What makes the gameplay engaging is what made it unlike other games of its time-- it favors cinematic presentation and fluidity of motion over precision. Well, most of the time. Beyond the basic aspects of the combat, kicking and punching at different heights, there's the added aspect of having momentum to your movement and needing to maneuver yourself before and during confrontations. It creates a real tension when you're deeply studying the enemy behavior in order to figure out how you're going to go about the fight-- should you back up and try to fake them out, or would a well-timed step forward and downward kick open an opportunity for some damage?

Two little design choices make it a bit rough, the existence of a trap that instakills you and isn't very easy to figure out how to maneuver past, as well as a mini-boss in the form of a vulture that requires more precision to fight than anything else in the game, which is very tough considering the considerable lag between input and action. Both constitute a difficulty spike that will easily kill a player who otherwise, through careful and considered approach, could beat the game in a few attempts after getting into the feel of the combat well enough.

I found everything about the game very impressive, it's visually very beautiful, the music has a lot of effect for being so minimal, and the sense of momentum and flow in the movements seems like something that just shouldn't be possible on such a platform. Shows you what can be achieved within tight limits if you have the vision and know-how.

Played on The Making of Karateka (2023) documentary game on steam. Of the included versions, this original was my favorite, I just thought it felt the best in moment-to-moment action and visuals. However the sound is way cooler in the others, and the remake in that collection is pretty faithful to the core design concepts.