Alongside Karate Champ, Konami‘s Yie Ar Kung-Fu had a profound effect on the beat ’em up genre and could be said to have contributed greatly to the establishment of modern fighting games. It was given a limited release in Japanese arcades in 1984 and was later rolled-out more widely – and internationally – in 1985.

The player character, Oolong, is based on film star Bruce Lee and the game was heavily influenced by Lee‘s Hong Kong martial arts films of the early 1970s.

In the game Oolong must fight eleven martial arts experts to win the title of “Grand Master” and honour the memory of his father. Each opponent has a unique appearance and fighting style and they are shown on an intermission screen in between each bout.

The game is fast-paced and can be over in a matter of seconds if you’re not on the ball. Oolong can perform sixteen different moves and can punch and kick high, medium and low by using a combination of joystick and button-presses. Every time you land a blow a red flash appears. Every time your opponent lands a blow a blue flash appears. Oolong also has excellent jumping ability which greatly aids his fighting (as long as you don’t continually jump into danger recklessly).

One important innovation Yie Ar Kung-Fu introduced to the fighting game genre is the health bar, whereas Karate Champ used a points-based system, and whoever loses all their health first loses the round. If that’s you the game will end if you don’t have any lives left and these can only be earned by progressing through the game.

Yie Ar Kung-Fu is a playable and fun game and was a big commercial hit in the mid-Eighties, and remains popular to this day. It has been converted to various home systems and has been re-released many times over the decades.

A sequel, Yie Ar Kung-Fu 2: The Emperor Yie-Gah, was released in 1985. The sequel wasn’t made as an arcade game, though, and only appeared on home computers, coming out first for MSX machines.

More: Yie Ar Kung-Fu on Wikipedia