Train Up And Compete In Hamster's Latest Arcade Archives Release Karate Champ

Incompatible with the Arcade Stick!

This just killed any tournament presence that this game was going to have.

You need two joysticks to play this properly, so I guess there is also no support for split joycon multiplayer.

Ugh. Of all the games to bring back for Arcade Archives?

And for $8 no less?

Heavy pass.

I played this lots in the arcades back in the day, but I find all these Arcade Archives just too expensive for a little reminiscing. Someone port International Karate (and IK+) from C64 and then we'll talk...

@Bondi_Surfer Just watch the sales. Arcade Archives and ACA Neo Geo releases regularly are included.

And the three Konami anniversary collections have also been on sale at least twice already over on the PS4, and I'm sure have also seen equivalent eShop sales. The arcade centric one is of course all Hamster emulations and is a great way to add 8 classic arcade games to your Switch at a much lower cost than the MSRP of these standalone releases.

@RyanSilberman I suspect this was a hit game in Japanese arcades.

Even seems to have been a success in the west, judging by the statistics over at KLOV. 46 Karate Champ machines are owned by KLOV members, 7 more are conversions with Karate Champ inside, and 71 others have the board set.

One of the more common games among KLOV members when you look past the huge hits like Pac-Man and Defender. Must've been a money maker and a common game in western arcades back in its day to survive in the numbers that it does.

I must admit though as a fan of classic arcade gaming, especially from the pre-crash era (Roughly pre-1985), this one doesn't excite me. But I've also never played it before, so I might be pleasantly surprised if I ever take a chance.

"FULL POINT!"
(thats... thats what the ref says in the game)

A game where you play as Ryu and can karate kick a bull in the head without feeling guilty about it? Yes sir, definitely getting this.

This cabinet was at my local skating rink when I was growing up. I have watched the demo screen on this machine probably more than any other one ever. Don't think I ever actually played it though as I remember it being next to a TMNT2 Arcade game we played non-stop.

@Toy_Link tell me about it. Preorder cancelled!

Who the hell is buying these games?!

I'm ignoring all the stupid comments, if something is not your cup of tea just don't buy it nor waste your time writing that you're not interested.

I'm looking forward to this game, it was indeed announced a long time ago and then just disappeared from the schedule. About the twin stick thing, at least I'll be able to play it because I almost never split joy-cons anway. But that's what would happen with Smash TV too, if it ever was released (I wish!).

@Atariboy I'm curious about Hamster numbers. I've always been under the impression that they rarely get in the top charts, aside from VS Super Mario Bros. (probably people thinking it's the NES game (facepalm)) and Mario Bros. (probably people thinking it's Super Mario Bros. (falcepalm 2)). Where can I check those numbers?

It's a missed opportunity not putting these games on sale. They have never been, except from a few of the Neo Geo ones and a long time ago, just once (on Xbox One there have been several already). So I buy them in foreign eShops or using eShop currency bought on eBay with coupons. But they should be on sale eventually. Don't know why they are so reluctant to allow it.

But is this better than the Karate Kid on NES.

Kinda funny how lots complain about these prices when VC was cheaper and now it's gone! I hope y'all got exactly what you wanted.

I think this is the game they played in Bloodsport (classic Van Dam film)

@Moroboshi876 actually they’ve been on sale several times for all 3 consoles for $3.99. However it’s usually just a 1/2 dozen or so of the whole Hamster library otherwise I would’ve went bananas buying all the ones i held off on lol.😆

@joey302 Several? I didn't catch them, and I'm an avid reader of offers updates LOL

Anyway, they're always a few, and the least appealing ones. You can almost say that they're trying to sell some copies of those games, because at full price they can't.

I wish they made a 50% sometime, I would buy easily 20 games I have on my wishlist. In fact, Johnny Turbo's Arcade games have been on sale recently and I took the chance to buy 5 games I wanted (their catalog is way smaller and now I have the 7 games I was interested in), but that I wasn't going to pay full price for, especially when the emulation settings are worse than Hamster's.

