Kung Fu NES Secrets and History | Generation Gap Gaming

I want you to think of your top five NES launch titles you had when you were a kid of course you'd immediately name classics like Super Mario Brothers duck hunt or Excitebike but I'd be willing to bet that kung fu major list 2 because I can't think of a single person I knew that had an NES growing up that didn't own this game Kung Fu is one of the true pioneers of the beat'em up genre the story behind its development and inclusion in the NES library is quite compelling and I can't wait to share all your secrets in history you need to become a kung-fu NES master let's get started if this is your first time here at the channel my name is Tyler and if you love gaming from all generations like we do here at g3 then consider hitting that subscribe button and hit that Bell for notifications so you don't miss anything October 18th 1985 the NES was officially released in North America breathing new life into the dying home video game console market kung-fu was one of more than a dozen NES launch titles available that day but it and one other game were different than the rest of these original classics kung fu and 10-yard fight were the only two launch titles that weren't originally developed by Nintendo making them the first third-party NES games both games were developed by Iroh but we all know 10-yard fight would be a tough secrets in history video to watch and that game should be thankful we spoke of it at all in this video my buddy NES Complex has a great video discussing some of the black box titles in his collection and this was the real inspiration for making Kung Fu our next secrets in history video I'll put a link in the description if you want to check out that video later on the surface kung-fu seems like a basic game of kicking and punching your way through bad guys and feels generic by today's standards but that is far from the truth kung fu is actually a port of Iram 1984 Japanese arcade his Spartan X which was titled kung-fu master when it was distributed by data East in North America the Japanese version Spartan next was named after the 1984 Jackie Chan film of the same name which was internationally released as wheels on meals the only real connections the game has to the Spartan X movie are the names of the hero you control named Thomas and his kidnapped girlfriend Silvia the game is primarily based on the 1972 Bruce Lee movie Game of Death which features Lee fighting his way through a multi-tiered pagoda called The Devil's temple battling a martial arts master on each of the levels before climbing a wooden staircase to the next challenge the only reason the game was titled Sparta Nix was because I remember agon film's kung-fu master was designed by Takashi nishiyama who had already developed the 1982 arcade shooter moon patrol and would later work at Capcom and co-create the street fighter franchise in 1987 the creator of the iconic Mario and Zelda NES themes koji kondo composed the music for kung fu as well Nintendo ported Spartan X to the Japanese Famicom in June of 1985 now there were many ports of kung fu master but I feel the Famicom and NES versions stay the most true to the original arcade game Kung Fu puts you in control of martial arts master Thomas who must make his way through five levels and bosses of the temple to rescue Sylvia who is being held captive by the leader of the gang who kidnapped her mr. X we don't get much background as to why mr. X abducted Sylvia but I did happen to stumble upon an unexpected connection that mr. X has to another game in the Nintendo universe now I was too young to remember this show but on the weekends in the early 80s the cartoon saturday supercade aired on CBS and was based on several popular arcade titles of the time one episode titled green house gorilla centered around Donkey Kong with Mario and Pauline chasing after the giant ape who tries to hide away in a nursery operated by Stanley the bug man who we all know is the protagonist in Donkey Kong 3 but there is also a thief lurking in the nursery trying to steal Stanley special carnivorous plant named Herman and that thief has a big nose whereas a black vest and just so happens to be named mr. X I mean I'm pretty convinced it's the same character and it was cool to find another reference to one of Nintendo's most obscure final bosses let's cover kung Fu's basic gameplay you have the choice of game a be at the title screen with game be posing more of a challenge for advanced players the controls are straightforward with the a button used to throw punches and you press the B button to deliver kicks jump by pressing up on the d-pad to avoid low objects and enemies pair this jumping with a punch or kick for extra powerful and point grabbing attacks the most common enemy you'll face is the gripper these guys love to gang up on Thomas and will latch on with a big bear hug if they get close to you and you'll have to tap left and right on the d-pad quickly to get away from them but they can easily be taken out by one hit next is the knife thrower who will toss knives at your head or feet and can be killed with two hits the final common enemies you encounter are those annoying tom toms these little guys can only be hit in the crouching position and act mostly like grippers but they occasionally perform flips to try to bounce off Thomas's head the official Nintendo players guide shares a secret tip that you can press up on the d-pad to counter the flipping TomTom but getting the timing of this move down takes some practice and if you're trying to rack up a high-score defeating enemies with punches are more difficult to pull off and worth more points than kicks the Nintendo players guide shares an odd secret to collect some easy bonus points and it works on any stage in Kung Fu when you start a new level keep count of the number of enemies you kill if the 12th enemy you kill is a gripper defeated with a jump kick you will get an extra 5,000 points this is important since once you earn 50,000 points you get an extra life now that we have the basics covered let's discuss the pro tips needed to master each level and boss fight in Kung Fu each of the five stages are