If this is what karate is like, I'm glad I never tried itThe Atari 2600 is known for several things...being a quite early home video game console, using cartridges(which was only done by one other system at the time), and also for having some of the worst games of all time. You see, a big thing about the Atari 2600 is that there's no lockout chip, which means that anyone could make a game and sell it, even without Atari's permission. This, of course, is where many, many bad games, blatant ripoffs, and such came from. This game fits into the "worst games of all time" category easily, and I'm surprised that not as many people use this as an example of the worst Atari 2600 game ever.
Graphics - I've made better graphics...
Even by Atari 2600 standards, they're terrible. The animation is choppy and cheaply made, and there's no real detail to anything...by the way, due to a lack of pixels on the fighters, it looks like they've both been on a massive hunger strike. Does this game have a much darker backstory than I thought?
-Horrid graphics
-Cheap animation
Music/Sound - I feel like removing my ears right nowThere isn't much music or sound, but what they do have will make you wish you were deaf. The ear-bleeding noise every time you turn the game on, reset the game, and suffer through a match is actually a very good reason not to play this game. The hit sounds are bland, and, of course, since this is an Atari 2600 game, there's no music.
-Sound effects are ear-bleeding
-The round start sound is actually a good deterrent to not play the game
Gameplay - Karate has never been so painfulThe gameplay is possibly some of the worst gameplay of any game ever. Even with the limitations of the Atari 2600, it's incomprehensible how they could make such a trainwreck of a game on accident.
There's four different attacks, but none of them actually work on a consistent basis...I actually had to mash the fire button to actually get it to respond and perform an attack. Of course, the computer is not limited by these controls, and will beat you down with no effort at all.
The collision detection is easily the worst collision detection ever, and that's saying a LOT. As in, the game fails to detect direct hits, and counts complete, obvious misses as hits. In fact, the hit detection is so bad, even the computer has trouble landing blows! I wouldn't be surprised if the guy who programmed the hit detection was drunk.
The game operates on a point system, awarding certain amounts of points for different attacks, and the player with the most points at the end wins. Of course, the computer will probably always beat you, considering the grossly inaccurate hit detection and unresponsive controls. Sometimes, a hit to the face will knock a player down, awarding the aggressor with about 60 points, but again, the hit detection makes it next to impossible to do this to the computer. Of course, the computer can do it better than you can, and this is another factor that makes it incredibly hard to actually win a match.
You can advance in rank, and get new belts, but it doesn't seem to change gameplay much. You'd be lucky to even get a brown belt, much less a black one.
Of course, this being the kind of game it is, its rules aren't especially good either. You can't ring out your opponent, because that would probably make it too easy to end a match before your two minutes of torture are up, so if either player gets hit while at the edge of the ring, both players are reset to their starting positions. Also, there's no blocking whatsoever, and your fighters move like they're crippled, so trying to not get hit is a futile effort. Thumbs up for good game design!
-Unresponsive controls
-AI is too skilled
-Erratic hit detection
-Terrible game mechanics
Bottom Line - This game fails on literally EVERY LEVEL. Don't waste your time or Viz with this one.
Rating - F-(One of the worst, if not THE worst game I've ever played)
Graphics
1 Sound
1 Addictive
1 Depth
1 Difficulty
10
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