So if they started an offer on ALL their titles, I'd spend half my monthly games' budget on them LOL

@RyanSilberman Um, it's Arcade Archives, they're concentrating on 80's games because the NEOGEO games are done. This shouldn't be a surprise to anyone. Wait, I take that back a bit because I thought Johnny Turbo would have gotten this since it's a Data East title.

@Atariboy Yikes, KLOV is probably not the best way to measure a game's success since that depends on collectors reporting their ownership of the machines and not solid sales numbers. Not to mention a huge chunk of arcade cabinets were leased by distributors for use on site instead of actually sold. Entertainment establishments like Chuck E. Cheese are likely exceptions since it's widely known that they used to destroy games that were past their prime.

At least in the States one of the industry trade magazines, like Play Meter (R.I.P.), would publish weekly ranked coin drop figures with performance over time. Most of that info is probably gone by now as those magazines are as disposable as daily newspapers as far as arcade operators are concerned.

All that said, it seemed pretty popular whenever I saw a Karate Champ in the wild. It always had a few people playing at my local newsstand. As for me, I couldn't wrap myself around the dual-joystick controls at the time (not just Karate Champ but other games like Robotron, as well). The game made more sense when I rented it out for the NES. But I still struggled with the arcade version after the fact.

@jcvandan Apparently enough people to keep their lights on. Yeah, this article is from last year. https://www.siliconera.com/2018/02/09/arcade-archives-neogeo-games-reach-1-million-downloads-worldwide/

Obviously they're going for quantity, here. Even if one ACA game sells only 20,000 across all regions and all platforms (conservative ballpark range, about 2,222 per PSN, eShop, MS Store, for each of the 3 main regions). An average of That's still over half a million dollars a month if there's 4 release weeks per month. They can afford to keep going even if they're selling almost literal handfuls of downloads.

@Moroboshi876 Not aware of Hamster publishing sales numbers.

The numbers I posted are the ownership numbers for the actual arcade machine among the registered membership of the Killer List of Videogames website, which is the biggest site out there for classic arcade game collectors in the English speaking world.

https://www.arcade-museum.com/game_detail.php?game_id=8279

The purpose was to point out to the naysayers that act as if this is a worthless addition to the Arcade Archives lineup, that this was actually a successful arcade game. That this one survives in such numbers among the KLOV membership suggests that it sold well in the West back in 1984/1985 and is a game appreciated by classic arcade collectors in 2019.

Many a classic arcade game has between 0 and 5 registered owners in the KLOV database. They sold in just small numbers, perhaps didn't perform in the marketplace and were quickly junked or converted, or aren't games that are fun enough to play or historic enough for a collector to justify dedicating limiting space to holding on to one.

Not so with Karate Champ, although it obviously doesn't have the presence of something like Joust for instance.

@Atariboy OK, I understand it now. Well, I always think that all those comments about "8 bucks? no way" or "who wants this?" are from users that can't understand the historical value of these games, maybe too young and focused on modern games. Or people who wouldn't want the desired Virtual Console anyway, because the concept is the same: to pay for an old game.

@masterLEON The number of owners among the KLOV membership was posted as anecdotal evidence of the success of this game back in the day and its popularity today among classic arcade fans today. They weren't intended to be posted as sales numbers.

A poorly received game doesn't have that type of numbers at KLOV. A sales failure of that vintage that didn't sell well and didn't do well on location is going to be teetering on the edge of extinction in 2019, not surviving with dozens of machines alone owned just by the somewhat limited membership at KLOV.

That this one has such numbers tells us three things about how it performed in the west back in 1984. One is that it sold well and was relatively common. Secondly, it performed well on location since poor performers are quickly converted or written off entirely.

