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Part platformer, part beat-em-up, "Kung Fu" games were the predecessors of the "Two player vs. the world," aka beat-em-up, genre. These kinds of games usually involved hand-to-hand combat almost exclusively; however, there were some that you could find and use weapons in. They also are usually played on only one or two flat planes - for the most part there's no jumping from platform to platform like a platformer, although in rare cases there is. Most enemies don't usually take more than one or two hits to defeat, either. "Kung Fu" games have been extinct for quite some time now, nowadays usually only making appearances on retro arcade compilations. There hasn't been a new one created that I'm aware of in... a long time. Again, these particular ten games don't necessarily represent the worst or best of the genre, but they're a nice cross section of the "Kung Fu" games available.

Kung-Fu Master was quite possibly the first "Kung Fu" game ever created, which is why I decided to name this genre "Kung Fu". It set the standard for all "Kung Fu" games to follow. Kung-Fu Master was the story of Thomas, a kung fu master that was trying to save his girlfriend Sylvia from the Five Sons of the Devil. There were five levels to traverse, each featuring several types of enemies, from your standard generic thugs to knife throwers, snakes, dragons and stupid acrobatic midgets - and of course, the bosses. The arcade version was a big hit, and it was followed by several ports to home consoles, all of which met with varying degrees of success. Irem later followed up Kung-Fu Master with sequels for the NES and GameBoy. Interestingly enough, in Japan the game was titled Spartan X and was based on a Jackie Chan movie!

This is one of the earliest examples of a "Kung Fu" game ever, having been released the year after Kung-Fu Master. Shao-Lin's Road featured a lone kung fu master versus a veritable army of thugs in green and purple pants. There is only minimal left and right scrolling, as most of the action take place on three levels that you can jump up or down to reach. There were also powerups to pick up (in the form of balls of energy that the green thugs would drop when killed), bonuses that would fly across the screen, and bosses to fight. After about six stages, the game would start over again on a harder difficulty.

Vigilante was, in a sense, the sequel to Kung-Fu Master. The action had shifted to the streets, and now your unnamed character - the Vigilante - had to rescue Madonna from the Skinheads. A new feature in Vigilante was the addition of weapons that could be picked up and used against the enemies. Aside from that, the game played exactly - and I mean exactly - like Kung Fu Master. Vigilante only received a few console ports, but those ports - even the Sega Master System one - were excellent ones. However, Vigilante has yet to find its way onto a classic arcade compilation.

A lot of people have lumped Bad Dudes in with the beat-em-up genre over the years, but it is definitely a "Kung Fu" game. You've got your one-and-two hit enemies and you're confined to a single plane (although you can jump up and down between levels). If that isn't a "Kung Fu" game, then what is? Anyway, Bad Dudes has a simple enough story: "President Ronnie has been kidnapped by the ninjas. Are you a bad enough dude to rescue Ronnie?" What follows is a "Kung Fu" game that, while not entirely original, is a fun diversion for a while. There's a nice variety of enemies, you can pick up and use various weapons that the enemies would drop, and there's even a guest appearance by Karnov (from the Data East arcade game of the same name). The only console port Bad Dudes got was on the NES (there the president was changed to Bush Sr.), although it did also appear on various PCs of the time (as evidenced by this ad).

Wonder Momo was an extremely popular game - in Japan. One of Namco's only "Kung Fu" games, you controlled Momo, who was apparently acting out the whole game on stage. It's a standard "Kung Fu" title, populated by some of the strangest enemies to ever appear in a "Kung Fu" game - several of them look like rejects from a bad Godzilla movie. The thing that makes Wonder Momo stand out is the ability to change into the superheroine Wonder Momo by picking up a powerup. She has an electric hula-hoop that comes in quite handy against the bosses of the game.

The Ninja Warriors was one of the huge three-screen Taito arcade games. One of the others (and admittedly the more well-known out of the two) was the shmup Darius. In The Ninja Warriors you control a robotic ninja (as you take damage, parts of the ninja's outer shell fall off, revealing its Terminator-esque endoskeleton), and you fight off a never ending wave of paramilitary thugs and the occasional mutant freak. While slow moving at times, your ninja responds quite quickly. Taito followed up the arcade game with a Mega CD port and a Super Famicom sequel, The Ninja Warriors Again, which ended up being released for the SNES as The Ninja Warriors. Confusing, isn't it?

Some would argue that Splatterhouse is a platformer, but it's not - it's roots are firmly planted in "Kung Fu" territory. Sure, there is a bit of jumping you have to do, but for the most part it's a straight left-to-right, one-or-two hit enemy punch-and-kickfest - but the presentation is unlike any other "Kung Fu" game ever (unless, of course, you count Splatterhouse 2). As most of you may know by now (especially if you've visited my Splatterhouse site West Mansion), Splatterhouse is the story of Rick Taylor, a college student attempting to save his girlfriend Jennifer from hordes of monsters with the help of the Terror Mask. Splatterhouse is extremely heavy on the gore, as the name implies, and there are a variety of weapons that Rick can use in addition to his fists and feet - most of which leave the monsters as a splattered mess. Splatterhouse was ported to both the PC Engine/Turbografx-16 and FM Towns Marty, and was followed by three sequels: Splatterhouse 2 (Sega Mega Drive/Genesis), which was almost a direct continuation of the original; Splatterhouse 3 (Sega Mega Drive/Genesis), which threw out the gameplay style that the first two had in favor of a beat-em-up approach; and Splatterhouse: Wanpaku Graffiti (Nintendo Famicom), a super-deformed platformer.

Out of the all the Hokuto no Ken games created, the one I've decided to showcase here is Hokuto no Ken 2, released in the U.S. and Europe as Last Battle, one of the Genesis launch titles. In Last Battle, you control the "Final Hero," Aarzak, in his quest to save the land from Gromm, Gross and Garokk. Last Battle introduced a map screen where you could select your destination, dungeon mazes that would have to be traversed to advance through stages and an RPG-esque leveling system that would enable Aarzak to "power up" and use the secret martial art of Jet-Kwon-Do. In Hokuto no Ken 2, any time you would hit an enemy they would explode in a shower of blood (as pictured above). This, of course, was taken out of Last Battle. Last Battle was almost universally bashed for being too repetitive, but not as badly as the next game was...

China Warrior was Last Battle's competition. They were both released at approximately the same time for their respecive systems, and were both touted as "the" fighting games to own for each system at the time. In China Warrior, you control a Bruce Lee lookalike in your quest. The graphics were quite detailed, but the gameplay was slow and sluggish... not exactly qualities you want in "the" fighting game for your system. China Warrior was quickly forgotten as games on the system advanced, and is mostly remembered now as a curiosity more than anything else.

One of the last known "Kung Fu" games was this obscure Japanese title. Kaze Kiri was a PC Engine CDROM² title released by Naxat Soft. You control either Kaze or Suzu (an unlockable character) in your quest to rescue Shizuhime from a group of evil ninja led by Genbu and Hiei. There's plenty of action to be had, all set in ancient Japan. The music is quite good as well, comparable to some of the best music that the PC Engine had. Unfortunately, Kaze Kiri didn't get much attention, due to the fact it stayed in Japan, but in the past few years has become quite the sought after title among PC Engine collectors.

And that's that. I certainly hope I don't have to add additional pages about 2-D shmups and sidescrolling platformers in the future...