PixlBit

Everybody under 30 just went Karata-what?

Do you remember Karateka?  The 1984 Karate combat game originally released for the Apple II computer developed by Jordan Mechner in his dorm room at Yale?  If you said no, than does the idea of playing a story based game inspired by “Japanese woodblock prints, Kurosawa films, early Disney animation, and silent movies” intrigue you?  How about playing through a love story using a simple gameplay mechanic?  If any of these things captured your interest, you might want to look out for Karateka’s as of yet unnamed HD remake.

Karateka was a remarkable title for its day.  Using the Apple II's meager specs (the base model had a 1 MHz processor, a whopping 4K of Memory, and a 280 x 192 resolution display capable of producing 16 colors) Mechner was able to produce a rudimentary fighting game (similar to Data East’s Karate Champ, a contemporary NES release) that had equally basic story telling elements told using only musical cues and character animations.  The game was later released for other platforms including the Atari 7800, Commodore 64, MS DOS based PCs, and the Japanese Famicom. 

Though this game's unique presentation style was impressive at the time, the technique hardly had a chance to catch on before more cinematic presentations, like the NES title Ninja Gaiden's famous cutscenes, stole the show a mere four years later, rapidly becoming the style of choice.  Still, the seeds of Mechner’s later release, Prince of Persia, especially his emphasis on high quality animation, are very clearly on display in Karateka, and one need only look at the introduction to Super Mario Bros 3 to see that his remained a valid form of expression.

In a recent interview with Wired’s Chris Kohler, Mechner announced that Karateka will be remade and released as a downloadable title for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.  His vision for the remake will have the same minimalist approach to storytelling.  There will be no spoken dialogue, and the entire experience will be “compact, and extremely replayable.”  The designer aims to use a very small team to “make a game that’s artistic and a little bit unusual, without the marketing pressures of a giant triple-A retail title.”  He also states he’s very excited to create “a stylized vision of medieval Japan that [he] couldn’t have dreamed of on the Apple II.”

While the original title was known for its sudden death Easter eggs, including an ending where the rescued princess kills her rescuer with a single kick if he fails to show her proper respect, these will not be in the remake. Mechner states: “[Those scenes] worked in the original because they were so unexpected, but you can’t surprise people twice the same way. You have to find new ways to surprise them.”

Currently there has been no released artwork, and no information about a possible release date, but more information will certainly come. As always, PixlBit will endeavor to keep you informed.