The PC, PSN, and Mac versions of 80’s action epic Karateka are due soon.
Sensei screams “always punch the hawk;” sound advice, but then he’s as anxious to get back to writing plays as you are to rescue the princess, as the launch trailer for the XBLA edition of 80’s remake Karateka will demonstrate. Besides, that hawk is a pesky little devil that deserves all the punching it gets.
“I hope readers will give the new game a try,” Jordan Mechner, creator of the original Karateka, said in a blog post. “I’d love to hear your reactions, whether you played the original Karateka in the 80s or are encountering it now for the first time.” Mechner can be reached via his blog, or Twitter, if you want to drop him a line.
John August, who – with Mechner – put the Karateka remake together, thinks that even people who don’t usually play fighting games will love this punch-em-up. “The combat rewards precision rather than button-smashing,” August says, “and Jordan’s multiple-protagonist mechanic makes it easy to survive but hard to triumph.”
The plot’s pretty much as you remember it, if you ever got your hands on the original. There’s a princess, the evil Lord has her trapped in his dungeon, and it’s up to your trio of heroes to beat their way through hordes of minions – and that flippin’ bird – to save the day.
The only date for the Steam, PSN and App Store release is “soon,” so if you’re determined to beat up mooks and you happen to have an Xbox 360 with 800 Points in the bank, you may want to spend ’em on Karateka.
Source: Karateka
