atari gamesApple gamesAmstrad gamesAtari ST gamesCommodore 64 gamesPC gamesZX Spectrum games

fighting gamesarcade games

The evil warlord Akuma have imprisoned Princess Mariko in his castle and you have to rescue her because... Because you just do, stop asking questions!

Akuma put the poor Princess Mariko in the darkest dungeon of his castle. To be exact, the darkest dungeon of a castle located atop a rocky cliff. How do you build dungeons on the cliff? Like I said, just don’t ask questions. Anyway, the dungeon is situated somewhere below the castle, which itself is located somewhere above the cliff. And now you, the main character, step in to rescue Princess Mariko because... that is what main characters do. I guess.

You climb the cliff and... Hang on, how come the cliff is high enough to contain dungeons, but not high enough to stop a guy in pyjamas from climbing it? No, just ignore that detail. You climbed the cliff and that is the whole story. Now all you have to do is run into the castle... Oh wait, Akuma somehow learned about your magical climb and now sends a guard to stop you from entering the castle. How did he learn since no one saw you and Akuma is inside the castle? What did I tell you about asking questions, huh?

Anyway, he sends a guard to stop you, so using your martial arts skills you overpower him and... Oh yeah, somehow Akuma learned about your victory in the duel, so he sends another of his warriors. I know, I know, it does not make any sense, just learn to live with it. And don’t worry that you beat up some random man, he must have been evil anyway. Also, Akuma has plenty of them to send - some in silly hats, some without silly hats, some just had time to put on a simple, every day pyjamas, before being rushed to fight you.

Karateka was created by Jordan Mechner, who later developed Prince of Persia, and both games share the same trademark of his work - amazing character animations. The style and graphic design were the strong points of this title, on the other hand, the gameplay was challenging to the point of being overtly difficult to beat. Also, a repetitive nature of the gameplay did not help either.

comments

The animations were amazing, but the game itself not so much.
Jupooper (01-09-2025 08:08:48)

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Karateka screenshots

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