karateka-classic
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Get your QWOP on with Humble Mobile Bundle's bonus games
Humble Bundle organizers added a trio of bonus games to the ongoing Humble Mobile Bundle 2, expanding the pay-what-you-want app compilation with Android versions of Bennett Foddy's QWOP and Jordan Mechner's Karateka. Buyers who beat the bundle's average purchase price (currently $4.50) will receive the awkward Olympics sim QWOP, White Whale Games' side-scrolling brawler God of Blades, and a reworked port of the 1984 fighting game Karateka Classic, in addition to the collection's previously announced six-game lineup. Humble Mobile Bundle 2 has entered its final week, and will remain available through October 9.
Karateka Classic adapts vintage martial artistry
This is Portabliss, a column about downloadable games that can be played on the go. It's rare for an iPhone adaptation of a classic game to work out at all; rarer still for said adaptation to be preferable to the original. Jordan Mechner's faithful iOS/Android port of Karateka accomplishes this task handily, partly because of convenient portability, and partly because of nice new features. But more than anything else, Karateka Classic succeeds because the original's controls weren't that great to begin with. Karateka is, when you get right down to it, a game about shuffling your feet up to your opponent, and then mashing on the kick buttons until he falls over. Like every other pre-Street Fighter 2 fighting game, attacks are slow and connecting depends not so much on timing or frame counting, but the will of some capricious computer god.
Karateka Classic coming to iOS and Android tomorrow
History repeats itself in both video games and colas it seems. Years after releasing the original Karateka, Jordan Mechner revised the formula, giving the world "new" Karateka. Some people liked the new flavor – others, not so much. Hearing the demand of fans everywhere, Mechner has announced that Karateka Classic is coming back, specifically to iOS and Android. Karateka Classic recreates the Apple II experience – right down to the disk drive noises – and offers a range of "monitor" choices, including color CRT, green or amber display. There are a couple of new additions, including gameplay tips and a rewind feature that can be earned, allowing players to reverse their mistakes. Karateka Classic arrives on iOS and Android tomorrow for $0.99.%Gallery-188407%
