Kung-Fu Master was released in 1984 and is considered to be one of the first "Beat up the guys" type of game. In Japan, the game was known as Spartan X, but it gained the same popularity as in countries were it was known as Kung-Fu Master. It was one of the most popular games during its time and is still loved by many old school video game fans of today. There are five levels on Kung-Fu Master that a player must complete. When you start a game of Kung-Fu Master, you begin at stage one and play the role of Thomas. Thomas, a Kung-Fu master who is wearing a keikogi and slippers, has a mission to beat up the bad guys to rescue his love named Sylvia. Before each level starts, you are displayed with a picture of Sylvia on the screen screaming for help. Simultaneously, Mr. X is laughing in the background.
You have the ability to punch, kick and jump. As far as points are concerned, punches are worth double the amount of what kicks are worth and give double the amount of points. Thomas can also duck or jump while he kicks or punches. Learning to do this will be important in later levels of the game as the enemies get more difficult to defeat. On top of the screen, you will see how much power Thomas has and how much power the enemy has. The enemies power is basically the floor bosses power. As you beat up enemies on the floor, the enemies power will not go down at all until you fight with the floor boss.
During the game, you will encounter grippers and knife throwers. Your goal is to make your way to the other side of the floor to meet up with the floor boss. The grippers and knife throwers will try to see to it that you don't reach the floor master. The grippers will grab you and hold you if you don't kick or hit them. As they are holding you, your power level will go down until you shake them off of you. The knife thrower will throw knives at you. You will have to either jump over or duck under the knives, and then give him a few kicks or punches to beat him up. There are at least a few knife throwers on each level.
Beginning on level three, a player will meet Tom Toms. These little
guys are acrobatic midgets who will do a high flip jump onto the head of
Thomas. To avoid losing energy, a player just needs to jump before they
land on the head. In later levels, a Tom Tom may jump and a knife
thrower will throw a low knife at the same time. The player will have to
decide if it is best to get hit by the Tom Tom or the knife. As a player progresses through the levels, they will meet poisonous butterflies, fire breathing dragons, snakes and much more. At the end of each level, there is a different boss. There is the Stick Fighter at the end of level one, the Boomerang Fighter at the end of level two, Strongman at the end of level three, the Magician at the end of level four and Mr. X at the end of level five. Only after defeating Mr. X will a player save Sylvia.
If a player is successful at defeating Mr. X, they will have saved Sylvia and victorious music will play with a heart around the couple. Of course, the game will not end here though. A player will be greeted with the message "Congratulations, Thomas and Sylvia! But their happiness does not continue long."
The game then starts at level one again, and things will look like they are exactly the same as the first time around, but it is not. Things will get much faster and more challenging this time around. The enemies will be much quicker, the knife throwers knives will travel much faster and the grippers and other enemies will continue to attack when a player is battling the floor boss. During the first time around, the Grippers and everyone else stopped attacking when a player fought the floor boss. Now, they will have no pity and continue to attack. If you get up to level five again and pass Mr. X, the game will again start at level one again and will be more difficult than the last time.
My personal playing experience
Kung Fu Master was one of my favorite games in 1984 when I used to stop by the two corner liquor stores in my neighborhood on my way home from school. I used to make sure that I would take at least a couple of my mom's quarters from here change in the morning that was lying around before I went to school. When talking to other people, I have noticed that a lot of people thought that Kung Fu Master was originally released as a NES game. In actuality, Kung Fu Master was originally an arcade console game that many of us old timers used to spend our quarters on. With the NES version of Kung Fu Master, the name of the game was shortened to Kung-Fu.
I cannot tell anyone how far the game goes because I was only able to defeat Mr. X three times. I might add that I only did this twice. Usually, I would defeat Mr. X twice and then on the third time around die on the Magician. Funny, I hated this Magician and still do to this day! As a kid, I actually thought of this character as an ugly old lady. By the way, if any reader of this posts has gotten farther in the game, feel free to leave a comment and some information about it.
Information about each level and strategies
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| The Stick Man on Arcade and NES version. |
Level two will feature falling and exploding objects. As you play this level enough you will eventually notice a pattern of how objects fall to get through it. When an object hits the floor, snakes will come out of them. You just need to jump over them. Instead of snakes, some objects will produce a dragon who throws flames. You can duck under the flame or hit it to kill it. You will meet the Boomerang Fighter at the end of the level. Just jump over or duck under the boomerangs he throws. The most powerful hit against him is a jump kick. I believe it is two or three jump kicks and he is dead.
Level three will introduce you to the Tom Toms. You will have to make your way through the grippers, knife men and Tom Toms to reach the floor master who is the Strongman. He is a very large man that is full of muscles. The best strategies to beat him are ducking and kicking fast from a distance or going in with a jump kick and then ducking and punching fast. You may get hit once or twice so it is best to have as much energy as possible when you reach him.
Level four will have poisonous butterflies that are out to get you. Like level two, as you play enough you will learn a pattern to get through them. You'll then meet the Magician at the end of the level. The Magician will throw things at you that you must jump or duck under. The only way to hit the Magician is to duck and punch, but the Magician will back up quickly if threatened. Sometimes, magic will be done by this tricky character by having a mirage of another Magician appear behind you so you will have one on each side of you.
Level five is the final level that is the most challenging. At the end of the level you will meet Mr. X. Unlike many of the other floor leaders, Mr. X is a normal looking guy who is regular sized like Thomas. When fighting him, a player will not want to get hit because all it takes is a few hits and Thomas will go down. The best strategy against Mr. X is to go up to him and keep a small distance away so he does not hit you. Duck down and do a couple of swift kicks. You should connect with a few and then back up. Continue this over and over and the energy level of Mr. X will go down little by little until you eventually beat him.
Play Kung-Fu Master Now
There is a flash game of Kung-Fu Master that you can play right on your PC. It is not the same original King-Fu Master that we have talked about here in this post and the strategies that we have talked about are irrelevant in this game, but the game is very similar and has Thomas, Sylvia, Mr. X and the rest of the characters.
Want to play Ironclaws Kung-Fu remix? Again, this is not the real version of Kung-Fu Master. If you have experience playing Kung-Fu Master, you will notice this real quick. The game is derived from Kung-Fu Master and is a flash game that someone has made. I have not played it much and only passed the first level. I did notice some differences in this game right away. The grabbers actually punch and attack you. Also, there are Tom Toms in the first level that do this rolling move to you. When I have time, I will play more and see what this game brings. This game was a real good job by someone out there.
PLAY KUNG-FU MASTER REMIX
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