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A Walk-Through by glass_soul
Final
(C) 2006
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
1)Introduction
2)Wax on! Wax off!
3)No Up, Down. Side To Side!
4)The Walk-Through
5)Two-Player Mode
6)Secrets?
7)In My Opinion...
8)Acknowledgements and Legal Stuff
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1)INTRODUCTION
Well, I keep getting posted, so I suppose I must be doing something right.
In that vein of thought, I have decided to write another walk-through for
another incredibly lousy LJN game from the mists of time. In fact, I think
my goal in life has become writing a walk-through fore EVERY lousy LJN game
ever made (read: all of them). In this case, I speak of the Karate Kid.
You are Daniel-san. You must punch and kick your way through a karate
tournament, Okinawa, a typhoon, and a festival, all the while harassed by
the evil Chozen and his apparently endless hordes of lackeys. Why? I
couldn't tell you. If memory serves, the instruction booklet didn't even
have a very clear idea of what was going on here either. Understand that,
as video games go, this one's plot it really isn't all that important. So
shrug and turn on the power because it's playing time.
2)WAX ON! WAX OFF!
Controlling Daniel-San is about as easy as falling out of bed. Here's the
layout:
A - Punch
B - Kick
Down - Crouch
Left/Right - Moves you left or right
Select - Not used
Start - Pause
Up - Jump
Pretty simplistic, wouldn't you say? Apart from a few obvious items of
interest (like Up+B gives you a jump kick and Down+A, a crouching punch),
you also have a limited amount of "super" attacks that you can execute. I
speak, of course, of the fabled crane-kick and drum-punch. Both of these
gems are executed by standing still and hitting either the punch or kick
button (moving will give you a regular punch/kick). How many of these
attacks you can perform is listed below your score, by the big yellow C
and D.
You can earn more specials by defeating enemies or playing bonus games.
Kicking enough people will make a yellow C appear, and punching them will
result in a D. These icons represent 1 extra crane-kick or drum-punch,
respectively. In addition to giving you another attack, they also restore a
bit of your life, so these are good things to get.
The bonus games are scattered around levels 2-4 and come in one of three
flavors: dodge the swinging hammer, catch flies with chopsticks, or break
ice blocks. There are six ice blocks to smash, six flies to catch, and you
can dodge a maximum of six hammers (six, six, six, hmmmmmm...). The
chopstick game is timed, how many blocks you break is related to where your
life bar is when you hit either A or B, and you have to continually face
the hammer for a successful dodge (you can also jump the hammer too, but
the game doesn't count that as a dodge). The scoring scale is as follows:
1 - No bonus
2 - No bonus
3 - 1000 points, 1 Crane Kick, 1 Drum Punch
4 - 2000 points, 1 Crane Kick, 2 Drum Punches
5 - 3000 points, 2 Crane Kicks, 3 Drum Punches
6 - 5000 points, 3 Crane Kicks, 4 Drum Punches
Also, as you travel through Okinawa and stuff, you'll occasionally
encounter the icon of an important character from the Karate Kid movies. It
may be Mr. Myagi, it may be someone else who's name I don't remember, but
they all serve the same purpose: they restore your health.
And finally, there is the matter of scoring and lives. You start with 3
"chances" (lives, whatever) and when you run out of chances, you lose. No
continues, sorry. You get a bonus chance at every 20,000 points.
3)NO UP, DOWN. SIDE TO SIDE!
There really aren't that many different things to deal with in this game. I
suppose it's nice to visit a realm where there's no over crowding, but
these same faces will definitely start to wear out their welcome by the end
of the game.
Chozen - 2000 points
Your main antagonist. Chozen is a touch cosmetically different from your
run-of-the-mill cannon fodder and he has a life bar. Other than that, he
behaves exactly like every other enemy does.
Debris - 100 points
On the typhoon level there's going to be a variety of crap being blown into
your face by the heavy winds. Hit it for some extra points.
Rocks - 100 points
Some are thrown by Chozen's minions, others roll on the ground. They can be
hit to be stopped or just as easily avoided. Unlike the typhoon-blown
garbage, these will actually hurt you.
Thug - 200 points
You'll mostly be dealing with these guys. They're all wimps for the most
part, though they do get slightly tougher on the final stage. One punch or
kick and they'll go down. Some will be armed with a spear later in the
game; one hit disarms them, another finishes the job.
