A playthrough of Culture Brain's 1989 action game for the NES, Kung Fu Heroes. Kung Fu Heroes was the first game that was produced for the NES by Culture Brain, a company often remembered for games like The Magic of Scheherazade, Flying Warriors, and Baseball Simulator 1.000. It's a port of the 1984 arcade game Chinese Hero, an overhead action game that takes place over thirty-two single-screen stages. The goal of each stage is to wipe out enemies until the door at the top of the screen unlocks so that you can make your escape. Each level is littered by rocks that can be punched for important items, a bit like how you'd burn bushes and bomb walls in Zelda. This is how you find bonus stages (including the hilariously pointless intermission scenes), attack power-ups, items that grant you permanent special abilities, and money. You start off with basic punch and kick attacks, but you quickly gain access to things like fireballs and miracle kicks that make enemies go down much easier, and with enough cash, you can even summon new power-ups from off-screen whenever you like. Later on in the game there are quite a few enemies that require specific weapons or abilities to beat, so its always a good idea to be thorough in your searches. At the very least, get the sword and the mirror as soon as possible. You'll screw yourself by not having at least those upgrades in the last few castles. It's a simple game, as you'd expect for a game originally from 1984, and it plays very awkwardly. The hit detection always feels a bit off (even with simple stuff like breaking blocks), the controls feel too loose, and since it was ported to the Famicom three years earlier, it was embarrassingly dated when it arrived on US shelves in 1989. But somehow, despite its problems, this arcade throwback was a lot of fun. It was easy to pick up and play, it was reasonably challenging without being frustrating, and the variety in the enemies helped to prevent it from getting too stale before the end. Many of Culture Brain's titles on the NES and SNES followed this pattern. Many of them are cult-classics that are loved for their unique ideas and shows of personality despite their uneven, often mediocre quality, and Kung Fu Heroes belongs to that group. Whatever its issues, they don't prevent it from being an entertaining way to pass an evening or two. _____________ No cheats were used during the recording of this video. NintendoComplete ( punches you in the face with in-depth reviews, screenshot archives, and music from classic 8-bit NES games!
