Kung Fu
Nintendo Entertainment System
Nostalgia Factor:
Growing up in the 80s, it seemed like everyone who had an NES also had this game, except for me. As a result, I played a lot of Kung Fu as a kid, despite never actually owning it. I was not very good at the game, usually running out of lives just a few stages into the action.
Kung Fu was never a favorite of mine. I played it, not because I liked it, but because it was there. The NES era came and went, and I never gave Kung Fu much more thought after that. In the early 2000s, I started dating a girl named Jessica. She and her roommates had an NES hooked up in their apartment, and we played a lot of games like Dr Mario, TMNT, Tetris, and - you guessed it - Kung Fu.
Again, I found that I was not very good at the game. I made it to the fourth stage and then gave up because it got too difficult. I probably poured more time into Kung Fu than I previously had at any point in my life. I really wanted to beat this game, but I just couldn't do it. If I had known that the game only had five stages, I probably would have pressed on. But I just couldn't make it through that fourth stage. That was the last time I have played Kung Fu. It must have been around 2004. So that's 20 years ago.
Why did I decide to come back to it now? Closure, baby. I hate that I've been playing this game for nearly my entire life, and I still have not beaten it. When I was looking through a list of NES games on my RetroPie and I saw Kung Fu - my mind was instantly made up. I was going to play this game and I was going to beat it.
Read on to see how it went.
Story:
You play as Thomas. You love Sylvia. Sylvia loves you. You must fight through a horde of bad guys to save Sylvia from Mr. X, who has tied her to a chair.
That's all the story the game gives you.
Gameplay:
This is a pretty straightforward game. There are five side-scrolling stages. You walk in a straight line towards the stage exit. Enemies will attack you from in front and from behind. You have to dispatch them with a kung fu move - either a kick or a punch. And then you press forward. More enemies attack. You beat them, too. Onward you go.
Once you reach the end of a stage, you fight a boss character. Then you ascend a set of stairs. The next stage begins. Each stage has a different challenge. The second stage, for example, you have to survivor an onslaught of pots containing dragons being launched at you. A later stage has you fighting giant bees. One constant is the enemy forces and their unrelenting assault on your character.
There are several different enemy types. There is the standard opponent, the little person, and the guy who throws knives. The first two enemy types can be defeated pretty easily. They all die with one hit. But the knife thrower takes a couple hits to take down. If he throws a knife, you have to duck under it. If he throws it low, you have to time your jump right.
Most standard enemies can be beaten with minimal thought or strategy, but the bosses are a little different. Their moves can take you down quickly, so you have to pay attention and plan your attacks accordingly. I like to just rush in and overwhelm them before they can really react to me. It works for most bosses, but a more "dart in and out" strategy works better for others.
After you beat all five stages and rescue the girl, the game starts over again. The entire thing loops over and over again, becoming slightly more difficult each time through. I made it through the game one extra time - but then things were too tough for me on the next loop. I didn't bother trying again to see how far I could make it. I had made it through all five stages two times. I considered the game beaten.
Yay, my younger self would be so proud of me. I finally beat Kung Fu.
Graphics:
This game, with its plain blue background, does not look like much at first glance. But you know what? It has its charms. I've always enjoyed the authentic feel of the game's setting, like a kung fu movie. You make your way through a temple, there are over the top enemies, you even fight dragons. All to rescue the girl tied up on the chair.
To me, this is an iconic game visually. As soon as I see a screenshot of Kung Fu it makes me feel a certain way. Even though this was never my favorite game as a kid, I've come to appreciate the look and feel of the game.
Sound:
The music isn't great, but it is not bad either. I like the beat of the stage music. Gets you pumped to fight a nonstop wave of enemies. The in-between stage music is okay. Again, not great but not bad either.
Sound effects are fine. Simple, but effective. Not really much else to say here. It is a fairly primitive sounding game, but just like its graphics - I find it has a certain charm.
Overall:
This may not have been a game I really liked as a kid, but you know what? I had a good time with this. A surprisingly good time. I don't know why I never really liked it growing up. It does get difficult as you make it deeper into the game, but it never felt like it was too unfair or anything like that. It could be mastered with time and effort. Maybe that's it. I never owned the game as a kid, so I didn't have the time to be able to sit down and pump hours of effort into the game. Closest I came is when I played this in 2004, but I had other things on my mind back then.
If you would have asked me last week if I would have put Kung Fu into my top 20 NES games of all time, I would have said no. But now? This is pretty darned good. I do have to criticize its length. The five stages are very short and can bee beaten in 25 to 30 minutes. I don't like how you loop back to stage one when you beat the game. I've never been one to pursue a high score. I just want to beat the game and then move onto the next one.
I am going to give this a B. I think I would have gone a little bit higher if the game was slightly longer and had a little more meat on its bones gameplay-wise. Definitely a must play if you're an NES fan though. If you are old like me, you have probably already played it. If you have never played it, this is something I would 100% recommend.
THE GRADE:
B
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