Tournament Fighters - 2000 points each
These are the people you'll face in the Karate Tournament at the beginning
of the game. Though in different colored gis (gray, white, blue and black)
and with life bars that get larger as you progress, they all behave
identically.
4)THE WALK-THROUGH
Right. I guess you could call this a walk through. Personally, I have my
doubts as to whether this will get posted, but what the hell. It's nice to
have something to fill the vapid, boring, pointless hours of my life with,
right? Here we go!
STAGE 1: THE KARATE TOURNAMENT
The first stage is split into four rounds of one-on-one combat; First
Round, Quarter Final, Semi-Final, and Final. As you advance through the
tournament your enemies' life bars increase, making it necessary for you to
whomp on them for a little while longer before you win. Also, any damage
you receive carries over to the next round. And none of this matters in the
slightest because every opponent in the tournament can be beaten in the
exact same way: charge them and hammer the kick button repeatedly. They'll
all continuously walk into your foot and eventually go down. Level 1
complete.
STAGE 2: DANIEL-SAN IN OKINAWA
Welcome to the rest of the game, which involves you strolling to the right
and beating up thugs for the most part. A couple of quick notes on these
stages. First off, most doorways or shadowed areas hide bonus rooms. So
whenever you see a darkened area, jump by it. Chances are you'll be
rewarded by your effort. Secondly, though they're easy to beat, Chozen's
seemingly endless waves of thugs will walk into you as well as trying to
beat you up. This doesn't hurt but it will throw you backwards, something
that's just as dangerous if your back happens to be to a pit. Now, on with
the show.
Okinawa is pretty straight-forward; just keep moving to the right and hit
anyone who gets in your way. If you're taking a beating yourself, stop
somewhere and hit people till you get some Cs and Ds to show up to
replenish your life. Eventually, you'll come to Chozen.
And Chozen is just as dumb as the rest of his cronies are. He'll charge
right out at you, so oblige him by crane-kicking him in the face. This will
knock him back and away, and he'll try again. Wash, rinse, repeat and he'll
go down in about three hits. One word of caution though; don't knock him
off the screen. If you do, he'll get his whole life bar back, making the
fight go on that much longer.
STAGE 3: THE TYPHOON STRIKES
Things are a little more complicated here. The wind will consistently blow
you backwards, which can easily batter you off your feet and into a pit.
Also sticks, rocks, and birds are getting blown at you as well. As with
Chozen's henchmen, getting hit by these won't hurt but you will be knocked
back away, the more so since you have the wind working against you as well.
This is probably the most challenging level in the entire game, as it is
far too easy to wind up being knocked into a hole.
At any rate, again the darkened areas usually hide bonus stages, so jump by
them. Be especially leery of the bridge towards the end of the level, as it
affords more opportunities to drown than anywhere else. And finally, you'll
reach the bell tower where a little girl needs to be saved.
Chozen will, for some reason, come out to try and kick in your face again.
You can either beat him like you did before, or you can simply ignore him
and climb the tower to the girl. Either way, when you reach the child the
stage ends.
STAGE 4: THE LAST FIGHT AGAINST CHOZEN
Okay, this is it! The last level of the game (short, huh?)! And you get a
spiffy, new, red karate gi to wear with a matching headband to boot.
Same rules apply to this level as did to the previous two. Head right, jump in
shadowed areas, blah, blah, blah. The spear guards are on this level, so
the going may be a touch tougher. Also the run of the mill baddies take TWO
hits now rather than one (gasp!).
This level may possibly annoy you even worse than the last, as the foes you
encounter will re-define "cheap shot" by constantly running into you and
bobbling your red-clad ass back and forth between them like a ping-pong
ball. Still, the level is manageable, and eventually (again) you'll come to
Chozen.
This boss fight is a touch more complicated than the last two you've
experienced for a couple of reasons. One: You battle on a platform that has
pits filled with water on either side of it. Two: the girl (who's name I'm
blanking) will, for some stupid reason, scurry off the platform if Chozen
manages to get in front of her. If this happens, you lose. Three: for some
even stupider reason, knocking Chozen into the water doesn't kill him, the
exact opposite in fact. He'll jump back onto the screen with his life
completely restored.
Fortunately for you, Chozen isn't any more intelligent than he was in your
previous encounters. Stand right next to the girl so she won't decide to go for
a swim and repeatedly drum-punch Chozen in the head as he charges you. This
will knock him back, but it shouldn't hit him into the water. Mission
complete.
