228. Karateka (?, Famicom, 1985)

Karateka is a port of the 1984 Apple II game of the same name. Created by Jordan Mechner who would go on to make Prince of Persia, Karateka was famous for its movie-like plot and rotoscoped animation. While I don't think the Famicom version is exactly rotoscoped, the animation is still very smooth for the console. The graphics are very minimal and yet they are stylish enough to look better than a lot of Famicom games.

The control scheme generally feels pretty good. You can shift into/out of a fighting stance with up / down on the d-pad. If you aren't in the fighting stance, there's even a button to bow to your opponent, which rules. When you are in the fighting stance, you can punch & kick with B and A, respectively, and combining these with directions gets you other slightly different attacks. There are no fancy special attacks (or even jumping) here, Karateka keeps it fairly realistic.

Unlike many other early fighting games, opponents in Karateka manage to feel much fairer because they have similar abilities. Combat with your opponents turns into a dance of waiting for them to make a move, then striking. Each enemy type has slightly different attacks and has to be met with specific timing to ensure they aren't landing any attacks on you, as you only have a limited health pool. 

In certain segments, a boss enemy is sending out minions at you, and they are running form the right side of the screen, while you are running from the left. You can actually fight less enemies by moving through these areas more quickly, which gave them a big Nidhogg energy that I loved. Eventually, birds start attacking you in addition to human enemies, and this was about where my patience with Karateka wore thin. Especially with a limited, realistic moveset and with every enemy encounter feeling mostly the same, there is not a whole lot of fun here, though I can appreciate the minimal design. 

3/5, a smooth but shallow early fighting game