Karate Blazers (bootleg with Street Smart sound hardware)

Arcade Video game published 33 years ago:

Karate Blazers (c) 1991 Video System Company, Limited.

A horizontally scrolling fighting game for 1 to 4 players. Each playable character (chosen from Mark, Glen, Akira and Gil) kicks and punches their way through a number of enemy-packed levels. In addition to kicking and punching, each character also has their own unique 'special attack'; a move that injures multiple on-screen enemies at the cost of some of the player's health.

While in no way original (drawing most of its inspiration from Capcom's "Final Fight"), Karate Blazers is both hugely playable and very fast and frenetic, with the amount of on-screen enemies at times overwhelming. The graphics are also well drawn and nicely animated.

- TECHNICAL -

Main CPU: Motorola 68000 (@ 10 Mhz)
Sound CPU: Zilog Z80 (@ 4 Mhz)
Sound Chips: Yamaha YM2610 (@ 8 Mhz)

Players: 4
Control: 8-way joystick.
Buttons: 4

- TRIVIA -

Released in August 1991 in Japan.

The boss of the 3rd stage is inspired by Sato, a character of the movie 'Black Rain' (directed by Ridley Scott and acted by Michael Douglas and Andy Garcia). Sato was interpreted by the Japanese actor Yusaku Matsuda, died shortly after the movie was made. Even the stage when you fight the boss (the factory) seems somehow inspire from the movie's background (in a movie's scene, Nick - interpreted by Michael Douglas - try to defeat Sato in a steelworks, quite similar to the game's stage).

- STAFF -

Game Designer: Naozumi Yorichika (N. Yorichika)
Programmers: Good Townsman, Moo Yagiyama2, Willful Rabbit
Visual Designers: Naozumi Yorichika (N. Yorichika), Shoko Ishimoto, Yoshihiro Funada (Y. Funada), T. Nishigaki, Hikihara, T. Akamatsu, K. Yamamotoya, H. Motono, Hikari Hino (H. Hino), Hyoue Ogawa, Akira, Takashi Itoh
Sound Designers: Kenji Okuda, Naoki Itamura, Suda Akira