Chinese Hero is an overhead fighting game that was developed by Nihon Game (later to become Culture Brain) and manufactured by Taiyo System in 1984.

It is the first game in the so-called “Super Chinese” series and features simultaneous two-player action set on a single screen play area.

Each stage begins with the bad guy carrying off your girlfriend (princess Min-Min) and leaving his goons behind to fight you. You have to knock enough of them down to open the door at the top of the screen, and onto the next stage. Should they knock you down a certain number of times, though, and it’s game over for you.

Considering that it’s over 36 years old now, Chinese Hero is a pretty fun game. You can punch, kick, jump, and build up your power meter to unleash special moves.

To dissuade you from taking your time, a huge gorilla comes onscreen after a certain time has elapsed and fires fireballs at you from his butt. Actually, that’s not true – they come out of his mouth…

The essence of the “Super Chinese” games, that is: having to use different strategies to defeat certain types of enemies, was established in this first game and carries through the entire series.

Chinese Hero was converted to the NES as Kung Fu Heroes in 1986. This game also led to the creation of a number of sequels, including Little Ninja Brothers on the NES and Super Ninja Boy on the SNES.

More: Chinese Hero on Wikipedia