Jackie Chan's Action Kung Fu
Jackie Chan's Action Kung Fu is a platform beat-em-up developed by Now Production and published by Hudson Soft Company for the NES in 1990 and the TurboGrafx-16 in 1991. In the game, you play Jackie Chan who is trying to rescue his sister (or girlfriend in the TG16 game) who has been kidnapped by a Sorcerer. Although the NES port was released first, it seems pretty clear that the game was first made on the TG16 and then ported to the NES.
I first heard about this game because it was a prize on a children's game show, I think Masters of the Maze, but I never saw it played until years later using an emulator. While the game looked good and seemed interesting, I first dismissed it as just another generic NES platformer. Years later, while looking for video game music to record, I played the game's NSF file and was impressed by the music. Wanting to know where in the game a particular song was played, I took to playing the game through and got to the third level. This was more than enough to impress upon me how enjoyable the game is, so I decided to play the game for real. I beat it on my second attempt on 2018-01-02.
Contents
Status
I do not own the game, but I have beaten the NES version.
Review
- Overall: 6/10
- Best Version: TurboGrafx-16
Good
- The game has really attractive graphics. The characters are well animated and feature some of the best cartoon drawings on the NES. Many of the sprites are also hilarious.
- The music is also very impressive. It uses a coherent timbre throughout the game and several songs have a wonderful traditional Asian sound which fits the game. The NES audio makes especially good use of the hardware.
- The controls are very responsive and fluid.
- Each stage has a unique set of backgrounds, enemies, music, and a boss.
- I like how there are multiple secret stages, each which requires a new set of skills to master.
- Unlike many NES titles, the game isn't that difficult, which is a nice change of pace. Pitfalls, rather than killing you outright, punish you by setting you back or injuring you. However, the TG16 game is considerably harder.
- The game includes a lot of interesting Chinese and Japanese mythology.
Bad
- There isn't much to explore in the game. Once you discover the hidden bells, you've found everything the game has to offer, and it's just a matter of honing your skills.
- The NES port eliminates large sections of the levels, and, with only five total, the game is too short. I would have loved to see another two or three levels or at least the rest of the TG16 levels.
- The NES port also eliminates a lot of the enemies and eliminates complexity for the rest, especially the bosses.
- The NES port gives you too many lives for the game to be a real challenge, the TG16 is more appropriate as it is harder and gives fewer lives. The NES manual even gives you a cheat code to get 99 lives, pretty much guaranteeing victory as long as you're tenacious.
- Josephine is described in the manual as being a Kung Fu master with abilities comparable to Jackie Chan, which is progressive, but, in the game, she shows no skills whatsoever, so her title is just window dressing.
Ugly
- Nothing.
Media
Box Art
The American NES release has a nice colored-pencil drawing of a young Jackie Chan with kung fu silhouettes in the background. It certainly gets the point of the game across, but it doesn't quite address the silliness of the game. I don't care much for the gray backdrop or the inappropriate lettering, but it's still my favorite box.
Documentation
Maps
Videos
- youtube.com/watch?v=2vK9C5nQcGU - Longplay, NES.
- youtube.com/watch?v=KtKUeSeXIOA - Longplay, TurboGrafx-16.
Titles
Language | Native | Transliteration | Translation |
---|---|---|---|
English | Jackie Chan's Action Kung Fu | ||
Japanese | ジャッキー チェン | Jakki Chen | Jackie Chan |
Links
- mobygames.com/game/jackie-chans-action-kung-fu - MobyGames.
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackie_Chan%27s_Action_Kung_Fu - Wikipedia.
- gamefaqs.com/nes/563426-jackie-chans-action-kung-fu - GameFAQs (NES).
- tcrf.net/Jackie_Chan%27s_Action_Kung_Fu - The Cutting Room Floor.