Reviews

Together with the old and venerable Way Of The Exploding Fist, this is the best karate beat-em-up available for the Spectrum in my opinion, with the added novelty of a third fighter.

The sprites move quickly and convincingly although their blocky appearance reminds of their C64 counterparts. Sound is better on 128K with a lovely rendition of Rob Hubbard's tune.

Altogether, a great offering, much better than Firebird's Exploding Fist Plus.

The best beat-em-up to grace the ZX Spectrum! I bought this game for £3.99 back in the day I adored this game and it remains one of my favourite games ever.

This fighting is superb with a good range of moves and meaty sound effects but make sure you press N at the start to get them otherwise you'll miss out.

And the music is incredible, one of my favourite tunes ever.

All in all this is an absolute classic that you simply must play.

Originally, I only knew this beat-em-up from the fantastic 16 bit versions. It is a shock to see how well the Speccy version plays.
Gameplay, graphics, and the 128k sound are all top drawer stuff. Spectrum games do not get much better than this.

This game is overrated !

Not bad but not good either ...

The feature of including 3 players simultaneously kicking each other doesn´t hide the fact that movility is very limited and graphics poor .

The scoring system is confusing , you never know when you´re winning .

I miss some of the movements included in The Way of the Exploding Fist .

Overrated game ... 2,5 out of 5 .

The tune is kinda nice , though ! ;-)

While a good game in its own right I personally feel it misses quite a bit of the charm from the first game and its true feel is stripped away. I prefer the first game. The music though is fantastic.

Best fighting game on the Speccy. This and Way of the Exploding Fist were tops, this just pips Fist to the post.

INTERNATIONAL KARATE + !!
Just the best Martial Arts game along with Exploding Fist.

You must add Yie Ar Kung Fu, almost at par with them and there you go...lovely armchair oriental fighter. Charming .

This was and remains one of my favourite Spectrum games ever.

Three karate dudes kicking ass with a wide range of punches and kicks combined with an awesome tune and a glorious background makes this one of the finest games ever created.

The game also has some nice thumping sound to go with it but strangely this is turned off defaultly, so press N to get the sound and be amazed even further.

There's also a bonus game in between that sees you deflect balls away from you. Admittedly it's a bit boring compared to the fighting but essential for increasing score and rank, you want to become a black belt after all you know.

Amazing game, still plays great today.

1987 System 3 Software (UK)
by Dan Michek and Rob Hubbard

Despite being an awesome sequel to IK and an amazing martial arts game, I still can't qualify it above The Way of the Exploding Fist. Mainly because it's the same game all over again, with the addition of just another fighter and new moves.
It was a welcome idea and a rather well implemented one, but didn't expand the martial arts genre all that much.
That would only happen for the first time with the sequel of the already groundbreaking Way of The Exploding Fist and even if it was a bit flawed, it create a landmark to move from.
Also IK+ lacks the background variety earlier games had and the graphics seem a bit blocky, even if well designed and animated.

Now in terms of gameplay this was a treat to enjoy.

4,5 points

Excellent Karate and M artial Arts simulator (ha ving into account limitations