"Yie Ar Kung Fu" - NES/Famicom

----- Introduction -----

Yie Ar Kung-Fu is a weird one. This one was also on our 'TOP GUN' bootleg cartridge as a kid (seems like I keep saying that, huh?). My brother always liked it and I didn't really play it, but my brother played Street Fighter II on Genesis a lot at the time and I really wasn't interested, so there's probably some overlap between the explanations there.

Yie Ar is credited with laying the foundation down for much of the fighting genre. If you follow me on Twitter (for some reason), the avatar that I use on there is the main character from an anime I really like called High-Score Girl. One of my favorite game references in that show is when the main character is beaten particularly badly in a match and his opponent tells him, "You should go practice the basics in Yie Ar Kung-Fu!" Which he goes home and does, in disgrace, on his Famicom at home. It's awesome. And I was like, woah, I know that game.

So anyway, this is that game, and now you're going to know it too. Also, you should watch that anime.

The game was made by Konami for arcades in January of 1985, and this home port came out for Famicom in April 1985. There's not a lot of space there, and this home port was also developed by Konami. So maybe we can expect something relatively close to the arcade experience?

I don't know, let's see what we get:

I thought that said Kionami at first and I was really thrown for a loop.

----- Playthrough -----

Yie Ar Kung-Pao Chicken has 2 "levels". I assume they represent difficulty levels, but after playing both I was unable to really tell the two apart. I did die faster on Level 2, but I couldn't tell if the enemies were doing more damage or if they were more aggressive.

So anyway, I'll just talk about my Level 1 experience.

Also known as basic-bitch mode.

If you've played a fighting game, you probably pretty much get what the deal is with Yie Ar, but I'll explain anyway: you fight a series of opponents that all have various gimmicks/unique moves. For instance, Lang (called Star in the arcade) throws ninja stars at you. Chen (Chain, in the arcade), swings a giant chain at you. Wang (Pole, in the arcade), pictured above, attacks you with his gigantic wang.

"Please back up."
'No.'

Also he fights you while only wearing blue-jeans and perfectly white sneakers. Which is awesome.

After you beat 3 of these people, you get a chance at a bonus round, which is just people throwing swords and fans at you while you desperately try to defend yourself-- until you take one to the side of the head and die. Those are actually probably the hardest stages, but I forgot to take a picture because I died so fast every time, so just use your imagination.

Here, just look at this flying guy instead.

Once you beat the last fighter, "Mu," Lee jumps up and kicks the gong in the background, signaling his victory over the dojo, I guess. Then they all come back to life and you fight them again in a blue building. I died at the end of the blue building so I don't know if it changes colors again after that but I'll bet you that it does.

This is another arcade game port, so I guess that's about all you can really ask for.

Anyway, you keep on fighting these people until eventually you get beat up and lose, just like real life.

And then you get tea-bagged. You thought Halo invented that?

----- Review -----

Innovation:

Does the game show anything not yet seen on this system/ever before?

Definitely-- this is basically the first fighting game on Famicom. It's also the first fighting game in general (arguably), but this is just a port of that game. It's still pretty fresh in 1985 though, but it seems like lovers of the arcade version didn't feel it lived up.

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Spitting Rage:

Does the game make you want to tear your own organs out of your body?

Maybe a little. I'm not very good at fighting games, and this game seems to have a big problem with making it clear where and at what point you can hit an opponent. It seems that the majority of my kicks and punches are whiffs, but it really seems like I'm completely on-top of them sometimes. It seems there's a sweet-spot, and it's hard to know where that is.

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Intuitive Design: 

How easy is it to intuitively understand the game?

I don't really think it would be hard to understand this game from 0 information. B kicks, A punches, and the d-pad moves around and jumps. Arcade games are usually pretty intuitive.

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Satisfying Gameplay: 

How rewarding does playing the game feel?

It's fun when you're able to trap the opponent against a wall or otherwise cleverly and skillfully get around their attacks/keep them in a range where they can't use them. It's a difficult game too, which makes it satisfying when you start winning.

Lee, you're supposed to aim for the
face when you victory teabag...

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Game Depth: 

How deep/long is the game?

It takes about 5 or so minutes to play the game in full if you don't fail frequently. After that it just repeats, so it's not really THAT deep.

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Sound Design: 

How's the sound?

I like the little cliche Chinese music, and in general the sound in the game is fine. There's a satisfying sounding 'pttblt' when you hit people. And a weird high-pitched PTOO PTOO that I think is supposed to be karate sounds coming from Lee.

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Graphics:

How's it look?

It looks pretty good, I guess. The dojo looks nice, and the various characters are detailed enough to make out. It's not incredible, but it does the job. By the way, that sign in the dojo says "kung-fu," amusingly enough.

Or "kanfuu" if you want to do a silly Japanese voice.

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Personal Chord: 

Does the game have that undefinable "something" for me?

I'd say so. There's definitely a nostalgia here, but the game's also pretty fun to be honest. It's cool how it laid the groundwork for fighting games for the most part-- it's kind of the Space Invaders of fighting games in a way. I'm sure other stuff came before it, but this is the OG right here. I'd probably rep it on a shirt.

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Should You Play: 

Is there a reason to even bother with this one?

I don't really think it's an amazing fighting game, but it's earned its place in history. I think it might at least be worth checking out, even if it's only going to entertain you for a little while. I don't think I'll put it on my list of Favorite games, but I will at least give it a thumbs up.

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