broken into six sections with the boss battle taking place after you see this symbol the first stage is made up of only gripper and knife throwing enemies my first pro tip is to always keep advancing forward when an enemy is chasing behind you wait until the last second that you can turn around and strike it changing direction and pursuing an enemy behind you will more than likely lead to more trouble with enemies overwhelming you from both sides once you reach the first boss the stick fighter the key is getting as close as you can to fight him rendering his stick attacks useless I like to strike first with a jump kick and get in close and take him down quickly with either low kicks or kneeling punches Stage two begins with some of the most annoying obstacles in the game that fall from the ceiling and attack Thomas through the first four sections of the level the exmark dragon balls produce fire-breathing dragons that can easily be avoided by keeping your distance or ducking below the high fireball but one of the secret points of the Nintendo players guide says you can defeat the dragon if you attack before he breathes fire to land you a quick 2,000 points I'm not sure why this was considered a secret because it was included in the manual as well confetti balls will appear and hover over your head for a few seconds just make sure to keep your distance to avoid the projectiles when they explode the green baskets produce snakes that run along the floor to bite Thomas and you must jump over the snakes to avoid damage because no attacks do damage to the snakes after the fourth section you only have to deal with grippers tom-toms and knife throwers and you'll be at the boomerang fighter boss in no time just try to avoid his first two boomerang attacks move in close like you did with the stick fighter and you'll have plenty of time to land multiple hips and even jump attacks to defeat this guy the third stage is set up similar to the first only with the addition of tom toms the third boss has named the Giant and was originally based on Kareem abdul-jabbar's character in Game of Death which is better portrayed in the arcade version but the NES version presents a more stocky muscle-bound sprite of this character the Giant's attacks deal a lot of damage so the key to taking him down is landing an initial forward jump kick to land you close to the Giant and immediately light him up with a flurry of crouching punches to defeat him before he does much damage to Thomas although sometimes I attack with low sweeping kicks to take his health down and finish him off with a jump kick either way seems to work pretty well the fourth stage introduces the poisonous moths that you encounter in the first three sections of the level the best way to counter these enemies is by simply avoiding them and advancing to the fourth section as quick as possible but you'll occasionally have to punch or kick one of the faster moths that get near Thomas the last few sections give you a bit of a breather before you battle the black magician I struggle with this boss the most since his patterns are unpredictable in my experience he mostly throws high fireballs so I'm always ready to duck and in as close as possible any kick or punch to the face takes this guy's head off which I always found a little disturbing as a kid so when you do move in close you have to crouch and deliver only kneeling punches to win this fight the fifth stage is not very difficult and feels much like the first and third stages so you shouldn't have much trouble at this point and if you were expecting a challenging fight with the final boss mr. X then you're gonna be disappointed all you have to do is get close enough to him to deliver continuous low sweeping kicks and this glitches mr. X's brain and you'll defeat him with no damage taken at all and finally save your precious Sylvia although your happiness won't continue long as the game loops back to begin another round of the five stages if you're up to the challenge if you do beat the game a second time there is a subtle alternate ending with a heart surrounding Thomas and Sylvia on those in screen now arranged in the shape of a giant heart yeah not worth it and speaking of not being worth it I found multiple sources stating that defeating the game 50 times allows you to fight Sylvia in the final battle and I was planning on beating the game 50 times to prove this until I came across a statement in my family computer 1983 to 1994 book that reads I guess there were a lot of people who actually believed that Sylvia will attack you if you go around the mansion 24 times which was actually a hoax from the Japanese comic Famicom rocky I mean don't get me wrong I love kung fu but I'm glad I didn't have to play through it 50 times to find out this was an urban legend Iram originally planned for an arcade follow-up to kung-fu master called super kung fu master but it never panned out instead they released a vigilante in 1988 which is considered a sister title to kung fu master with a similar style and gameplay except this time it takes place in New York City with a different cast of characters an official sequel for Spartan X was released for the Famicom in the fall of 1991 in Japan and many American gaming magazines hyped the soon-to-be-released kung fu 2 for the NES but for some reason the game was canceled and I was never able to find a solid explanation sequel or no sequel Kung Fu leaves behind a solid legacy on the NES with it being the 30 the best-selling NES game of all time with 3.5 million copies sold it even outperformed Mike Tyson's punch-out and Metroid and that speaks volumes to its place in retro history I want to hear your favorite memories and secrets you have about kung-fu that I may have missed in the comments below please give this video a like and I want to give special shout outs the master Search and soapy papou's for finding mullet boy first at almost exactly the same time in our last video strong work YouTube until next time guys g3 out

Channel: GenerationGapGaming

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Id: BWOYdsaLS98

Length: 11min 24sec (684 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 01 2019