Yie Ar Kung-Fu
The game was inspired by Bruce Lee's Hong Kong martial arts films, with the main player character Oolong modelled after Lee (like Bruceploitation films). In contrast to the grounded realism of "Karate Champ", "Yie Ar Kung-Fu" moved the genre towards more fantastical, fast-paced action, with various different characters having a variety of special moves and high jumps, establishing the template for subsequent fighting games. It also introduced the health meter system to the genre, in contrast to the point-scoring system of "Karate Champ". The game was a commercial success in arcades, becoming  the highest-grossing arcade conversion kit of 1985 in the United States while also being successful in Japan and Europe. It was ported to various home systems, including home computer conversions which were critically and commercially successful, becoming the best-selling home video game of 1986 in the United Kingdom. Gameplay. "Yie Ar Kung-Fu" features a Bruce Lee based kung fu master named Oolong (, Japanese: ウーロン "Ūron"; see oolong) (or Lee in the MSX and Famicom versions), controlled by the player. Oolong must fight all the martial arts masters given by the game (eleven in the arcade version; five  to thirteen in the home ports) to win the title of "Grand Master" and honor the memory of his father. On his side is a variety of punch and kick blows reachable by combining the joystick with one of the buttons (punch or kick). He also has the greatest jumping ability of all the game's fighters, with the exception of "Blues". The player faces a variety of opponents, each with a unique appearance and fighting style. The player can perform up to 16 different moves, using a combination of buttons and joystick movements while standing, crouching or jumping. Moves  are thrown at high, middle, and low levels. Regardless of the move that defeated them, male characters (save Feedle) always fall unconscious lying on their backs with their legs apart (Oolong flails his legs), and female characters always fall lying on their sides. Feedle disappears. When a player gains an extra life, the word "xiè xiè" (Mandarin for "thank you") is heard. Instead of a point-scoring system like "Karate Champ" (1984), "Yie Ar Kung-Fu" instead introduces a health meter system. Each fighter has a health meter, which depletes as they take hits. Once a fighter's health meter  is fully depleted, it leads to a knockout. On the arcade version, players can play on until all their lives are gone. No bonus lives are given thereafter once 9,999,900 is scored. Characters. The 11 martial arts masters are listed below (in fight order): "Hot Fighting History": "Masterhand History": The MSX and Famicom ports have many differences compared to their arcade counterpart. Instead of Oolong, the hero is Lee and faces only 5 opponents: There are two hidden characters in "" for the Game Boy Advance. To have access to them, the player must input the famous Konami Code at the  title screen. The characters are available in the special two-player mode found on this collection. The fighters are Bishoo (a woman dressed in white who attacks with daggers) and Clayman (a living statue who attacks with a sword bigger than Sword's). A hidden character in the mobile phone version is Katana, a samurai who attacks with a katana. Ports and related releases. "Yie Ar Kung-Fu" was subsequently widely ported to platforms including the MSX, Family Computer, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC and BBC Micro. In 2002 it was included in the "" for Game Boy Advance. An  emulated version of the game was released in 2005 for PlayStation 2 in Japan as part of the "Oretachi Geasen Zoku Sono"-series. It was released on Xbox Live Arcade for the Xbox 360 on July 18, 2007, with updated graphics and for the Nintendo DS in "". In recent years, this game was re-released on some TV game products. In 1987, the game was included on the compilation "Konami Coin-op Hits" with "Hyper Sports", "Green Beret" and "Mikie". The Famicom version was relaunched for the Game Boy Color (as a part of "Konami GB Collection Vol. 4"), Sega Saturn  and PlayStation. The arcade version of "Yie Ar Kung-Fu" was made available on Microsoft's "Game Room" service for its Xbox 360 console and for Windows-based PCs in July 2010. The MSX Version of "Yie Ar Kung-Fu" was released for D4 Enterprise's "Project EGG" service on October 28, 2014, in Japan. Reception. In Japan, "Game Machine" listed "Yie Ar Kung-Fu" on their March 1, 1985 issue as being the second most-successful table arcade unit of the month. In North America, it was number seven on the "RePlay" arcade chart for software conversion kits in  December 1985. It ended the year as America's highest-grossing arcade conversion kit of 1985, and one of the year's top five highest-grossing games in route/street locations. The arcade game was also a commercial success in Europe. The home computer conversions were also commercially successful. In Europe, it entered the UK software sales charts at number two, below Capcom's "Commando". "Yie Ar Kung-Fu" then topped the charts in January 1986 and again in February, and was then number two in March. It went on to become the overall best-selling game of 1986 in  the United Kingdom. Its budget re-release later topped the UK budget sales chart in August 1989. Sequels. A sequel, "Yie Ar Kung-Fu II", was released a year later. The sequel was released only for home computers and was never ported to the arcades. Another fighting game by Konami, "Martial Champion", was originally planned to be released as "Yie Ar Kung-Fu 2". In fact, Jin, the protagonist of "Martial Champion", was modeled after Lee, the protagonist of the Famicom and MSX versions, and after Ryu from the 1987 "Street Fighter" arcade game. "Shao-lin's Road" (1985) was  also marketed as a follow-up to "Yie Ar Kung-Fu".