It seems that a lot of people looked past the Atari 7800 Pro System back in the day to play the more popular Nintendo Entertainment System. While there are a lot of great arcade conversions on the 7800, the system didn’t have a huge library and the games simply weren’t as varied or as deep as those found on the NES or even the Sega Master System, for that matter. Being that it was my first-ever video game system, I have many fond memories of the Atari 7800 ProSystem and have enjoyed a many great games on the system during the short time I’ve had the system.
One of those great games… isn’t Karateka.
Essentially a port of a supposedly great computer game (that I’ve never played – hence the use of the word “supposedly”) developed by the same person who would later conjure up the infinitely-more-popular Prince of Persia, Karateka completely and utterly fails on the Atari 7800, lacking any of the fun, polish, or excitement of other games on the system, let alone anywhere else. Never has the simple story of “young blond karate master fights through numerous baddies to save the princess from the evil karate master” felt so insipidly uninteresting or broken than it does in this game.
Starting up the system, you’re immediately greeted with a simple glowing title over a static black background while an annoying tune plays further proving that the 7800’s sound processing is beyond mediocre. When the first screen of the game doesn’t get you excited or even intrigued from the get-go, all hope is usually lost on the game. This isn’t always the case, as a bad title screen isn’t the definitive barometer to the quality of the actual game. In this case, however, the plain boring title screen is an omen to what awaits you, as you’ll be greeted with a similar screen and annoying tune every time you die. And you will die often. And while the sound effects in Karateka aren’t majorly offensive, they don’t really do anything to enhance the gaming experience. The 7800’s sound processing is generally crummy, but there are games that make good use of what little the system had. This isn’t one of them.
The graphics in Karateka aren’t at all interesting. The backgrounds seem good enough (even if they are a bit simple in nature) and there is some nice scrolling of the foreground here and there (the only thing that scrolls in this game, I’m afraid), but the actual characters are terrible. It seems like this game only has five main characters in the entire game; the player character, the main villain, the princess you have to rescue, the occasional bird that picks off energy, and the enemy opponent, who simply shows up again and again wearing the same pastel outfit only in different colors in each round. And here I thought Mortal Kombat went crazy with the palette-swapped ninjas, but this game is an even worse offender.
The main issue of Karateka and the thing that truly destroys this game is the gameplay; more specifically, the absolutely crippled controls where you’re supposed to press a button while wiggling with the joystick to perform a variety of punches and/or kicks at different altitudes. I’m not sure how the computer versions handled this, but I’m pretty sure they worked better than this. Not helping matters is the poor collision detection, as certain blows will miss completely even though they’re touching the target. Likewise, certain blows that miss the target by a yard will still register as a hit. This kind of programming mess makes what could have been a decently above-average one-on-one fighter an almost agonizing experience.
The sad truth is that Karateka, somehow dubbed a Super Game Cartridge, does not work well on a console that does not come with a keyboard. Like I said, I’ve never played the original computer version, but after playing this 7800 travesty as well as sampling the NES version (which isn’t all that better, I’m afraid), I think I’d want to stay away from any game with the name Karateka on the cover. The 7800 version of Karateka is not only the worst port of the game on any console, but is also one of the worst games in the Atari 7800 library. Even if you enjoyed the computer game or even if you’re an avid Atari collector, there is no reason whatsoever for you to own this game unless you need something to smash with a hammer or you’re in need of a good hockey puck.
Seriously, you want a good karate game on the 7800? Go buy Ninja Golf. Now THAT’S an excellent game. Stay away from this game.
BREAKDOWN
Graphics: 3/10 (okay backgrounds, terrible animation, all in all unappealing even by 7800 standards)
Sound: 2/10 (annoyingly bad tunes, sound effects are meh)
Gameplay: 1/10 (mediocre controls and poor collision detection cripple the game)
Challenge: 6/10 (overcoming the controls and other flaws yields a moderate challenge)
Replay Value: 1/10 (can’t imagine why you’d want to play this)
OVERALL: 1/10
dtm666 