''China Warrior'', known as (THE 功夫) in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

, is a beat 'em up video game created in 1987 by

Hudson Soft was a Japanese video game company that released numerous games for video game consoles, home computers and mobile phones, mainly from the 1980s to the 2000s. It was headquartered in the Midtown Tower in Tokyo Midtown, Akasaka, Minato, Tokyo ...

for the

PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16 The TurboGrafx-16, known as the outside North America, is a home video game console designed by Hudson Soft and sold by NEC Home Electronics. It was the first console marketed in the fourth generation, commonly known as the 16-bit era, though ...

. The game received mixed reviews upon release, with praise for its large sprite graphics but criticism towards its gameplay. The game was ported to mobile phones and the Hudson Channel for the PS2 exclusively in Japan with redone graphics, audio, and gameplay. The PC Engine version was also released for the

Wii The Wii ( ) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released on November 19, 2006, in North America and in December 2006 for most other Regional lockout, regions of the world. It is Nintendo's fifth major ho ...

's,

Nintendo 3DS The is a handheld game console produced by Nintendo. It was announced in March 2010 and unveiled at E3 2010 as the successor to the Nintendo DS. The system features backward compatibility with Nintendo DS video games. As an eighth-generatio ...

's, and Wii U's Virtual Console and on the Japanese PlayStation Store.

Story

A Chinese

martial artist Martial arts are codified systems and traditions of combat practiced for a number of reasons such as self-defense; military and law enforcement applications; competition; physical, mental, and spiritual development; entertainment; and the preserv ...

named , whose style resembles that of

Bruce Lee Bruce Lee (; born Lee Jun-fan, ; November 27, 1940 – July 20, 1973) was a Hong Kong and American martial artist and actor. He was the founder of Jeet Kune Do, a hybrid martial arts philosophy drawing from different combat disciplines that ...

, embarks on a mission to bring down opposing enemies and the Dark Emperor, who stands atop the castle in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

Gameplay

The object of the game is to walk through each stage while throwing punches and kicks at enemies and objects, which also can be done in midair. There are four levels which are broken down into three stages each, for a total of twelve stages. When Wang gets knocked out, the game starts over at the beginning of the stage in which he got knocked out. Players can memorize the object/enemy pattern in order to get through the stage more easily whenever Wang gets knocked out. At the end of each level, there is a boss fight. The gameplay and controls are similar to Irem's arcade game '' Kung-Fu Master'' (1984), with gameplay also similar to Taito's ''

Gladiator A gladiator ( la, gladiator, "swordsman", from , "sword") was an armed combatant who entertained audiences in the Roman Republic and Roman Empire in violent confrontations with other gladiators, wild animals, and condemned criminals. Some gla ...

'' (1986) without the sword or shield held in hand. The graphics utilized very large character models that fill up the screen. They were capable of moving without any graphical flickering.

Reception

In 1987, the character size and detail was a positive selling point for the title in Japan. The release would not reach US until two years later. By then, the title faced much tougher competition against games like '' Last Battle'' and '' Altered Beast''. ''

Computer and Video Games ''Computer and Video Games'' (also known as ''CVG'', ''Computer & Video Games'', ''C&VG'', ''Computer + Video Games'', or ''C+VG'') was a UK-based video game magazine, published in its original form between 1981 and 2004. Its offshoot website ...

'' reviewed ''Drunken Master'' for the PC Engine, giving it a 58% score. They praised the "giant-sized sprites" as "very impressive on this horizontally scrolling kung-fu game" but said "only three moves result in the game becoming ultimately dull". '' Electronic Gaming Monthly'' scored ''China Warrior'' 18 out of 40, criticizing the simple gameplay and Bruceploitation but with some praise for the large character sprites. Upon release on the Wii Virtual Console in 2007, '' IGN'' denounced the game for its overly limiting gameplay, forcing the player to constantly move right. In addition, while the graphical advancements of the game were prominent, many felt that they were not substantial enough to pardon the game's critical flaws. In the game's review for

's Virtual Console, ''IGN'' and '' GameSpot'' gave the game an abysmal review, citing bad graphics and repetitive gameplay, among other things.http://gamespot.com/
/ref> The game was also featured in

1UP In video games, a life is a play-turn that a player character has, defined as the period between start and end of play. Lives refer to a finite number of tries before the game ends with a game over. It is sometimes called a chance, a try, rest ...

's "Broken Pixels", a show dedicated to mocking bad video games. Michael Plasket of ''Hardcore Gaming 101'' said it is "probably best treated as little more than a tech demo for the potential of the TurboGrafx-16 instead of a legitimately entertaining game".

Notes

References

External links

Official mobile phone version's webpage
{{Bruce Lee Hudson Soft games Beat 'em ups Mobile games TurboGrafx-16 games Video games developed in Japan Virtual Console games for Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console games for Wii U 1987 video games PlayStation Network games