Producer: Players
Retail Price: £1.99
Author: Kevin Parker and Jabba Severn

The Changchun Academy, which based its disciplines on the secret karate scrolls, was the most famous karate school in northern China. A failed former pupil, Wang Chen bore a terrible grudge and massacred both masters and students in one terrible night of carnage. Only Lo Yin survived to make a desperate (and ultimately successful) attempt to transport the precious scrolls to the safety of Shanghai. Mission accomplished, Lo was lured into a dangerous dragon temple and never seen again.

The player takes the part of Lo Yin (player two can take the part of Wang) in an attempt to relive the six levels of his journey to Shanghai. In an underground cave and on the Great Wall Lo meets one of Wang's men in single combat. Using 16 different moves he attempts to chop, kick, sweep and block his way to success by reducing his opponent's energy to zero four times.

Following a battle with Wang's men on the shores of the Yangtze river, Lo reaches Shanghai. The enemy attempts to defeat him twice more (in the harbour and the city sewers) before Lo enters the dragon temple and enacts the ending of his unfinished tale.

COMMENTS

Joysticks: Sinclair, Kempston
Graphics: attractive backgrounds with slowly animated, but detailed, main characters
Sound: great gong sound, with white noise effects
Options: sound on/off

Another budget offering fails to hit the mark. The backdrops are colourful, the sound is atmospheric - it's just the gameplay that leaves a lot to be desired. Wang's men aren't particularly hard to defeat; a few well-placed kicks and you're well on your way to mediocre success. Unfortunately you have to beat each opponent four times. With the sixtieth consecutive punch your interest begins to wane... Any remaining excitement is quickly dispelled by the slow movement of the fighters. When Lo Yin jumps, for example, he floats in slow motion through the Shanghai sky - a nasty experience and one, on the whole, that is best avoided.
KATI [41%]

Players have a great gift of producing a product with super presentation, clear concise instructions and great sound (very much like Code Masters) - but, yet again, a game which is only mildly addictive. Like most games of its genre Shanghai Karate requires little skill - just constant use of one or two moves to defeat the computer opponent. The graphics and sound are the only real drawing points of the game. However, the overall attraction of Shanghai Karate diminishes after a few games due to the vapid gameplay. One plus point though: the gong sound on the 128K is sheer brilliance (but not really worth £1.99).
PAUL [48%]

BARGAIN BASEMENT

And down in the Cheapies Emporium this wee (nothing over £3 considered), is Bristol's answer to Billy Idol, Nat Pryce!

Players
£1.99
Reviewer: Nat Pryce

It's no surprise to find that this game is a good ol' fashioned beat 'em up with a plot full of honourable grandfathers and mystical old scrolls. Yup, two people in their pyjamas start at either side of the screen, bow to each other and then beat each other to death, or push each other off the edge of the playing area into the water.

It's a pity that with all the excellent graphics in the game (they're designed by the bloke who did those in Denizen), the game itself is a joke, and not a very funny one at the The controls are extremely unresponsive and there is virtually no in-between frames in the animation of the sprites.

There are many combat games which are ten times as good as this one, including that old wrinkly, WOTEF itself.

Label: Players
Author: Thomson, Parker, Severn and Swinbourne
Price: £1.99
Memory: 48K/128K
Joystick: various
Reviewer: Chris Jenkins

HEEEEeeeeeeAAAH! GNNNGH! HUUUuuurnhhhHHHG! ! No, it's not one of Ian Botham's elephants straining itself, it's yet another karate game in progress. You'd have thought the genre would have been played out long ago, what with the originals like Way of the Exploding Fist now reappearing on budget, but Players' latest, Shanghai Karate, shows that martial arts games are alive and - kicking (hur hur!).

So what's the plot, I hear you yawning. The evil Wang Chen has stolen the sacred scrolls from the Karate Masters. While he was at it he slaughtered the lot of them, which I'd have thought would have been more frowned upon, leaving only Lo Yin (who was reading the Daily Star in the bog at the time) ) to revenge his masters and regai the scrolls.

How does he go about it? - Why, by kicking lots of orientals to death. The first level is set in the caves beneath the academy, the second by the Yangtze river, and the third in the Dragon Temple. All the scenes load in one go on the 128K version, which features nicely sampled gongs and various slaps and grunts, together with decent music. On the 48K version you have to load the different levels one at a time.

Some of the backgrounds are lovely, especially the Dragon Temple, but the characters sometimes tend to get lost against the background, especially in the riverside scene. The movement, too, is a bit dodgy; there just aren't enough frames in the animation, so you can't really react to your opponents move until it's too late.

You have the usual selection of fighting moves, including high kicks, punches, low sweeps and blocks. As you chop away at your opponent, he will try to force you to one side of the screen where you will fall (very slowly) to your death. The solution is to leap over his head (again very slowly), turn around and try to force him into the same position.

On the one-player game, you must reduce your opponent's power to zero and bump him off four times to move on the next level. In two-player mode, you just compete on level one, which seems a pity.

So, there you have it. Nice backgrounds, nice sampled noises and music on the 128K version, but rather slow movement (which can be speeded up by selecting sound off) and undistinguished character design.

Whether you fancy a quick kick a at Shanghai Karate depends very much, I suppose, on whether you've already played and enjoyed Exploding Fist, Ninja Hamster, Fighting Warrior, Uchi Mata, Barbarian, Sai Combat, Fist 2, Yie-Ar Kung Fu, Kung-Fu Master, Shaolin's Way, International Karate, International Karate Plus, Samurai Warrior, de dum de dah de dum...