The Making of Karateka

Genre: Compilation / Action / Arcade / 2D Space Shooter

Players: 1

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Review:

By now, developer Digital Eclipse’s Gold Master Series has come to be seen as the gold standard of Compilation releases that not only treats the games it includes with loving care, but expands upon them to create something of an interactive digital museum with an absolute wealth of documentary footage, interviews, and promo materials, presented as a timeline. For its first entry in this series (or second, if you count Atari 50: The Anniversary Collection), Digital Eclipse has turned its focus to a game that is highly-influential, but that has faded from the public consciousness since it was first released in 1984: Karateka.

Karateka is an Action game that puts players in the role of a karate master seeking to rescue a kidnapped princess from a Japanese warlord, and it made huge strides in the area of videogame presentation, animation, music, and storytelling. The game’s rotoscoped 2D visuals with fluid animation were eye-popping at the time, and its cinematic flair was a precursor to an industry that often tries to make its games as movie-like as possible.

Looking at the game through a modern lens, however… well, let’s just say that unless you played it back in the day and are looking at the game through the rose-tinted glasses of nostalgia, it hasn’t aged well. The controls are clunky, the action repetitive, combat often seems less strategic than button-mashy, and the game is at times unforgiving, with surprise instant death moments.

However, The Making of Karateka isn’t just about Karateka itself, but a look at the early days of the career of the game’s primary creator, Jordan Mechner, who would later go on to create The Prince of Persia. While The Making of Karateka places its focus prior to that series, this Compilation does include other games, primarily in the form of unpublished prototype games Mechner worked on. In addition, Digital Eclipse has crafted a few re-imaginings of these works to contribute to this collection.

Here is what I think of each of the games that are included in this Compilation:

Game	Genre	# of Players	Score
Asteroid Blaster	Arcade / 2D Space Shooter	1	D+
tl;dr This is a pretty shameless knockoff of Asteroids (so much so, Atari sued). It does nothing original or interesting to set it apart from the game it is copying.
Star Blaster	Arcade / 2D Space Shooter	1	D+
tl;dr This is just Asteroid Blaster with minimal changes, likely to skirt copyright issues. However, it remains completely unoriginal.
Death Bounce, Version 1	Arcade / 2D Space Shooter	1	D+
tl;dr To its credit, this game does something a little different with its clearly Asteroids-inspired formula, but it is terribly lacking in variety and complexity.
Death Bounce, Version 2	Arcade / 2D Space Shooter	1	D+
tl;dr There are minimal changes here from Version 1 of the game.
Death Bounce, Version 3	Arcade / 2D Space Shooter	1	D+
tl;dr This is visually more interesting than earlier versions of the game, but it still plays largely the same.
Death Bounce, Version 4	Arcade / 2D Space Shooter	1	D+
tl;dr On the positive side of things, this version makes some major changes to the game from earlier versions, and is really unique and interesting. On the negative side of things, it’s a mess with uneven and at times unfair difficulty spikes, overly-fast movement, and just generally is not fun.
Death Bounce: Rebounded	2-Stick Shooter / Arcade	1	B
tl;dr This brand-new re-imagining combines elements from multiple versions of Death Bounce and changes the controls to make it a 2-Stick Shooter while retaining the inertia-based gameplay of the original. This is rough and a bit unpredictable in places, but overall this is an enjoyable and refreshingly unique take on the genre.
Karateka (Jordan’s Original)	Action	1	D+
tl;dr This Action game is ambitious and groundbreaking, but also a repetitive slog with frustrating controls that just isn’t fun.
Karateka (Prototype 2)	Action	1	D
tl;dr This version fixes some issues that were present in the original version, but also introduces other problems, particularly the fact that it’s really buggy.
Karateka (Prototype 3)	Action	1	D+
tl;dr A more polished, complete version of the game, but still too simple and repetitive.
Karateka (Retail Version) (Apple II)	Action	1	D+
tl;dr Very similar to prototype 3. This includes a creator’s commentary on a recorded playthrough. Otherwise, it still has all the issues of the previous version.
Karateka (Commodore 64)	Action	1	D+
tl;dr This release has improved sound and altered visuals, but it is otherwise the same game. The default one-button controls are pretty bad, but on the settings you can change this to more modern six-button Fighting Games-style controls.
Karateka (Atari 8-Bit)	Action	1	D
tl;dr This version runs a bit faster than other versions, but is still clunky, and lacks the sound quality of the Commodore 64 version and some of the retro charm of the Apple II original.
Karateka Remastered	Action	1	C-
tl;dr Karateka Remastered – This remake updates the visuals, smooths out the gameplay, and works in elements cut from the original game. That said, it still feels a bit clunky to control and is unforgiving and repetitive. Undoubtedly the best version of a game that just has not aged well.

Looking over that list, I can imagine what you’re thinking. That’s a lot of D grades, and they’re all just different versions or prototypes of Karateka, Asteroid Blaster, and Death Bounce. And… yeah, aside from Death Bounce: Rebounded, there is not a single game on this list I would want to play again.

Now, having said that, let me tell you why The Making of Karateka is still worth getting.

Unlike other titles I’ve reviewed in the Digital Eclipse’s Gold Master Series, which have focused on a franchise or a library of games, The Making of Karateka is more than anything a story specifically about Jordan Mechner’s early days as an aspiring game designer. And through this title’s massive library of archival footage, interviews, director commentary, supplemental art, making of and behind-the-scenes material, and numerous prototypes and unreleased works, The Making of Karateka is an absolute treasure trove for any aspiring game designer wanting to peek into the process behind a rags-to-riches story about creative a videogame landmark.

There’s a lot of back-and-forth correspondence here between Mechner and publisher Broderbund, talking about how to fix or improve his prototypes, video interviews with Jordan and his father Francis about the thinking that went into every element of the game, from the character design to the visuals to the gameplay elements to the music. And I think it’s an incredible insight to see not only how Jordan failed time and again before his ultimate success, but why he kept seeing rejection – because his prototype was too similar to another game on the market, because his game concept was dated, because his game was too basic and repetitive, because his game lacked variety… I only wish more game makers took these lessons to heart.

By the same token, I only wish more games got a “documentary release” treatment like Karateka has gotten here. Even though I think the games here are all pretty terrible by today’s standards (Death Bounce: Rebounded notwithstanding), I am incredibly glad The Making of Karateka exists, and I think this is an absolutely essential title for anyone who has an interest in game development, or who wants to peek behind the scenes to see how a game gradually comes into being. If that sounds fascinating to you, and you don’t mind the fact that the games it comes with are dated and not very fun by today’s standards, then I recommend you get The Making of Karateka.

tl;dr – The Making of Karateka is a Compilation containing multiple versions of Asteroids clone Asteroid Blaster, Asteroids-like Arcade-style Space Shooter Death Bounce, and martial arts-themed Action game Karateka, all of which are pretty terrible by today’s standards (except the brand new reimagined game Death Bounce: Rebounded, which is pretty good). However, despite the games being extremely dated, The Making of Karateka is still an absolute winner thanks to its fascinating and insightful look into the process of creating a game and getting it published. For that reason only, this release is worth picking up.

Grade: B-

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