Budokan: The Martial Spirit
| Developer: N/A | Graphics: |
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| Publisher: Electronic Arts | Sound: |
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| Year: 1990 | Difficulty: |
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| Genre: Fighting | Lastability: |
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| Number of players: 2 simultaneous | Rating: |
8/10 | |
Released on PC a year earlier, this is one of the all-too-rare martial arts titles with a somewhat realistic approach—or rather, one that stays true to the stereotype of a disciple training in a Japanese dojo.
Bear in mind, this isn’t a flashy action game but a (simple) martial arts simulation. Most of your time will be spent training and mastering the four disciplines on offer: Kendo, Karate, Nunchaku, and Bo. Once you feel ready, you can enter the grand inter-discipline tournament held at the prestigious Nippon Budokan in Tokyo.
Being released before Street Fighter 2 spares it from the era’s typical clichés. It stands out with some unique features, like the stamina bar that regenerates slowly but depletes when performing exhausting actions (such as jumping). There’s also the ki (focus) bar, enabling more powerful attacks if you space them out properly—though, in practice, spamming your opponent seems just as effective. Each hit displays the damage points inflicted, which feels more like something out of an RPG.
The only real drawback is the game’s overall sluggishness, both in its pacing and its loading times (I’d recommend installing it on a hard drive).
For once, I wouldn’t favour the original PC version, which is far inferior in terms of sound and tricky to get running on today’s systems.
Tip: Press “B” to exit training mode.
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