 |
| You can play the Apple II, Commodore 64 (pictured) or Atari versions of Karateka |
| Quick Info | |
|---|---|
| Reviewed by: | Mark Goninon |
| Developer: | Digital Eclipse |
| Publisher: | Digital Eclipse |
| Release Date: | 29 Aug 2023 |
| Time played: | 6 hours |
I don't recall the exact date when I first tried out the original Karateka but it must've been some time in the late 80s. I believe I saw it at a friend's place and I was entranced by the smooth animations despite the primitive colour palette provided by CGA (gotta love that cyan and magenta). Out of Jordan Mechner's games, the one I spent the most time with was 1990's Prince of Persia (the DOS version was released in 1990), the successor to Karateka, which was also a very cinematic game with fluid animation thanks to the use of rotoscoping. It wouldn't be until 2012 that I tried my hand at Mechner's re-imagining of Karateka and… it was okay. It had great audio work by Christopher Tin (of Civ IV "Baba Yetu" fame) and I loved the art style, but the game seemed a bit short and had what seemed like simplistic gameplay. What I didn't realise at the time though is that they were most likely going for an element of authenticity in this regard since the original also seems rather short and simple by today's standards, but remember, the original Karateka was released in 1984. Cinematic beat 'em up games were rare on PC.
Anyway, enter Digital Eclipse, a developer that's been around for quite some time, 1992 to be exact. However, it wasn't until 2015 that the company would change its focus from just developing video games to video game preservation, and in 2022, they released Atari 50, a 50th anniversary compilation containing many of Atari's games as well as related photos, artwork, documents and videos. Part documentary, part game compilation, I purchased this for the Nintendo Switch and despite the Atari era being way before my time, I thoroughly enjoyed the educational content displayed in the form of a timeline and actually being able to play facsimiles of over a hundred classic games along with some of Digital Eclipse's own remakes was an opportunity too good to miss.
Atari 50 was critically acclaimed and the success of its historical timeline format would be used for future releases under the "Gold Master Series" label. The first to be released under this label was The Making of Karateka, the game I'm reviewing right now. Since I quite enjoyed Atari 50 and I've already dabbled around with Prince of Persia, the 2012 Karateka and read Mechner's journals, it seemed a no-brainer to check this out. Maybe I could finally play the original Apple II version of this classic?
 |
| Jordan Mechner's father, Francis, assisted as a model for the animations |
Inspirations
I experienced The Making of Karetaka by following the timeline in chronological order, which I expect is how most people would approach this. While I already know quite a bit about Mechner's early years in game development thanks to his candid journals, I did learn a new thing or two thanks to The Making of Kareteka filling in some of the gaps and it didn't hurt that this history is served in an interactive manner. Of particular note, was the history of Deathbounce, a game that was almost published by Brøderbund but didn't quite make the cut. The Making of Karetaka gives us the chance to experience early prototypes of the game as well as correspondence between Mechner and Brøderbund, providing some behind-the-scenes insight into the game development process of the 1980s. By shining a spotlight onto Deathbounce, you may initially wonder how a game that vaguely resembles Asteroids is related to Karateka, but I think it was a clever decision on Digital Eclipse's part, as it shows gameplay elements that would eventually find their way into Mechner's 1984 classic: the animated characters at the bottom of the screen and the ability to travel from room to room in Version 4 of Deathbounce are examples of two such things that found their way into Karateka.
Mechner obviously found inspiration from other games in deciding to create Karateka and this is covered as well. In particular, when Mechner was showed a copy of Choplifter, this proved to him that PC games didn't need to continue emulating arcade games (which was considered the superior platform back in that era). Unlike most arcade games, instead of a high score and a "GAME OVER" screen, Choplifter displayed "THE END" when you completed the game, similar to what you'd expect to see at an end of a story. Mechner wanted to create a game that told a story and that game was to be Karateka.
 |
| $900 USD back in the early 80s is around $5,400 AUD now |
Big Names in the Biz and Brøderbund
Scattered across the timeline, you'll sometimes encounter short interview videos with Jordan Mechner and his father, Francis Mechner, who composed the music for the game. You'll also hear the opinions of other famous game developers, such as Tom Hall (known for Commander Keen, Wolfenstein 3D and Anachronox), John Tobias (known for Mortal Kombat) and Lauren Elliott (known for Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?). Speaking of Lauren Elliott, you'll get a behind the scenes look at how things operated at Brøderbund in the early days, including anecdotes about the late Gene Portwood (who also worked on Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego) and interviews with its CEO, Doug Carlston.
The Making of Karateka goes quite in-depth when it comes to Mechner's famous use of rotoscoping to improve animation in his games (as he would not only use it in Karateka, but Prince of Persia and The Last Express as well). However, I found the many playable prototypes of Karateka more intriguing. As it was with Deathbounce, you can really see how the gameplay evolved by playing the Karateka prototypes. For example, in one of the earlier prototypes, it was really easy to change stances between the combat stance and non-combat stance, which meant every time I attempted a high kick, there was a good chance of me letting my guard down, and when you let your guard down, enemy attacks cause instant death. Later versions thankfully made it more difficult to enter the non-combat stance as they changed the fighting stance to the default and you had to actually hold a button in order to enter the non-combat stance.
In terms of playable final versions of Karateka included in this release, they have what fans consider the "holy trinity" which are the Apple II, Commodore 64 and Atari 8-bit versions of the game. Each of the versions have their pros and cons. I felt the key scheme was best on the Apple II version but the game was most responsive on the Atari 8-bit version thanks to a higher framerate. In terms of the quality of the music, nothing could beat the C64 version thanks to its SID chip.
 |
| The 2023 remake of Karateka is actually pretty good |
Modern interpretations
So there are many early versions of Deathbounce, Karateka and other games to try out in this collection but what I love best about The Making of Karateka are the "What If?" scenarios they have asked themselves. Such as, "What if Deathbounce was given full attention by a publisher and released?" Digital Eclipse answers this question by creating a modern interpretation of the game for today's audience.
They also do this with Karateka which was a godsend for me. I found the original versions a touch difficult. The game has no ability to parry attacks and it's all about punching and kicking at different levels (high, centre or low). Deciding whether to attack high or low didn't seem to matter too much except when it came to punching the hawk. The occasional environmental challenge (such as avoiding a gate slamming onto you, perhaps a precursor to the chompers in Prince of Persia) results in instant death and there are no lives or save games in this, so you would have to start from the beginning! Old games were tough man.
Anyway, the 2023 version of Karateka incorporates the best of both worlds, by giving a 90s VGA pixelart aesthetic (similar to Prince of Persia) along with a great retro-style MIDI soundtrack. The game is very fluid, fast and has separate keys for kick and punch. What is even better is the addition of an indicator showing you when the hawk attacks and, if you're so inclined, you can even give yourself extra lives meaning you don't need to start right from the beginning if you ever happen to die. This means you can tailor the difficulty to your needs which also means, just about anyone can experience this classic game.
|
9
|
While The Making of Karateka doesn't have every single version of Karateka included, it does have the "holy trinity" of Apple II, C64 and Atari versions, and has many playable prototypes, videos, documents and photos to give you a through understanding of how Jordan Mechner came to creating his breakout 1984 game. Best of all, the 2023 reimagining of the game is top notch and means just about anyone can now experience this early foray into cinematic games on PC. |
If you like this game, you might like…
Comments
Post a Comment