Kung-Fu (NES)

Difficulty - **1/2
Controls - ***
Graphics - **1/2
Sound - **
Overall - 10 out of a possible 20

The evil Mr. X and his gang have captured your girlfriend Sylvia! You control Thomas, a kung-fu master bent of rescuing your girl. You'll smash your way through five levels in Mr. X's hideout. Hiyaa!

Keeping in mind that Kung-Fu was one of the release titles back in the NES day (the 'black box' games) it does show its age. While the game isn't too difficult on standard 'Game A', there is an option to make it harder. 'Game B' makes the enemies hit a lot harder but overall the game won't have you tearing off your Kung-Fu gi.

With only five basic moves to pull off in the game there isn't a whole lot of selection of what you can do to the bad guys. Jumping feels a little awkward by pressing the 'up' arrow key. Thank god there's no jumping area's in Mr. X's hideout! Too be fair all your regular moves are simplistic and respond well. So kicking in a thugs head has never been easier!

Remember how I told you that Kung-Fu has really shown its age? Well graphically this game isn't to visually appealing. Your sprite Thomas is really bland (he just so happens too be wearing his Kung-Fu gi?) but he looks better than some of the enemies! The bosses are somewhat descent looking but they too are almost indistinguishable from the cast of faceless punch bags.

There isn't much music to please your ears either. One title track for the entire game, an end of the level theme, hurrying after Sylvia theme and...not much else. Although the sound effects are nice. Thomas yells out when he kicks or punches a bad guy. You also get an evil laugh if one of the bosses kills you (a classic sound effect by nintendo!)

Don't get me wrong Kung-Fu is good at what it delivers. A simplistic beat 'em up with little music to detract you from your main objective; kicking some major kung-fu ass! The controls are nice and simple but don't give you much in variety. The sounds are classic but at the very least could they have had a few more level tunes? The sprites while boring, are clean and simple. All in all its a great way to kill an hour or two. And hey, why not bring some friends over and have a night filled with bashing skulls and kicking thugs? At least these kung-fu lessons won't cost you anything!