Granny Vinnie Reviews

7800 Rank: 35th Genre Rank: (Action/ Adventure) 13th Awards: None Delivery For a Mr. Knumbnutz!!! Pros: Lots of Kung Fu Hoop-la Cons: Boss battles are lackluster/ The controls are tight Kung Fu Legalese

Overview: Kung Fu Master was an Arcade Classic. This game and others like it, were surely the grandfathers of the very popular one on one fighting games of the early and mid-nineties. But since the Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, and Tekken series have taken over, are games like this still enjoyable today? I believe so, but they must be treated kindly. Because Kung Fu Master is really void of anything that even resembles Kung Fu, much less 25 hit combos and fireballs shot out of people's wrists.

Graphics: The 7800 port of this game is very colorful, and most of the visuals in the game are well done. Since the background is the same on each level, it is a must that the background is attractive. The good news is that it is. In fact, most everything is done well from the main hero to the in game menu to the bad guy drones. Probably the most annoying facet in the visual department are the 5 bad guy bosses. Except for the 2nd floor boss, (Boomerang Man), they lack important detail and their battle animations are weak. The first guy looks like a hunched over taxi driver who is chasing you away from his cab with a nightstick. The third boss looks like a gym teacher who fights like a woman. The fourth boss looks like a shaggy John the Baptist if he had the ability to throw icicles. The main boss, though not ridiculous looking, lacks any sense of evil and awe instilling power. This guy would get lit up by Guru, M. Bison, or even Karateka's Akuma.

Sound: The sound is actually very well done. Yep, you heard me. The audio actually adds to the game. The music at the start of the game is a pretty decent ditty, and the in-game music is a good mix between an Asian style song and your typical "Let's Get Ready to Rumble" video game track. There are quality sound effects for various collisions, hits, boomerangs, knives, and falling pots. Good job, Absolute Entertainment! (Can't make up for Title Match Pro Wrestling that easily, though)

Gameplay: Where we were doing fine in the audio/ visual department, we struggle a bit more here. The game's main problem is tight control we have over our hero. It is very difficult to get this guy to do what we want him to do. Pushing straight up for jump is tough, especially since most of the time you will spend pushing the joystick hard to the right or left. Trying to pull off exact attacks is a worthless endeavor. At best, we can get him to make a swing or two in the direction we want. Good thing the bad guy hordes when to the Mummy School of Kung Fu. Instead of jumping, kicking, spinning, cussing, and breathing fire, the baddies run up to you, arms outstretched, trying to choke you. Thankfully, they can be disposed quickly with one shot, but if one of them grabs on, your energy level rapidly decreases. They only way to rid yourself of the human leeches is to shake them off, and this gets tricky because of the poor controls as well. Sometimes you will spend a millisecond or two jumping or crouching instead of shaking. This will cause you yourself to shake in anger.

Interpretation: Absolute did a pretty good job at replicating the game. 5 floors of evil are there for you to conquer. Each level has it's own little personality to it, exactly like the Arcade. The first, third and fifth floors are fairly similar. The only differences are the third floor introduces the flipping midgets and the fifth level has many more knife throwers as opposed to the Mummy Ninjas. The second and fourth floors, on the other hand, are very unique. The second floor plays host to magic pots and vases that throw themselves at you. Sometimes snakes or fire breathing dragons pop out so be careful! The fourth floor plays host to huge killer bees that fly around and playa hate. This level is not done nearly as well as the arcade, because most of the bees fly in a line over your head, making it easy for you to run under them towards the floor boss. If you beat the 5th floor boss, you rescue your lady friend and the madness starts over again. This time, the saga is slightly more difficult.

Value: Though the game features several different bad guys and obstacles, most of them aren't done very well and the action seems kinda flat. Sometimes I feel sorry for these guys. That's not a good thing when playing a video game. The five floors offers a little variety, and the ability to beat the main boss to rescue a tied up girl may excite people like Marv Albert who are into weird sexual games. For me though, doing the same old same old gets tiring.

Overall: Kung Fu Master is not at all a bad game, but the tight controls and ineptness the level bosses posses make this game somewhat forgettable. This game is close enough to the arcade classic that fans of that game might really enjoy this home version. But if it was me (which it is) and I had the choice (which I do) and the want to (and sometimes I do) I would rather pick up Double Dragon, Ninja Golf, or Basketbrawl to get my 7800 beat down fix.



Other Reviews of Kung Fu Master for the Atari 7800 on the net:
CV's Atari 7800 Panoramic Froo-Froo: 3.0 out of 5.0 (Fair)
The Atari Times: 4 out of 10

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