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| GAME FACT: Each enemy has a weakness and must be attacked to exploit that weakness to succeed. |
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Yie Ar Kung Fu MANUFACTURER: KONAMI
Overview and game play Yie Ar Kung Fu (“YAKF”) was a popular fighting game for 1-2 players that was converted to some home computers such as the Spectrum and C64. Some excellent artwork was used to promote the game in its home format in games magazines and it quickly sold thousands of copies across the world. The player takes control of Oolong, a martial arts expert who fights against different enemies in rounds of one-on-one combat. The enemies start with easy to moderate opponents in the “Hot Fighting History” section: Buchu, Star, Nuncha, Pole and Feedle and then get progressively more difficult in the “Masterhand History” with characters named: chain. club, fan, sword, tonfun and blues. One coin buys a player 3 lives and if 2 player mode is selected each player takes turns to fight against the CPU controlled enemies to advance through the game. The game takes place on a static screen and 2 energy bars are displayed at the top of the game area: one for Oolong and the other for the enemy he is facing. Also displayed are the players’ scores and number of lives remaining. The abbreviation KO is at the end of the energy bars and if an enemy hits Oolong, his energy decreases. When he looses all his energy he is knocked out and one of his lives will be deducted. If the player can knock out the enemy, s/he will be awarded bonus points for the remaining energy Oolong has and will then proceed to the next stage where a new enemy will be waiting to fight. Bonus lives can be earned after accruing 30,000 points and thereafter, additional lives are awarded every 80,000 points. Controlling Oolong is relatively intuitive. Left and right on the joystick makes him move in those respective directions and pushing up makes him jump up very high in a manner similar to some heroes in a typical low budget kung-fu film. Moving the joystick diagonally up and left or right makes Oolong jump huge distances that is useful and indeed necessary against some enemies. Pressing buttons 1 and 2 alone will not cause anything to happen, but if the joystick is pointed in any direction while pressing button 1, Oolong will execute one of a variety of punch attacks which vary according to the direction the player is pushing the joystick. Pressing button 2 while moving the joystick in any direction causes Oolong to execute a kick and varying the direction of the joystick can make him perform different types of kicks. A small yellow arrow appears beneath Oolong at all times showing which direction the joystick is being moved. This is a useful feature as it helps players learn which combinations of moves and button presses should be used.
Each enemy in YAKF has its own predefined movements and attack patterns and some enemies carry weapons such as stars or a club. The differences in the behavior of the enemies makes the game more fun and adds an extra dimension to the game play, as not all methods of attack will work on every enemy. YAKF is a fun and interesting experience and was one of the first games in the fighting game genre. Its game play is simple but very good and that has most probably contributed to its popularity. Graphics The background graphics are relatively simple but are colourful and detailed enough to provide settings for the players to fight. A rocky mountain with an animated waterfall provides the backdrop for the first few stages, followed by a scene outside a Japanese building. The characters in YAKF are cute and well designed in a cartoon style; although quite small; and each is named, (in most cases), to describe some salient feature about them. An element of the graphics that adds to the game play is that impacts on the characters from hits are depicted to provide the player with feedback about whether they have hit (a red mark on the enemy) or have been hit (a black mark on Oolong). These impact marks are only shown momentarily but are useful in showing a player how effective their strategy is against an enemy. The animations in the game are simple but well executed and there is some humour in how Oolong and the enemies fall to the ground when defeated, as they flop to their backs with their legs spread apart in the air. An exception to this animation is the enemy called Star, a female character, who falls down sideways in a presumably more lady like manner when defeated to not reveal too much of herself.
Sound Average chip-based tunes play during the game that have a quick tempo to reflect the fast paced action. Konami’s sound designers have also mixed some digitised sounds into the game as sound effects for punches and kicks, but because the technology was in its infancy at the time, the effects are not particularly good. One notable exception to this is a superb digitised gong sound that plays at the start of each round. The music is used effectively during the game and changes to a special jingle when the player is low on energy, which adds much to the game play. The C64 version of YAKF featured great loading and in-game music that was comparable, (and some may say better) than the music in the arcade version.
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