Overview
Karateka, not to be confused with the original 1984 game of the same name, is a historical-fantasy action game developed by Liquid Entertainment and published digitally by D3Publisher for the Xbox 360 (as an Xbox Live Arcade title) on November 7, 2012. It later received ports for the PC on December 3, 2012 (by Dotemu), for iOS devices on December 6, 2012 (by Karateka), and for the PlayStation 3 on December 18, 2012.
It is a re-imagining of the 1984 Apple II game of the same name, led by the game's original developer Jordan Mechner. As with the original, players guide a martial artist through a heavily-guarded castle fortress in feudal Japan in an effort to rescue Princess Mariko from the evil warlord Akuma.
While the game follows a linear progression similar to the original, it features a new simplistic "rhythm-based" combat system with elements of quick-time events, with players guarding against enemy attacks before following up with a series of attacks of their own. It features a unique "lives" system, where the "True Love's" defeat causes the player to switch to a secondary protagonist (first the Monk, then the Brute).
The game features art by Jeff Marsuda, who was known then as the chief character designer for both Jackie Chan Adventures and The Batman. It also features music from Christopher Tin, who was known then as the composer who wrote the Grammy-winning theme to Sid Meier's Civilization IV.
While a Wii U version popped up on the ESRB's website, the game's producer later clarified that version for the system was considered early on but never actually went into development.
PC System Requirements
- Operating system: Windows XP / Vista / 7/8
- Processor: Intel Dual Core processor with a clock frequency of 1.5 GHz
- Memory: 1 GB
- Hard drive space: 1 GB
- Sound device: compatible with DirectX
- Video: 256 MB VRAM
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