INTERNATIONAL KARATE vs IK+: WHICH IS BEST?

[ZEUSDAZ]

Hi everyone and welcome to the July 2018 edition of the "Which Is Best?" series.
Last month I placed two Megadrive run & shooter classics against each other, Mercs and Rambo III asking you which in your minds was the better game and after counting all the votes I can now reveal that Rambo III is the winner gaining 10 votes with Mercs receiving just 7 votes.
A rather disappointing turnout this month compared to last months edition which saw over 120 votes in total compared to just 17 in this edition,...I guess computer games are more fun to vote on than console games, either way thank you to all those who took part!


This month I'm going to place the two International Karate games from System 3 against each other (all systems, 8 & 16-bit even though the first game wasn't released for the Amiga), which game do you think is better?!,...only your votes will determine that


VOTING CLOSES 15th August 2018.


International Karate vs IK+ video: [ Show youtube player ]

[Nobby_UK]

Did not even see Mercs vs Rambo III.

Have to go for IK+
as I have no Nostalgia for International Karate
having only seen the Reverse Engineered version
relatively recently.

[chip]

I vote for IK+

[PortuguesePilot]

IK+

Though I did have fun with IK on CGA PC before I ever played IK+ on the Amiga, but once I did, the Amiga game completely overtook its PC ancestor.

[victor_cc]

Definitely IK+

First game that I played in my Amiga. My jaw dropped when the game loaded and the music started. I'll never forget that moment.

[Retro-Nerd]

IK+ because it improves everything from International Karate.

[ZEUSDAZ]

Originally Posted by Nobby_UK

Did not even see Mercs vs Rambo III.

Well you gotta keep an eye-out for theses vids! ;-)
Every 15th of the month a new one is posted, feel free to pop by my youtube retro game channel (zeusdaz) to keep up to date with the series,...subscribe too if you fancy it :-D

[Anubis]

IK+ as well.

[DamienD]

Originally Posted by ZEUSDAZ

This month I'm going to place the two International Karate games from System 3 against each other (all systems, 8 & 16-bit even though the first game wasn't released for the Amiga), which game do you think is better?!,...only your votes will determine that

It has been ported to the Amiga though by meynaf: International Karate

...but for me it's also IK+

[LeCaravage]

INTERNATIONAL KARATE
For a 1986 game, great animated characters and wonderfull background graphics (especially the Moulin Rouge one).

[meynaf]

I don't really see IK as a great game. Basically it got ported to Amiga because a few folks asked for it, I had a look, and it ended up being easy to do.

[Orcish75]

TLDR;

8-bit (C64) International Karate
16-bit (ST) IK+

Long version:

I loved them both, they were both amongst the games I played most back in the day. I'd have to say though, for the 8-bit versions (C64 specifically, as that is what I played them on) I enjoyed International Karate ever so slightly more than IK+. The Rob Hubbard soundtrack was a cracker, and the animation was pretty cool for the day.

For the 16-bit versions, definitely IK+. International Karate was one of the main reasons I bought an ST originally, I remember seeing adverts for the Atari Summer Pack and International Karate was the game shown on the monitor. A friend of mine got the Summer Pack with a 520STFM a couple of months later and I was gobsmacked by the large player sprites and colourful backgrounds (as mentioned by LeCaravage above). This was my first experience of the 16-bit era. The big problem with the 16-bit version of International Karate is the AI of the opponents. In later levels, the opponent just does a sweep kick as the level starts and waits for you to approach, only then does he try to fight you. He was usually easily dispatched with a well timed flying kick as he stood up from the sweep kick.

When I got IK+ eventually, I wasn't as in awe as much as International Karate the first time I saw it, but it didn't take long at all to realise that it was a much better game playability wise. The opponents had decent AI and definitely got harder the more you progressed. IK+ has some really nice touches though, pressing various keys on the keyboard for effects, such as J to change the judges outfit, P to drop the players' pants etc. The sound effects are absolutely top notch on IK+! Sounds like you're watching a Bruce Lee movie whilst unleashing a devastating combo on the opponents. Being able to select different speeds with the Function keys was a brilliant idea, had many a ROTFLMAO moment on turbo speed.

The ST and Amiga versions of IK+ are almost identical, the Amiga has better music, (the sound effects are identical on both machines) and the colour fade of the sky is smoother on the Amiga.

[Avanze]

The original has a remarkable and unique graphical art style but the game play is slower and quite repetitive, this mirrors the 8-bit International Karate which was keen to display its graphical prowess in showing a number of beautiful locations. In contrast IK+ is an exciting fast paced arcade game 1v2 (usually) and is a port of its 8-bit predecessor only having one location. In my opinion, a better comparison might be International Karate versus The Way of the Exploding Fist, although the latter was never released on the Atari. Anyway, my vote is for IK+ as the challenging addictive game play feels rewarding upon mastery and wins the day for me.

VOTE: IK+

[Superman]

IK+ was excellent and had nice music too. It gets my vote.

[Minuous]

They are both good; each has its own strengths, which is why I play both... :-)

IK has more variety of backgrounds.
IK+ has 3-player support and better bonus rounds.
Each has different moves and music, of roughly the same quality.

I will vote for IK to even things up a bit. I never understood why IK+ only had one background. The third player on C64 would have used more RAM but surely the Amiga could have had extra backgrounds.

[hansel75]

When referring to the C64 versions, I wish that The Way Of The Exploding Fist had been included in this poll, as for me I personally liked it more then any of the IK games despite Fist being slower and not as smooth.

Fist just felt more brutal and strategic and had better atmosphere, the only downer in Fist was the cheap leg sweep move.

Also as good as the IK games are they were blatant clones of Fist, the characters and moves looked virtually indentical, it always surprised me how little this got mentioned over the years on how much IK ripped off Fist!

As for IK vs IK+, my vote goes to IK. I was never keen on the hectic mayhem that IK+ introduced by adding a 3rd character, felt like a gimmick to me and took away the strategic gameplay and timing that IK had with it's superior 1vs1 gameplay.

[NorthWay]

I think I'll go for IK. Not that + isn't nice, but the original 8-bit showed "how it should be done".