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Here is the game that popularised the genre on the Spectrum. On its release in 1985 (and following an extensive advertising campaign), it became a best seller and the most fondly remembered of all beat 'em ups. It follows the standard best-of-three format, making use of excellent graphics and a changing series of backdrops. Your task is to progress through the various Dan grades, using 18 possible moves to defeat your adversaries. Top limb-crunching fun.

It's here at last! It has certainly been worth the wait. This is by far and away the best sports combat simulation available yet. Complete with oriental scenic backdrops, the game flows into Karate mania. With its fab, even dynamic graphics, the kicks and punches seem to have a strength and purpose. I enjoyed The Way of the Exploding Fist - having mastered the simple straight kick and punch I quickly began to delight in the more complicated moves, back and spinning kicks integrated with the odd somersault. The wide variety of moves means that you are never limited in your means of attack and counter attack. Addictive is the word.

UTTERING a bloodcurdling ki-ai, the black-robed ninja hurled his muscled body against the evil sensei of Mel-Bon ryu. A series of percussive kites was countered by the feared 'attack of the astral Ho-Bits'.


Reeling from the force, the ninja leaped instantly into the air and brought his calloused feet, like twin axes, down on his opponent's joystick. In a wail of agony the sensei, Spectrum, Ferguson 12" and all went down in a mess of black wires, crushed cartilage and broken Quickshot II.

Melbourne House has gotten all bloodthirsty for its latest, a simulation of karate which offers 16 different moves and an extremely tough series of opponents.

Everything is joystick controlled, and you'll find a stick essential for any chance of success. The moves allowed are split into two sets. The normal eight joystick positions translate into movement backwards and forwards, two punches, crouching, jumping and somersaults, forward and back.

With the fire button held down, the eight positions become more aggressive. Three kicks, high, low and mid, form the basic arsenal, with a spectacular flying kick thrown in. You can also sweep from the crouching position forwards and back, or produce the well-known roundhouse kick, which involves spinning round and catching the enemy on the jaw with the back of the heel. There's also a straight back-kick.


The key to the game's addictive playability is the intelligent way those actions are planned, so that once you are familiar with the controls, the movements are logical and instinctive.

Graphics are pleasing too. The animation of the two fighters is near perfect, with a satisfying crunch as foot connects with bone. It's sufficiently sophisticated for you to be able to hit your opponent while he's in mid-execution of a move, allowing for feinting tactics. Virtually all the moves can be aborted halfway through and turned into something else; in short, the variety of strategy possible is remarkable for an apparently simple arcade game.

The backdrop of each round is suitably Japanese in flavour. A short, balding instructor looks on as you fight under the cherry blossom, or across the tatami mats.

You start as a novice and must win two rounds to progress to first Dan, and so through to tenth. The first round is relatively easy, and provides good practice, but life gets tougher, and you need all your cunning to survive for long at higher levels. Each round is scored, and has a time limit. You must get two full points to win, symbolized by yin-yang circles on the screen. To score a full point you need to be perfect in your attack.

As a sports simulation, this is one of the finest and most realistic we have seen. As an arcade game, it's addictive and pacy. As a product, it's clearly destined for the top.


Publisher Melbourne House Price £8.95
Memory 48K Joystick Sinclair, Kempston
*****

Chris Bourne

Gameplay

The player takes part in a series of one-on-one karate matches, all overseen by a wise old expert who appears somewhere in the background. Once the player defeats an opponent they move up to the next stage and a more difficult adversary. Fights were not won using the energy bar style found in modern fighting games but instead the player needed to get two complete yin-yangs. Any move that connected with the opponent would end the round, a loosely timed or borderline kick or punch would obtain half a yin-yang icon, while a well executed move would obtain a full icon. Two complete icons ends the bout and the player progresses to the next level.

This system of scoring, known as shobu nihon kumite, is used in real life in many traditional styles of karate. A half yin-yang represents a waza-ari (a committed but not decisive technique) and a full yin-yang represents an ippon score (full point, decisive finishing blow).

Control works using joystick or direction keys and a "fire" key. You can achieve up to 18 different movements, including jumping kick, roundhouse kick and a variety of punches and kicks, high and low. There are also defensive moves including blocks and somersaults. There are 16 'regular' movements - initiated by the 8 possible joystick directions, with button pressed and 8 without the button pressed. The 17th move, used against the bulls mentioned below, is made by first pulling the joystick downward, then 'rolling it' forward to the down/forward (forward being whichever way the player's fighter is facing) diagonal, The character will first crouch (as achieved by moving joystick downward) then proceed with a low punch from the crouched position. The 18th move is done by initiating a roundhouse kick (simultaneously pressing button whilst moving the joystick left if the fighter is facing right, and vice versa, but instead of completing the kick, if the button is released midway, the fighter will instead spin 180 degrees and face the other direction.

The game features a variety of backgrounds against which the fighting takes place.

After completing a number of progressively harder stages, the player would be charged at by a bull in a (often short-lived) bonus style round. (This was not present on the Spectrum version and some of the early Commodore 64 versions.) The player must knock the bull out with a single hit. The bonus round mirrors the feats of Mas Oyama, a renowned karate expert who purportedly killed bulls with a single strike.

Production

Before creating Way of the Exploding Fist, designer Gregg Barnett converted The Hobbit and Sherlock, two adventures from Beam Software, to the Commodore 64. Barnett also ported Exploding Fist to Spectrum and Amstrad CPC.

The Commodore 64 version uses over 600 sprite images to animate the player's movements.

The game's soundtrack is based on the 1952 orchestral piece, Dance of the Yao People.


The game was voted game of the year at the Golden Joystick Awards, with Melbourne House picking up Best Software House

Sequels

There were two sequels: Fist 2: The Legend Continues (1986) and Exploding Fist +. Of these two, Fist 2 is not a fighting game, but a scrolling action game with 1-on-1 fighting elements. Exploding Fist +, on the other hand, returns to the style of the first game. It features combat with three characters, an idea followed from International Karate +, though in this case it is possible for players to control the three characters simultaneously.

First, I saw this game on c64 and it was great! Then, I realize that figures are much more detailed and moving is more precise in ZX Spectrum version. I wondered why... and realize that games on c64 are MOSTLY made on 160*200 and games on Spectrum are ALWAYS made on 256*192. So, this was a game which also open my eyes about ZX vs c64.
Idea about simple fight using keyboard was great, but let us say it was borrowed from "Kung Fu" by Bug Byte (made by ex Yugoslavia guy).