OnLine members | Currently: 16 |
Total hits! | |
Puzzle! | |
Random Old Ads! | |
|
|
|
Game info |
| | International Karate + | | Genre | Fighting | Developer | System 3 | Publisher | Ignition Entertainment | Released | 2003 | Rating
| Graphics: | 7.0 | Sound: | 8.0 | Gameplay: | 9.0 | Overall: | 8.0 |
| Reviewed by | ndial | International Karate + (aka IK+) is a karate fighting game produced by System 3, back in 1987, for the three 8bit home-computers, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC and ZX Spectrum. In 1988 IK+ was developed for the Atari ST and Amiga (1 Disk 3.5") and became one of the best fighting games for the 16 bit home computers. In 2003, following the retro-gaming trend, Maclean's Ignition Entertainment released IK+ for the Game Boy Advance and PlayStation in Europe. |
| |
|
Review |
|
STORY / GAMEPLAY
Three Karatekas are fighting on the same screen (and the same backdrop), in order to further their belts and skills. After gaining some points there are frequently two bonus games where you must either kick bombs away (before they explode) or you deflect fireballs holding a shield. A second player can join the game and the third is controlled by the CPU. The first of the three players to score six points is the winner and is awarded extra points for every second left. The player with the lowest score at the end of the round is out of the game. One of the most impressive aspects of this game is that punches and kicks are fast and furious, I mean really fast! There are twelve attacking moves and a handful of defensive styles at your disposal. Some details are taken directly from the original International Karate, plus a lot more, such as reverse face kick, double head kick (for hitting both fighters) and so on. IK+ is one of the best and more fun to play fighting games for the 8bit and 16bit home computers and consoles. Win points, get the highest belt and become the new karate master! IK+ is everything a fighting game should be. It is intense, spectacular, loud and great looking! GRAPHICS / SOUND The graphics are great and the character animation is smooth. The GBA port is technically identical to the Amiga and Atari ST versions. Although the background detail does not change, there is a wonderful animated sunset near a temple. There a few short animations found on the background (birds flying, leaves falling from a tree, fish jumping off the water)! But what is really impressive with this game is its sound! IK+ has fantastic sound effects made of high quality sampling from karate / fighting movies and Bruce Lee style cries. Unfortunately the GBA port cannot reproduce the quality of the awarded music found on the Amiga, a really memorable soundtrack composed by Dave Lowe and performed several years later at the Symphonic Game Music Concert III in 2005 as well! | |
|
Screenshots |
| | |
|
Gameplay sample |
| | |
|
Hardware information |
| GameBoy AdvanceCPU: ARM7TDMI at 16.78MHz , Z80 co-processor at 4-8MHz for Gameboy emulation MEMORY: 256Kb RAM, 128 VRAM GRAPHICS: Custom 2D GPU, 15-bit RGB palette at 240x160 pixels max resolution SOUND: Dual 8-bit DAC for stereo sound, supports multiple wave samples processed/mixed in software by the CPU
|
| read more... | |
| 15bit RGB 32,768-color palette (512 to 32,768 on-screen colors in "character" or bitmap mode) | |
|
Comments |
| No comments added yet | | Login to leave your message! |
|
|
Our featured games | |
Play old-school now! | |
Music Player! | |
Play ZX on-line!! | |
Play CPC on-line!! | |
Boot Screens! | |
Retro-games Trivia! | |
Old-school Crossword! | |
Is this my palette? | |
The logo evolution! | |
Manuals! | |
Beat them All! | |
|