Karate Champ

Gameplay

In Karate Champ, players control their fighter using two joysticks, which allows for a total of 24 different moves. The game presents a two-dimensional fight between two karateka: one in a white gi controlled by player one, and the other in a red gi controlled either by a second player or the computer. After a round ends, the winning player gets to attempt a series of bonus rounds. This cycle continues into the next round, which is more difficult and takes place against a new background. The first level is set in a dojo, while all subsequent rounds occur at the same tournament stadium.

Unlike many fighting games that came later, Karate Champ does not use a health bar or hit point system. Landing a successful hit immediately ends the round and awards the hitter either one point or half a point. A numeric score is also kept for the top ten, but this score does not affect who wins the match. The first fighter to earn two points wins the overall match. If a player loses a battle, the game ends. The judge’s calls, such as "Half point" or "Full point," are delivered through digitized speech. In the original version, this speech is in Japanese.

The version titled Karate Champ — Player vs Player adds a dedicated player versus player mode. It runs on the same hardware as the original, features improved speech, some new sprites, and a different title screen, but the core gameplay mechanics remain essentially the same. In Player vs Player, the characters compete for the affection of girls across twelve different locations around the world, a setup similar to the later SNK game Street Smart. Each scene is a best-of-three-rounds competition for one girl. After each competition, the player can earn bonus points by dodging a series of flying potted plants, kicking through a stack of boards, or stopping a charging bull. The twelve locations are: a harbor, a garden with a view of Mount Fuji, a bamboo forest, on a tree trunk over a chasm, on the stern of a Japanese registered ship, on the side of a road or runway, Holland with windmills, a big city, a North American desert with Indian tipis, a Japanese garden, a dojo, and a forest path at night. After completing all twelve scenes, the game returns to the first scene for a second loop. Finishing all twelve scenes again completes the game.

Versions and re-releases

Berkeley Softworks handled the conversions of Karate Champ for the Apple II and Commodore 64. Data East started distributing these home versions in the United States on October 12, 1985. The NES version arrived in North America in December 1986. Like the computer ports, the NES adaptation took its cues from the Player vs. Player arcade edition. This same NES version later came out in Japan for the Famicom Disk System on July 22, 1988, but it never saw a release on a standard cartridge for the Famicom. Data East was the publisher for this version in both North America and Japan.

Hamster Corporation put out an emulated version of the arcade game for the PlayStation 2 as part of its Oretachi Geasen Zoku Sono series. That compilation only included the original game, leaving out the Player vs. Player edition. Hamster later released the original arcade version through its Arcade Archives line for the PlayStation 4 in 2015 and the Nintendo Switch in 2019.

In 2010, developer Revolutionary Concepts brought the game to iOS. While it looks just like the 1984 Player vs. Player arcade version, this iPhone release is actually a remake, not a straight emulation. It adds new features like a difficulty setting and the ability for players to compete over Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. A version for the iPad, called Karate Champ XL, also came from Revolutionary Concepts. It is essentially the same as the iPhone game but includes extras such as a split-screen option.

In 2018, Dreamgear LLC released both the arcade and NES versions under its My Arcade brand. The arcade version appears in a mini arcade cabinet that holds a compilation of 34 Data East games. The NES version was sold as its own standalone mini arcade cabinet and also inside a handheld device packed with 300 built-in games. For the NES version, the referee's digital voice was cut and the music tracks were swapped out. The arcade version was left unchanged. Because the My Arcade releases only support single-player, the two-player mode was stripped from the NES version, and the Player vs. Player arcade edition was not included in the 34-game compilation.

The NES version was brought back as part of the Data East Collection 1 set for the Evercade handheld console.

Reception

Karate Champ was a massive hit for Data East, moving 10,000 arcade cabinets in just two months and eventually becoming the company's highest-selling arcade title ever. In Japan, Game Machine reported it as the second-best-performing table arcade unit in their August 1, 1984 issue, and by August 15 it had climbed to the top spot. The Player vs Player version also charted, landing at sixth place on the November 1, 1984 list. Across North America, the game was one of the biggest arcade successes of 1984, with 30,000 units shipped in the United States alone by April 1985. It claimed the top-grossing spot during the summer of 1985, and by November of that year it was the fourth-highest-grossing upright cabinet on the RePlay charts, with each machine selling for around $2,400 and pulling in an average of $200 per week in coin drop revenue. For the full year, it was both the highest-grossing arcade game overall and the top earner in route and street locations. In 1995, Flux magazine placed it 91st on their list of the top 100 video games.

On home computers, the floppy disk version of Karate Champ earned a Gold Award from the Software Publishers Association in July 1987 for surpassing 100,000 units sold. It followed up with a Platinum Award in February 1988 for over 250,000 sales, and then a Diamond Award in January 1989 for exceeding 500,000 units. It was the very first game to receive the SPA's Diamond Award, and through June 1989 it remained one of the two best-selling computer games in the United States, alongside Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?.

Critics had mixed but largely positive things to say. Rick Teverbaugh, writing for Computer Gaming World, praised the home version as fast-paced with very good graphics, though he noted that some in-match counter moves were hard to pull off because there often wasn't enough time to react. Ahoy! magazine reviewed the Commodore 64 port, saying it wasn't quite as electrifying as the arcade original but still offered an entertaining mix of action and strategy. They added that while the learning curve was steep, the game became one of the most exciting computer titles in a long time when two skilled players faced off.

Legacy

Karate Champ sparked a flood of imitators, with many karate and kung fu games rushing to market after its debut. It is widely recognized for creating and spreading the one-on-one fighting game format, and IGN ranked it among the ten most influential games ever. The game introduced lasting genre staples like the best-of-three match structure, special moves triggered by specific button sequences, and bonus stages that appear after a set number of wins. Its Player vs Player version was also the first fighting game to let two human opponents face off directly. This title went on to shape later works such as Konami’s Yie Ar Kung-Fu, Beam Software’s The Way of the Exploding Fist, and other combat games. John Tobias has named Karate Champ as the main influence behind Mortal Kombat’s gameplay. In 1985, Data East pursued legal action against counterfeit arcade machine makers both in Japan and abroad. The company later sued Epyx over its 1986 game World Karate Championship, claiming copyright infringement. That case, Data East USA, Inc. v. Epyx, Inc., reached the Ninth Circuit Court, which ruled that an average buyer would not see the two games as substantially alike. Karate Champ also appeared in a later dispute, Capcom U.S.A. Inc. v. Data East Corp., where Data East used it to defend against Capcom’s accusation that Fighter’s History copied Street Fighter II.