Of the glorious Way Of The Exploding Fist only the last two words have been carried over here. The fighter graphics are the same of the second chapter - not very detailed and with some awkward animations. The background is however a lively rendition of a downtown metropolis street. Sound is limited to a few blows.
The problem is that the game is far too easy - you will probably go on and on by using a couple of moves instead of the refined tactics required in the first game of the series, the second being rather an adventure/exploration title.
There is an added bonus mode where you must hit some hideous masks by shooting shurikens at them, but it's poorly implemented and looks more like an afterthought.
A passable beat-em-up which can't hold a candle to the much superior International Karate Plus.
Review by YOR on 26 Feb 2014 (Rating: 4)
Much more like it! No fussing around and no pointless wonder, it's straight into ass-kicking fun. Although it does have the same controls issues the original did and a rather needless bonus game in which the awkward controls are too quick to haunt you. Despite that I enjoyed this much more than Fist 2 though I still prefer IK+.
Cheap and nasty you could say if the game didn't cost £7.99 at release.
The Fist series seems to be a little confused to be honest? The original Way of the Exploding Fist was an amazing game at the time, and I personally think destroyed International Karate with minimal effort.
Fast forward a few years and we get the really confused Fist II, which seemed like it was set in Feudal times but in China from the Jungle-esque backdrops of the game, and the bamboo, and mud/wood huts, although still using the Karate based move set from Way of the Exploding Fist.
Fast forward once again to 1988, and IK+ has pretty much trumped Way of the Exploding Fist, and Fist II barely even counts against it.
What can we do to rival IK+, and regain our throne? "I know let's take the inferior practice mode from the B-Side of Fist II, and add 1 extra person in the mix"....On top of that we'll take it from a Karate game, to a weird Eastern Asian based Jungle adventure back to modern days, and have those sprites from the second game fighting in front of Piccadilly Circus (Or maybe it's meant to be Times Square in New York? Who knows?). That'll be a winner.
It's not at all, it's a cheap and dirty fix no doubt recycling code, and sprites from Fist II, and putting out a game which is kind of fun, but still a massively inferior game compared to the game they were attempting to rival.
The Fist series may have dominated the Karate games early on, but International Karate came up with a clear unbeatable winner later on down the line.
If IK+ was Blade Runner, this game would be Android. If IK+ was Indiana Jones, this game would be Raiders of the Lost Code. If IK+ was Universal Soldier, this game would be Solo (Mario Van Peebles movie).
Infact sod the bad cheap movie rip-off comparisons. Let's just Say the Fist series lead at one time, but if IK+ was any Hollywood movie, then Fist + is the Bollywood equivalent. Yeah it's fun, it's campy, yeah it might be based on great source material, but you know secretly deep down it's crap, it's made on a budget of about 50 quid, churned out almost daily like a batch of Country Life "Buttah!", and much like the characters in this game the fighting pretty much involves dancing around in the streets like a bunch of idiots instead of actual fighting.
Not a terrible game, just a crap attempt to imitate a superior game, after a massive fall from grace.
