The Kung Fu/China Warrior (TG-16 Mini)
Well, let's get started with the games on the TurboGrafx-16/PC Engine Mini consoles. I'll be covering the lot, including the games exclusive to each version. I'm going to look at them in the order the games first released globally, which is the Japanese release date in most cases. I think it's fun to do it that way, as we can see how the games evolved on the platform.
That means our first entry is The Kung Fu, also known as China Warrior. This was not a launch title for the console. Bikkuri Man World and Shanghai were the only games available when the PC Engine first hit the Japanese market on October 30th, 1987. Neither of them are available on this mini-console, so the oldest game here is The Kung Fu, which came a few weeks later. However you slice it, this is a very early game for the platform, and it really shows.
The huge sprites are a clear statement about what the PC Engine offered over the then-market leader, the Famicom. Big, colorful, detailed, and technically animated sprites pressed against a vivid background with parallax scrolling was something the Famicom simply could not do. The difference was huge, even at a glance. And in that respect, I suppose The Kung Fu did what it needed to do.
Still, it's important to remember that this is a 1987 game. We're only a few years past Irem's seminal Kung-Fu Master here, and barely a year had passed since Technos Japan broke the beat 'em up mold with Renegade. The late arrival of the PC Engine's North American version combined with the admittedly great graphics for the time create loftier expectations for the gameplay than The Kung Fu was ever going to live up to.
This is a very simple spin on Kung-Fu Master with a fancier presentation. Nothing more, nothing less. You more or less auto-scroll through each level, stopping to punch or kick or jump-kick enemies as needed. Sometimes you kill certain enemies or collect power-ups and get a boost to your life bar. At certain score intervals, you'll get an extra life. At the end of each stage, you'll fight a boss. Repeat for all twelve stages and that's the game. Lose all your lives and it's back to the start.
As you play, a few new enemies and obstacles will be introduced, but the gameplay doesn't change much from start to finish. It's shallow, and I think it lacks the verve of Kung-Fu Master or the soon-to-arrive Vigilante. There isn't much to make it stand out beyond the graphics. This isn't a very good game, and it's one a player would likely get tired of quickly. But again, a 1987 game that was scant days off from a launch title for its platform. Every console has one or two of these. It looked good in magazine ads, and that's perhaps the point. We can only go up from here.
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