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Jackie Chan’s Action Kung Fu (Hudson Soft/NowPro, 1990)

bryan.eddy@newretrowave.com — Fri, 08 Jul 2016 17:24:10 +0000

Any fan of film or martial arts will undoubtedly be familiar with Jackie Chan. His affable, smiling face is synonymous with both modern day action and classic kung-fu mayhem. He was the Fearless Hyena. He fought like 30 dudes with a ladder… accidentally. He does all his own stunts, which is something worth being proud of.

You remember that time he beat up the Prince of Sorcerers?

Just like all those times he threw balls of mystical energy at dragons made of magma.

Jackie Chan’s Action Kung Fu was developed for Hudson Soft by a firm called Now Production in 1990. Now had previously done some work for Bandai and other companies, notably producing a Splatterhouse parody for the Famicom. They would later go on to develop 2 sequels to the popular Adventure Island NES game for Hudson. Now Production (also known as NowPro) also produced the game Yo! Noid, one of the more unfortunate licensed games late in the NES’s history.

Okay… (TG-16 Version)

Jackie Chan’s Action Kung Fu is by far NowPro’s best effort of the time period. It was released for the NES and for the PC Engine, known as the TurboGrafx-16 here in the West. Both versions are similar in terms of overall appearance and construction; players will note that the Turbo-Grafx 16’s version requires a bit more from them, but also has slightly better production value. The TG-16 game offers a decidedly more arcade-like experience, but then, the TG-16 was a bit more advanced than the NES hardware-wise.

Box art for the TG-16 (left) and NES versions.

In either game, you play the role of Chan himself, reigning undisputed kung-fu champion along with your sister Josephine. The story begins when some jerk calling himself the Prince of Sorcerers (who looks oddly like a wing chun style Dracula) zaps you silly and takes off with Josephine. Your quest will lead you through many obstacles and to the Prince’s fortress, where you must put a stop to his wicked reign and free your sister.

Video game villains really need to work out their issues and stop taking them out on the women close to protagonists. You’re the Prince of Sorcerers, dude, where’s your low self esteem coming from? (TG-16 Version)

Luckily, Jackie isn’t the kung fu champ for nothing. He’s both a prodigious leaper and a skillful combatant, whose normal array of punches and kicks can be supplemented with powerups. These grant limited uses of special moves, usually whirlwind-style kicks or some other acrobatic maneuver. Jackie can also charge up energy in his fist for use as a projectile, not unlike Ryu or Ken from Street Fighter II. Jackie can do it more easily, though; all you have to do is hold the attack button down for a second or two.

Below are some of the scenes of mayhem one can expect when entering the mythical world of Jackie Chan’s digital adventure.

Did I mention you get the powerups, as well as rice bowls to refill health, by beating the shit out of cute little frogs?

This image captures it all. Look how angry Jackie is, and look how blithely oblivious the frog is. Little does it know it’s about to get a jump-kick powerup punched right out of its stupid mouth. (NES Version)

Despite your wanton cruelty to animals yielding such bounty, the way ahead is still thick with danger. There are five levels in total, although the later levels get quite long. The latter half of each is a sort of fortress or shrine, which contains a boss. Some of the lesser enemies include evil warriors and monks, dragons made of lava, little creatures that hide under massive bowls and throw darts at you, and an assortment of bats, rats, and snakes. The challenge isn’t too over the top, but it’s appreciable; it bears mentioning that you are straight-up fighting wild tigers in the first level.

The most comprehensive study of deaths due to tiger attacks estimates that at least 373,000 people died due to tiger attacks between 1800 and 2009, the majority of these attacks occurring in South and Southeast Asia. The number of tigers killed by Jackie Chan, however, remains a mystery due to incomplete data. (NES Version)

Jackie Chan’s Action Kung Fu was fairly well-received by critics of the time, but both versions received higher scores from modern critics looking back. The graphics are obviously nicer on the TG-16, but even the NES cart has good visuals and a great cartoony look. The music for both versions is about the same, and while it’s far from classic, it’s catchy. I couldn’t find a complete rip of the slightly better TG-16 soundtrack to link here, but the NES version’s pretty good for 8 bit.

I give Jackie Chan’s Action Kung Fu 8 out of 10. It’s a lot of fun to bounce around and throw moves like a kung fu superstar, and the game is very well thought-out. It was perhaps underrated in 1990, but still holds up well as a fun action title.

Hang in there! More coming in July!

Retro Gaming – Mega Man

Joey Edsall — Mon, 01 Dec 2014 16:00:00 +0000

Old games used to get overly serious and realistic art.

Arcade games and console games are fundamentally different
in a lot of ways. While the hardware, game mechanics, and depth of narrative
might be the most obvious, there is something at the core of the two that keeps
them separated. Before going in depth with my retrospective review on Mega Man (1987), I’d like to
first analyze the intention behind the design of an arcade game and a console
game.

