Yie Ar Kung Fu is a classic Konami Coin-Op 2-D fighting game. I had this on the Amstrad CPC – it was included in a compilation of 5 Konami Hits and was published by Imagine in 1986, the others being Green Beret, Hyper Sports, Ping-pong and Mikie
The original instructions state that ‘Yie Ar Kung-Fu is a test of skill development in the traditional Martial Arts’. The game features Oolong and his quest to become a Grandmaster in the ancient martial arts in honour of his father.
In order to achieve this goal you have to defeat a range of opponents, each one armed with differing skills and weapons and increasing in difficulty, culminating in a final bout against a Grandmaster called Blues. Oolong could be controlled joystick or keyboard and had a range of 16 moves and could also jump over his opponents, which could often be used to disorientate the weaker ones and then hit them in the back. Learning the controls and combinations was the trickiest part of the game, as was analysing each opponent, memorizing his moves and turning his weakness against him.
Oolong’s opponents are:
Buchu – Described as ‘a huge kung-fu fighter’, he was in fact a flying fat man who could be easily dispatched with rising kicks
during his aerial manoeuvres.
Star - A female master of the throwing star.
Nuncha - Master of the nunchaku, although he often stops to show-off, giving you the chance to jump in and hit him.
Pole – No surprise that he comes at you with a pole, giving him a long reach – a tricky opponent
You fight the first four opponents by a streaming waterfall. Once they’re defeated you get taken to an intermediate round where you have to dispense with a mob of (presumably Blue’s) henchmen. They come at you from both sides.
I spent a lot of time playing this when I first got it and once I’d got a few bonus lives, given every 20,000 points (which could be quickly accumulated by scoring perfect rounds, i.e. not getting hit yourself) against the earlier opponents, this left enough chances to finally defeat Blues. Unfortunately, there was no ceremony to install Oolong as the next Grandmaster, instead the game looped back to Buchu. All the characters were speeded up and if you defeated Blues enough times he became ridiculously fast, making further progress impossible, which was pretty standard in looping games.
It’s a classic game and its relatively simple game play makes it highly addictive.