And lastly, it tells us that it's a fun game to play since there's no major historical element to this game like something like Computer Space has to skew the numbers among KLOV membership. Collectors simply don't dedicate funds to buy a poor game or waste limited space that could go towards housing a far better game.

@RyanSilberman all their releases are at this price, never to be discounted.

Finally!!! I've been stoked for this release. Every week since it was announced I prayed for this every week, and now it's going to be mine:)

@Atariboy Karate Champ was a god damn magnet where I lived. Not just a nerd magnet. All the cool kids played this thing, too. It was hard, it was karate. It was back when Bruce Lee still was an icon and a poster of him from Enter The Dragon hanging on walls of kids who probably got them handed down by their older siblings (or may even fathers). It was also for its time quite varied. And proper skill based. I never was very good at it, the twin stick controls just didn't agree with me - and my allowance back then also didn't agree, so no "git gud" on such a thing was possible :9

It is quite interesting to see that back then, when MTX WAS the name of the game, we remember the classics. These days MTX is loathed as ruining gaming. But from it's very beginnings, games have been built around MTX. This too.

Thank you all for spreading my word

If these Arcade Archive games were $3.99 each, I grab tons of them.

I don't care, I am still getting this game.

@jcvandan
There are lots of us who buy them that were old enough to have played them when they originally came out. I still get decent enjoyment out of them just for the nostalgia of playing them again after 30 years. Of course, this particular game isn't near as good as some of the others. I agree that there are others they could have chosen to do instead of this, but I'll grab it anyway.

@GameOtaku
Yeah I definitely miss VC, especially the one on Wii with its huge selection of systems and games. I still have my Wii-U hooked up with all of the VC games I purchased for it and the ones transferred from my Wii. They should have gone the route they did with the Wii U and simply give you a discount to repurchase games on the Switch that you already purchased.

@Moroboshi876 yes cause I’m a junkie with looking for the sales on all 3 consoles lol- yea I grabbed all the Johnny Turbo discounts- did you notice their games have a new publisher?? They didn’t last long which is a shame as I was hoping to see more Data East classics! 🤔

@rdrunner1178
I'd have preferred a one time transfer fee for all VC games ($10 lets you transfer all VC from wiiu/3ds to switch) if they have to charge anything. Alternatively we can back up VC on sd cards right? So a transfer could be even easier.

Maybe in time I will be able to get every last one of them just to have all of the, or most of, the arcade classics as possible. It's just something magical about that arcade era. The look, the sound... These games are like walking through an electronic museum.

PS: Punching cows? Is that where Steve Oderkirk got his inspiration from for that scene in Kung Pow: Enter the Fist?

@joey302 No, the only thing I noticed is that they just stopped releasing games long ago. It's a shame, they were interesting setting options' warts and all.

@GameOtaku The fees are possibly a necessity for license reasons.
If they told third-parties on Wii VC that their games were sold for one console usage only, they can't legally just change the rules on third-party games without them giving them compensation for it.

@KingMike
They may have made a mistake with Wii but surely they didn't do the same again.

I enjoy many of the Arcade Archives games, but Karate Champ was bad in the arcades of the '80s, and age has not helped it one iota. It was popular though ... not sure why. Maybe because it was the only one-on-one fighting game?

I used to love this game back in the day. This will be a purchase for sure.

@Toy_Link That's because the arcade game uses two sticks per person. Yeah, a Twin Stick fighting game!

Moves are performed by pushing the sticks into certain directions. But if you move just the Left stick you move, and moving the right stick performs blocks at certain heights.

Man! This was the second video game I ever played when I went to Caister-on-Sand when I was 5 years old!

For some reason, the Haven Holiday camp had about 3 or 4 Two Player Karate Champ machines dotted around the camp, and each time I saw one, I would beg my grandad to put a 10p piece (The older bigger coin compared to what you get today) so that I can play the game, though I doubt I was any good at it at 5 years old! lol!

@Gerald yes