Jackie Chan's Action Kung Fu (TurboGrafx-16)

Not to be confused with Jackie Chan's Inaction Kung Fu, where he just sits watching martial arts movies for the whole game.

This was actually one of my favourite platformers on the NES, so I'm curious to see if it's the same game.

One day, Jackie and his twin sister Josephine were out enjoying a pleasant stroll. Well one of them was enjoying it. Jackie looks like he was forced into it.

But then suddenly an evil magician appeared!

Without hesitation, Jackie dives foot first into the villain's face.

Damn, that looked like it was going to work too. The evil sorcerer kidnaps Josephine, leaving Jackie lying wounded and more than a little pissed off.

Wow, we're rescuing the hero's sister? Not his girlfriend or a princess? That's a nice change.

Can't we just go directly up and skip those other two levels on the right? Fine, okay we'll go the long way.

Jackie controls really well in this, he's got low kicks, punches, flying kicks, charged hadouken attacks and collectable special attacks. Plus the enemies all seem to be going down in one hit so far. And then exploding into smoke and balls.

This is all very familiar so far, it even has the same incredibly catchy music as the NES version. But something about it seems off somehow.

Jackie Chan's Action Kung Fu (NES)

Ah, it seems that the two versions have the same music, plot and gameplay, but different enemies and levels.

Smell the righteous fury of my flying kick, butterfly!

Man the enemies have been total pushovers so far. I mean seriously, I'm fighting a butterfly here. He's not even fighting back, he was just minding his own business.

Oh shit, it's a tiger. And a really nice looking tiger too. This game has a very cool and unusual art style I think. The characters are cartoony, but full of detail. You can see Jackie's determined expression, and the tiger's fur.

Oh right yeah, the tiger. Hmm...

Smell the righteous fury of my spinning super kick, tiger! These things definitely put up more of a fight, but they don't take many hits to take down, fortunately.

Wow, okay we're going all... icony for a bit.

Okay, it seems my kung fu master was just taking me on his express elevator to the special stage. If I'm reading that sign correctly, I suspect there'll be jumping involved.

Yeah, I have to jump from cloud to cloud, collecting the fruit before it disappears off the bottom of the level.

Time up, back to the game.

Come on, just stand still you damn frog. These guys are here to give me health or special move orbs when I hit them. But I have to be able to actually hit the damn things first.

Ah, a log raft. I think I know how this works.

Oh crap, it's not a raft. Uh, I guess we wade then.


LATER.

I love the expressions on these guys. All the characters in this have great faces.

Oh great, I love it when enemies throw weapons from off screen. Dodging fast moving weapons flying across the screen with no warning is always fun.

A mouse? I was killed by a bloody mouse? I was right next to the frog too. I'm certain that thing has a health pickup inside it.

The end. Jackie Chan is defeated and evil... oh wait, no he's throwing the rocks off. Turns out I've got continues left! Okay let's try that again.


LATER.

I'm not screwing around this time. Have a hadouken to the face you irritating little creature.

YOU! You're the one who stole my sister! Smell the righteous fury of my flying kick and... fuck, why does that never work against this guy?

Crap, it's a boss fight!

I don't get what to do here at all. I'm attacking every point of his body I can reach and it doesn't seem like anything's hurting him. His hands are flying around everywhere, but hitting them does nothing too. The head seems an obvious weak point, but how the hell do I get up there?

Oh, duh. I jumped on his hands. Now I can kick him in the face as much as I like.

Boss defeated!

Son of a bitch. I really hate flying enemies.

This cunning little bastard is trying to catch me out with fireballs that arc slightly up towards me.

Well I definitely screwed that up. I don't know what the correct move there was, but jumping over the lake of lava into the flying fire dragon wasn't it.

Well the game kicked my ass, but it was cool while it lasted. It's a little different, but just as good as the NES version, so I give them both a gold star.