Previous Next

Jackie Chan is a bit nippy when it comes to the old kung-fu antics. His leapin', kickin' and general pain-causing truly knows no bounds. It should come as no surprise, then, to find that an action game has been based on the many scrapes he finds himself in during his plethora of kung-fu movies.

In this particular sojourn, his top chick Chin Re Kon has been kidnapped by an evil wizard. Said magician just happens to have an army of martial arts warriors, deadly death traps and killer fish at his disposal, not to mention a horridly hazard-ridden path to the wizard's tower.

Jackie Chan's Action Kung-Fu is a conversion of the immensely ace PC Engine platform beat-'em-up game in which the hero races through many levels of combat action in order to reach Mr. Pointy Hat and rescue his damsel.

Frogs are Jackie's friends. These green creatures hop around unawares until he clobbers them with one of his martial arts moves. When this happens, an icon pops out. Sometimes it's life-replenishing food, sometimes extra magic or best of all, it could be an extra move.

These moves supply Jackie with a limited number of super-powerful kicks which further his cause to some effect.

There are three extra moves which Jackie may collect, although he is only allowed one at a time. The simplest is the jumping roundhouse, guaranteed to do away with one particularly gruesome enemy in front of him.

Next is the spinning leap kick. Perform this and any evil minions in the vicinity eat shoe. Best of all is the fireball kick, which sees Jackie somersault a considerable distance, dealing deadly death to any meanie he should come into contact with.

These moves are in limited supply, so be careful when you use them.

The films that made Jackie Chan so famous are popular mainly because of the stunning fight sequences (many of which landed Chan and his associates in hospital with serious injuries!), but also because of the tongue-in-cheek humour present in most of them.

As with the other film-related elements, this streak can be clearly seen in Jackie's game. Just watch Jackie leap up in agony as he lands on a bed of spikes! Even better, watch his wide-eyed agonised twitching when he loses a life!

Every so often a bell appears in the sky. If you should see one of these, you're advised to grab it. The benefits of doing so are twofold. First of all, you're whisked off to a bonus screen where you jump to and from a number of small clouds which disappear as you touch them.

The more clouds you reach, the higher your score at the end of the round. The second handy feature of the ball is that it teleports you a short distance forward through the level. Useful, eh?

Jackie Chan's Action Kung-Fu combines challenging and highly addictive platform action, kung-fu a-plenty, a huge playing area, excellent graphics and great sound to produce a really superb game.

Although Jackie's combat moves are limited, there's so much in the game that you simply never seem to get bored. The mission is a tough one and punching and kicking all the way through to the end takes a lot of practice - but the game is such fun you just keep on playing.

The Nintendo certainly isn't short of platform games, but Jackie Chan's Action Kung-Fu has enough new features and chopsocky action to make it an utterly essential purchase.

If it were to reach the standard of the films, Jackie Chan's Action Kung-Fu would have a lot to live up to. When I heard it was another platform game I must admit I was fearful for its quality.

Luckily my fears were never realised and Action Kung-Fu is a fab game. The balance between fighting and platforming is set perfectly, so that both are equally challenging and varied. The difficulty level is set just right too. It's easy enough at the beginning, but it gets much tougher. True, you are given a lot of continues, but they're accessed on the title screen, so a lot of the temptation is removed.

Graphically Action Kung-Fu is a treat. The sprites are large and well animated with a number of humorous touches and the scrolling is smooth. Jackie Chan's Action Kung-Fu is definitely original enough to set it apart from all the other NES platform games, so you'd be well advised to give it a go.

Presentation 70%
Nice attract sequence and intro, but no options.

Graphics 89%
Large, fluid and flicker-free sprites, detailed backgrounds and smooth scrolling compliment things well.

Sound 83%
At atmospheric Oriental-style tune plays throughout and the effects are quite good too.

Playability 94%
The action is fast and furious, the controls are responsive and it's just difficult enough to be challenging without being frustrating.

Lastability 92%
There are a lot of continues, but you need them. The map is huge and the game is no walk in the park.

Overall 93%
A superb, highly addictive platform beat-'em-up. Punch and kick your way to your local software dealer and buy it immediately.