We’ve written about arcades before. The period from
the late 70’s to the mid-80’s is known as the Golden Age of Arcade Video Games. As the popularity of arcade games decreased by the end of the decade,
console games were experiencing a boom thanks in part to the Nintendo
Entertainment System. Because of this shift, many old NES games feel more like
arcade games. The fundamental purpose of
a console game is to provide you with satisfaction to justify your purchase of
the game. Games are usually not very cheap, so designers try to make their
product the most worthwhile for your money (ideally, at least). Arcade games,
on the other hand, are all about taking your money in small sums (quarters),
giving you a brief, enjoyable, and difficult experience, and then encouraging
you to play again to go further and get a higher score.

Mega Man feels
like an arcade game. It is so hard that it feels punishing at times and so
addictive that you can’t stop coming back to it. The amount of trial and error
inherent in the classic platformer makes the experience feel like learning a
song. Through your failures and deaths you wind up developing something
resembling a rhythm. You know which
screen is coming next or which flying penguin is going to dive on you. I wasn’t
able to beat any levels on the first try, but on the attempt where I did beat them, it looked like I was an
absolute professional.

Though the level design was difficult at times, there were
several gems hidden throughout. As an avid player of the Mega Man X series, I knew that each boss gives you a new weapon to
your arsenal. And I also knew that each boss weapon was super effective against
another boss. They usually make sense, barring a few mix-ups (Ice > Fire? I
guess that means… thunder on the ice guy? Okay.) For example, Elecman’s
weakness is the weapon you receive from the truly epic Custman (my only
reasoning is that scissors cut wires?). Elecman’s level is full of these small
platforms with enemies on top that make avoiding them difficult. If you switch
over to the Rolling Cutter weapon, you’ll notice that the odd trajectory of the
attack fits the level design perfectly. The level becomes much easier if you
use the Cutsman’s weapon to get through it. Ideally, by the time you reach the
end of the level you will be pretty comfortable with using it.

I stand by what I said about completing each level being
similar to learning a song. That said, Iceman’s level is like learning a song
and then being expected to flawlessly improvise with someone else who is also
improvising. Everything is typical Mega Man gameplay, and then this happens…

Those platforms shoot sideways. Okay, okay, annoying, but
whatever it’s a challenge. Oh, but they also move in a completely random and
erratic pattern. Well that just doesn’t sound fair. Oh, and one more thing,
we’re going to throw some robot penguins at you for the last half of this part
of the level. But wait, that might be too difficult. Let’s make sure the player
has a platform to rest on halfway through. Good point, but we shouldn’t make it
too easy for them. This is a video
game after all, this is serious business, not Soviet Russia Handout Land. Let’s
cover that platform in ice. Video game
ice. Which science has proven is twice as slippery as regular old boring ice.

Seriously.

The other issue I have with this game is about rationing out
lives. There is a checkpoint immediately before each end of the level boss
fight. Should you die in the boss fight, you will respawn there with full
health and one less life. The game is so difficult that many times I would reach
the boss, look to see if I had an extra life lying around, and just let the
boss kill me so I could tackle him with full health. That is just poor design.
Also, your health replenishes with each respawn, but your ammo does not. This
means a particular difficult stretch of a level will become progressively more
difficult. The general difficulty of this game is also distributed oddly. It is
very difficult in the beginning when you don’t have any special boss weapons,
and especially difficult in the end (cough, Boss Rush). The middle portion of the game
is by far the easiest. This uneven difficulty may be annoying for some players.

You can tell the designers were on to something when you
play Mega Man. It has vibrant colors,
an excellent soundtrack, and surprisingly rich and deep gameplay, with little
secrets here and there. The game is pretty easy to find. I played the PS2 port
from the Anniversary Collection, but you can also find it on the virtual
console. Though Mega Man 2 is widely
considered better than this game, this is the game that has lent its design to
Mega Man’s character in the new Smash
Bros., as well as the fact that one of the bosses from this game appears in
the new Smash Bros.

Final Thoughts:

Favorite Song: Elecman Stage

Favorite Boss: Cutsman, I actually have a shirt with him on
it!

Favorite Weapon: Magnet Beam, of course.

Fun Facts: It’s Mega
Man, not Megaman. I’ve been
making that mistake for over a decade.

– Joey Edsall

(@JoeyEdsall)

Retro Gaming – Final Fantasy

Joey Edsall — Wed, 29 Oct 2014 22:30:00 +0000

I was seven years old when I was
first exposed to the world (metaworld?) of Final Fantasy. It was
a few days after Christmas of 1999 and my cousin had received Final Fantasy
VIII as a gift. Being seven in the presence of a teenager meant I had no right
to take a turn in his game, and it wasn’t even a game where you could take
turns. So I sat back and just enjoyed the cinematic experience of the game.
That moment had a profound impact on me and is what truly led me to identify as a
video game enthusiast for the better part of my formative years. The sheer
narrative scope of RPGs astounded me.

