Jackie Chan - The Kung-Fu Master

Overview

Jackie Chan: The Kung-Fu Master is a 2D fighting game developed and released by Kaneko for arcades in 1995.

A traditional fighting game with digitized actors, Jackie Chan stars the titular Hong Kong film star of the same name, along with actors who previously appeared in his films. Players control one of six martial artists as they fight all others, along with three versions of Jackie Chan himself (each based on his previous films), to win the game. There is no story or lore to this game.

It later received an enhanced update later that year as Jackie Chan in Fists of Fire: Jackie Chan Densetsu, improving the game's combo system while including new techniques and making all three versions of Jackie Chan playable from the start.

Gameplay

The game plays like a traditional fighting game using four buttons: Light Punch, Heavy Punch, Light Kick, and Heavy Kick.

One notable aspect about the game is dashing, as players can animation cancel out of it into attacks and jumps. It is also known for it's simple combo string system and for its counter-hit system (which deals extra damage to attacking opponents).

Similar to Fatal Fury 2 and Fatal Fury Special, the game includes damaging Desperation Moves that can only be performed at low vitality (as indicated by a flashing lifebar).

Finishers

The game uses a rudimentary version of elaborate finishing moves made popular by the Mortal Kombat series. While some finishers in Jackie Chan imply actual death (as the opponent's character turns monochrome during it), most of them are more comical (such as bouncing along the screen like a pinball or getting launched into the horizon).

Similar to the studio's earlier fighting game Blood Warrior, finishers can be performed with the press of a button; however, players can move around and can perform any attack (similar to Mortal Kombat's system), which alters how the opponent falls:

• Most attacks has the opponent falling to the floor, followed by an additional random effect (such as blood gushing out of them, crows flying around them, a drum barrel falling on them, or a lightning bolt striking them). Sometimes, the opponent is launched up and away.

• The last hit on some special moves have their own unique effect, such as one of Mysterious Lion's attacks having multiple miniatures of itself crashing down onto the opponent.

• Taunting causes a humiliating transformation into an animal (other than Mysterious Lion, who transforms into a miniature version of itself).

Due to being very protective of the actor's image, Jackie Chan cannot be defeated with finishers, skipping the "Finish" sequence altogether.

Characters

The game includes six playable characters, five of which are named after the actors portraying them (most of whom previously appeared in films starring Jackie Chan). The game also includes three variations of Jackie Chan as unplayable bosses.

Players can progress through the game in any order, unlocking each version of Jackie Chan to fight against after defeating two, four, and six of the main cast. Once all characters are defeated, the player wins the game.

• Lau (Vincent Lau Tak) - Uses karate techniques.

• Yeung (Yeung Ching-Ching) - Uses boujutsu techniques.

• Sam (Sam Wong) - Uses kung-fu techniques.

• Thorsten (Thorsten Nickel) - Uses street fighting techniques.

• Kim-Maree (Kim-Maree Penn) - Uses professional wrestling techniques.

• Mysterious Lion (Sam Wong) - Uses magical techniques.

• Jackie Chan (Jackie Chan) - Unplayable boss character, who appears in three variations throughout the game. He first appears using Wǔ Xíng Quán ("Five Form Fist", based on his appearance in the film Spiritual Kung Fu), then using Zuì Quán ("Drunken Fist", based on his appearance in the film Drunken Master II), and lastly using Bā Guà Zhǎng ("Eight Trigram Palm", based on his appearance in the film Project A). He cannot be defeated with finishing moves and can never be knocked out when lost (instead commending the opponent).