Hi-ya! That’s the noise I make when I karate chop stuff in life and while playing developer Jordan Mechner’s remake of Karateka.
Karateka is a 1984 martial arts brawler that Mechner originally released for the Apple II. He’s updated the graphics and the gameplay for modern systems and already unleashed it on Valve’s Steam for PC, Microsoft’s Xbox Live Arcade, and Sony’s PlayStation Network. Today, the developer launched the mobile version designed for iPhone and iPad on the iTunes App Store for $2.99.
This is the first Karateka release for Apple hardware in 28 years, and Mechner addresses that in this video:
GamesBeat talked to Mechner in November about working on the Karateka remake.
“It was refreshing where it was small enough where I got to talk with every member of the team every day,” said Mechner. “We wanted it small because at its heart, we wanted Karateka to be a small game that you could play in one session.”
Karateka is a fighting game with a deep rhythm mechanic. Each opponent throws kicks and punches in a sort of groove, and the player must defend against those to power up a counterattack.
You can read more of our interview with Mechner here.