We here at NRW review music and films, and so I wanted to kick off a series
of video game reviews with a game whose name has grown to
weigh more than any contribution to the series. Final Fantasy received its name because it was believed that it
would be the last game Square would be able to release before declaring
bankruptcy. It was their “Final Fantasy”. Little did they know it would be a massive
success and create a massive series of unconnected but thematically similar
games and eventually give us this
masterpiece.

But Final Fantasy wasn’t always a
blend of science fiction and fantasy. The first installment of the series was
purely a fantasy JRPG. I played the PS1 port of the original NES game because
it is most faithful to the original. The first thing that comes to mind when I
think Final Fantasy is how
unrelentingly difficult it is. I’m not saying that later Final Fantasy games were
particularly easy, but none of the games I played (FFVII, FFVIII, FFIX, FFX,
FFX-2, Tactics, Tactics Advance, and Tactics A-2) feel so punishing as this original tale.

Before I move on to the actual
gameplay, I’d like to share with you the thoughts that went through my mind for the first hour of playtime:

“Gee, that Prelude song sure is
pretty sounding.”

“I get to name all four of them,
and they have nothing pre-established? Onward Fart and friends!”

“Nah, I don’t think I’ll need a
white mage.”

“This is a lot like tactics, but
with a worse story and battle mechanic.”

“I spy with my little eye a
damsel in distress (cough, Sarah, cough)”

“To quote the King, “If you bring
my daughter back safely, I will build a new bridge. I am counting on you.” Is
that the going rate of missing daughters these days?”

“Buying spells? What black magic
is this?!?! (see what I did there?)”

“Level grinding? Again?”

“Jesus, everything costs money.”

“First boss? That was a joke.”

“Thanks for the lute, princess.
This looks ambiguously useful for the future.”

The early portion of the game will
have you staying close to the nearest town and going back in after every couple
of battles to heal up at an inn or buy some more potions. Everything costs
money in this game, from full saving to learning magic. Random encounters can
be simple, like running into one horse (not a magical horse, it is literally
just a horse) or they can be as grueling as an eight
enemy encounter. It’s really difficult to figure out where is safe to walk and
where is not. From a design standpoint, this is a cost that was probably hard
to avoid.

The game is huge. The overworld rivals the scope of A Link to the Past (fellow Nintendo fanpeople, I’ve got a treat for
you at the end of the article). It only becomes more massive when you get the
boat and find yourself surrounded by water as far as you can see. It is nowhere near as linear as the series has become. To be fair,
the game becomes more manageable once you get your party to around level 20,
especially if you grind enough to do this early. The boss battles are never
particularly difficult. I’d say that moving through each dungeon and dealing
with the random encounters and noticeable LACK OF SAVE AND HEAL POINTS is much
tougher than the actual bosses.

You control four characters with no
exposition apart from some vague talk of a prophecy. They’re pretty vacant as
far as personality is concerned. Don’t expect any dialogue. You are allowed to
choose their jobs, which is an exciting amount of customization afforded
considering how old the game is. I chose a Warrior, Red Mage, Thief, and Black
Belt. I named the Black Belt Cid to ensure that I wouldn’t play a Final Fantasy
game without a Cid in it. These empty vessels don’t have much plot to work
with. Apart from an interesting / convoluted / nonsensical time travel related
twist, the story is really a “go fetch this for me” excuse.

The pixilated graphics of the game
are actually quite beautiful. This is primarily due to the vivid colors and all
around bright atmosphere. The world of the game feels hopeful, and the art
accompanies it perfectly. I’ve always said that old video game scores were so
memorable because of the limitations of the system. The original composers
could only have three sounds playing at once. This led to a greater focus on
melody. There is a reason a lot of these songs are so instantly recognizable. I
mean, just listen to “Prelude”. It’s downright moving.

I hope I don’t sound like I’m
badmouthing what has become one of the most influential games of its
generation. Once you get some experience under your belt (metaphorically and
literally, grind grind grind), the game becomes enjoyable, and actually highly
addictive. I found myself happy to be level grinding and saving up for new
swords or spells. The scenery is interesting enough that I found myself wanting
to genuinely explore for personal enjoyment. Talking to every NPC and
interacting with everything I could even led me to discovering a pretty
interesting Easter egg, especially considering how much of a Zelda fan I am.

If you are a fan of this series and
like the idea of game history or analyzing the medium as a whole, I definitely
recommend finding a way to play this game. You can enjoy it for what it is. The
NES and PS1 versions are, according to my research, notably more difficult than
subsequent ports. I loved playing this game, and wish I could have been alive
at the time of the game’s release and had that feeling like I was playing
something that would be huge. I’d love to continue the discussion on this. I’m
curious if any NRW readers/listeners played the game at the time of release.
What was that experience like? Did you enjoy it? And if you are like me and
played the game years after the fact, how did you like it? What party did you
complete it with?

– Joey Edsall