Karateka (Atari 7800 review)

Developer: Ibid, Inc.
Publisher: Atari Corporation
Released: 1988

Karateka is a martial arts game that was first released on the Apple II in 1984.

+ Does a good job of building a narrative for the game's proceedings, and there's some cut-scenes that advance the story.

- Button presses are egregiously delayed and it's pot-luck as to whether your inputs will register seconds later, if at all.

- Distance management and strategy isn't possible due to the horrifically designed control scheme that's overly convoluted.

- You only have a small number of moves, and having to press the opposite direction to execute punches is unintuitive.

- Unlike International Karate (1985, ZX Spectrum), you can't jump and most fights end up in mindless button mashing.

- Gameplay is painfully slow, the collision detection is suspect and the voice clips from the original have been omitted.

- Being a port of a four-year-old game, it's a real missed opportunity to not include a two-player head-to-head mode.