Still packing an explosive punch!
Melbourne House's continuation of The Way of the Exploding Fist took a new turn with this brave action-adventure.
After a fair bit of loading, you were met with the ominous sound of the c64's sid chip as it even before the screen had
appeared, sent shivers down your spine. There wasn't even a welcome screen, no push button to start,
you just stood there in the middle of the damp, dark forest - completely alone and clueless of what was ahead.
Possibly the scariest brawler ever, this game almost had a horror setting as you desperately went from one scene to the next.
There was no story or hints to even tell you what or where you were going. All you knew is that you were alone,
in the dark depths of a forest, with freedom equal to that of Metroid when it came to finding your way -
except there were no weapon power ups, and there was nothing stopping you from taking any path desirable.
Replenishing your health seemed a mystery at first and the evil karate-masters chasing you were plentiful.
These mad men wore mysterious masks which added to the mystery even further,
and if somehow you mastered the beautiful fighting system the game had in place,
you would plunge through temples, deep seemingly never-ending caverns, waterfalls and rivers,
and the beautiful mountain peaks that once seemed so distant. Hostile they were however
as panthers would now also add to the mix of bad guys, jumping at you quicker than any masked henchmen
and leaving you with only your reflexes to fend them off.
This is one of those few gems from the past that can still be played today. The graphics for the time were amazing;
although you'd expect nothing less with it's 2 year developing cycle, and they're pretty neat today in a retro kind of way.
The fighting system had you with full mobility with the joystick - you could move either left or right, jump or duck,
or do the fancy somersaults which often saved your life. If you moved any of the eight directions while keeping the button
pressed however (C 64 only having one button) you would kick, or punch, and there were many variations of those to discover.
Hitting up and down at specific spots in the world would also have you move up and down ladders and holes to find your elusive goal.
The sound design by Neil Brennan was and still is mesmerising. The sid chip here isn't providing fancy solos or upbeat
synth-rock music - nono, in Fist 2: TLC it's used for its other great quality. Deep, wobbling, atmospheric tunes
that sounds incredibly cool on modern subwoofers. They were smoothly tempoed with your slow progress
through the game, and providing a spine-tingling fear of the unknown.
I finished this game once more recently, and while it's unforgiving as heck at times, I had a blast and will recommend
this karate adventure to anyone who wonders what helped shaped today's fighting games.
Challenging, at times unfair, and incredibly fun - that was the way of things back then,
and thusly the Way of the Exploding Fist.