Kung Fu (NES) Playthrough - NintendoComplete

A playthrough of Nintendo's 1985 game for the NES, Kung Fu.

Played through one loop each of the 1-player Type A and Type B game modes.

Kung Fu, Irem's classic 1984 arcade title, arrived for the NES launch (alongside Irem's 1983 coin-op 10 Yard Fight) courtesy of Nintendo, compete with black box plastered with pixel art. It's an extremely simplistic, incredibly addictive beat 'em up based on the old Jackie Chan flick (Meals on Wheels) that, despite looking significantly worse in the downgrade to the NES, retains every ounce of its playability in the conversion.

It was followed up by a couple of games - Vigilante (1988 - arcade, SMS, TG16) was a direct sequel, and the Japanese Famicom received its own exclusive sequel (1991- Spartan X 2). There was also a Game Boy exclusive entry in Irem's 1990 Kung Fu Master. There was a sequel developed before Vigilante, but it was shelved. A prototype of it has been found and dumped, but the dumps were never given to the MAME team for incorporation for whatever reason.

Kung Fu, Kung Fu Master, Spartan X - whatever you want to call it, is a great game, and though badly dated now, was a revolutionary step forward for its time.

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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.

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[WAYRIL]

Man this takes me back to the good old days when things were simple

[dongordito]

The longest 12 minutes of my life as a kid.

[baldmoviebuff]

I love each level's top baddies.
1: Stick guy
2: Boomerang guy
3: Fat Black dude in wife beater
4: Medieval wizard
5: Young David Carradine in a vest.

[lecapitaineisonyoutoob]

I'll always love this game not just as a fun game, but as a fascinating case study in tightly focused game design. Just two buttons and a d-pad, and yet you can do everything you'd expect to be able to, and all of it serves a purpose.

Crouching and jumping give you alternate attacks in addition to serving as evades and riskier moves like punches and jump kicks give you more points and get you to the extra life faster. Each enemy is recognisable at a glance with a simple, easily-understandable behaviour that adds up to complex semi-random situations.

There's nothing in the game you can really take away without it essentially falling apart. That's something I find fascinating.

[diego]

Best game ever. Im 42. Good memories. Simple life.

[lawrencefitzgerald]

Why did this game seem so much longer as a kid?!?!

[RL]

Can’t believe that was 12 mins I never finished it as a kid 🤣🤣🤷🏽‍♂️

[charlesbonkley]

I distinctly remember less ads when I played this as a kid.

[LITTLE]

Dang, the playthrough made this look easy, when this game is actually very hard.

[billsimms]

This game was great. As simple as it as, it still captured my attention and I loved playing it. The
Memories

[rickybobby]

I remember even my parents would play this when I was young!! It was like a family thing to play this game! It was awesome!

[Zipilingui]

In my old cassete of 50 games, this game was called spartan.

[icecreamlover]

Aaah the memories.I still remember playing this game 34 years ago back in 1985.Although at that time a guy who could get past round 1 was a champion and here in this video you are dominating it!

[ryanlangford]

I always loved the sound design in this game. Its great! When I first saw Super Mario Bros. I was blown away. The second game I played on NES was this. I saw what 8bit beat em up style looked like. My first experience of a 'beat the crap out of someone' game. Then I discovered Double Dragon at the arcade. Thank you Kung Fu🤘🌴

[pejakenovic]

I often played it with best friend in childhood every Sat.. the sound, the moves, everything bring back sweet friendship and primiary school memory...

[hwxbwb]

I remember playing this as a kid. Just hitting me now that its only 5 levels 😂😂

[JN-oxyd]

"Wah wah wah wah wah wah wah!" that laugh haunted my childhood.

[meh_its_Jack]

These are the games I grew up with and my mind was blown by the graphics nowadays I hear people bitch about texture and not being able to see every blade of grass.... just enjoy the game!

[l.c.boogie]

Man what? This was one of my all time favorite games. I played this when I was a kid until it unfortunately would not play anymore. I would play this game now if I had it.

Takes me back to being 6 years old, thank you for this video and the walk back through memory lane... things were so much easier back then...