Karateka
Karateka is a 1984 beat'em up video game by Jordan Mechner, and was his first game created while attending Yale University. It was originally programmed for the Apple II, and was later ported to several other…
Karateka is a fighting developed by Jordan Mechner, released 31 December 1984 on Atari 7800, Family Computer, Amstrad CPC and Android.
What Karateka is
Karateka is a fighting game developed by Jordan Mechner and released in 1984. It was published by Atari Corporation. It is available on Atari 7800, Family Computer, Amstrad CPC, Android, Apple II, Atari 8-bit, Atari ST/STE, Commodore C64/128/MAX, DOS, iOS, MSX, PC-9800 Series and ZX Spectrum.
The premise, in the publisher's words
Karateka is a 1984 martial arts action game written for the Apple II by Jordan Mechner. It is his first published game and was created while he was attending Yale University. The game was published in North America by Broderbund and in Europe by Ariolasoft. Along with Karate Champ and Yie Ar Kung-Fu, Karateka is one of the earliest martial arts fighting games. It was inspired by Japanese culture and by early Disney animated films and silent pictures. An influential game of its era, it was one of the first to use cinematic storytelling and sound design, and rotoscoped animation.
How it plays
It is played from a side view perspective. Its themes are action. It is a single-player game with no multiplayer component.
How it was received
Karateka holds a critic score of 70 out of 100. That places it above 42% of the 981 rated fighting games in our database, which average 68. Games released in 1984 averaged 73, so it scored 3 points below the year average.
What it launched against
Karateka launched on 31 December 1984, within three weeks of Impossible Mission, Jet Set Willy, 3D Starstrike and Bomb Jack. All of them reviewed better.
Released around the same time: Impossible Mission, Jet Set Willy, 3D Starstrike, Bomb Jack.
Cheats and codes
We have not confirmed any working cheat codes for Karateka yet. Rather than reprint a list we have not tested, this section stays empty until one is verified.
Official trailer
Sourced from the publisher’s YouTube channel.
Screenshots
All media
Dlc
Remakes
Quick answers
Karateka — frequently asked questions
When did Karateka come out?
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