Now bask in the greatness of the late Mr. Myagi telling you how cool you
are!
5)TWO-PLAYER MODES
You can, of course, play two players on this one. You rotate turns back and
forth, a la Super Mario Bros. Karate Kid also boasts an interesting
Player-versus-player mode, where Player 1 is Daniel-San and Player 2 gets
to be Chozen. It's interesting if you're a fighting game fan and you'd like
to see just how far the genre has progressed. (Whoever gets to be Chozen
has a distinct advantage: if you go off screen, you'll reappear on the
opposite side from whence you came.)
6)SECRETS?
Well, yes, I do happen to have one or two. This game does not, however.
There is a slight way to take advantage of the cart's limited ability to
throw enemies at you. If you can manage to keep two of the thugs on the
screen (preferably behind you as you run right) the game won't spit any
more of them in your direction. This can be semi-helpful when crossing the
bridge in stage 3. But don't bet on it as your enemies are just as likely
to jump into one of the many holes and kill themselves, thusly allowing two
more goons to come at you from the front.
7)IN MY OPINION...
(deep sigh) I don't even know why I'm bothering with this one. The short
way to describe this game is it sucks. End of story. But, as an aspiring
writer, of fiction, articles, and whatever else will get me paid for
indulging in my hobby, I suppose I'm obligated to explain exactly what
about this game sucks.
First off, as I pointed out in the intro, there's no concrete idea of what
the hell's going on here. You go to a tournament, and then beat the crap
out of Chozen three times. Why? WHO KNOWS? Why is there a girl in a bell
tower in the middle of a typhoon? Why does grabbing Mr. Myagi restore your
life? Why does the girl on the final level decide to commit suicide if
Chozen stands in front of her? I DON'T KNOW EITHER. Also the ending is
absolutely no help in divining these answers, leaving you with just more
questions that will never, EVER be resolved. (Great, I'm a martial arts
master. THAT'S ALL?) Moving on before I have a coronary.
Now lets chop the aesthetics to bits. There isn't anything special about
the graphics, because most of what you're going to be seeing is a simple
thug sprite, palette-swapped to indicate different levels of strength. If
he's wearing yellow, he's a tougher thug. If he's in crimson with a goofy
smile drawn on his face, he's Chozen. Blah. I've seen rolls of toilet paper
with more variation from sheet to sheet than this game gives you in its
entire four levels. To their credit, LJN did take the time to compose a
different theme for each level, which given their track record for
mediocrity they could have just as easily not done. But none of the tunes
are particularly good; just more average garbage in the sea of trash that
IS LJN's Karate Kid.
Perhaps the game's most unforgivable sin is its lousy control. Lots of
Nintendo games are below-average as far as story goes, and lots are short
and ugly. But when you factor in a degree of sloppiness with the controls,
then the package is truly complete. Karate Kid isn't the worst controlling
game I've ever played, but it's lack of precision can certainly get you
killed from time to time, especially on the third level. Garbage, garbage,
garbage.
Anything positive to say about this cart? It's short, and it's one the
easiest titles even created. That's all.
I really can't think of any reason to pick this title up, other than morbid
curiosity. I've yet to see a movie-to-game conversion that actually makes a
good video game, and the Karate Kid is no exception. If there's a video
game hell somewhere, someplace where bad developers go when their companies
finally get bankrupted (to the mass relief of the gaming public), I'd like
to think LJN is there right now, strapped to a burning boulder by a
straight jacket with the Tele-Tubbies theme song playing endlessly in its
ear. A fitting punishment for unleashing their crappy games on the world.
1.5 out of 10
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8)ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS AND LEGAL STUFF
Thank you LJN for making this awful game. Also, thank you for going
bankrupt so that you can never make awful games again.
This FAQ was, unlike my others where I had to do some research, entirely
written by me in every way, shape and form. I did CHECK GameFAQs to see if
there were any codes or secrets to be found, but since there aren't...
All trademarks and copyrights contained in this document are owned by their
respective trademark and copyright holders.
This document is Copyright 2006 glass_soul (that's me). Only GameFaqs,
Neoseeker, and 1up have permission to post this walk-through on their sites
(if they feel like it). Nobody else, person, entity, or otherwise, may post
this document in part or whole on their website without my express
permission to do so.
Comments, questions, corrections and other forms of feedback in general are
all welcome.
I may be reached at
[email protected].
Ciao.
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