Computer Gamer


Yie Ar Kung Fu II
By Imagine
Commodore 64/128

 
Published in Computer Gamer #22

Yie Ar Kung Fu II

Yet another martial arts game. When will software companies learn that this sector of the market is saturated? It wouldn't be too bad if Yie Ar Kung Fu II was a good game, but it isn't, it's terrible.

The time is twenty years after Lee wiped out the Chop Suey Gang and it appears that he didn't do his job properly, for one member of the gang, Yen Pei, survived. Now styling himself emperor, it is up to the son of Lee, with the original name of Lee Young, to go and do battle with Yen Pei and his minions.

After a few screens of battle-crazed dwarves, you get to meet the first of real baddies - a man with an extending iron pigtail! Immediately at a disadvantage because he has a weapon that can be used at considerable distance, your only chance is to get in close and reduce him to pulp using normal kung fu skills. So you trap him in a corner only for him to mysteriously teleport to the other side of the screen where his pigtail comes into play again. Obviously a case of hair today and gone tomorrow.

Yie Ar Kung Fu II

Other baddies to be overcome include ladies with lethal fans, fire breathers and people wielding such weapons as boomerangs (I hadn't realised that Bruce Lee was Australian!), bombs and lightning bolts.

Control is awkward wth all the kicks being on the diagonal on the joystick Maybe it is just me or my joystick but I can never constantly hit the diagonal when I want to. To give you added encouragement, you can stop for a cup of Oo-Long tea which will restore your lost energy. To do this, you have to wipe out an entire screen of dwarves and so get a leaf.

Five tea leaves make a lovely cup of Oo. Or how about some refreshing noodles. Should you take time out from your battle to stop and pick up the bowl of noodles that magically appears for a few seconds, then you become temporarily invulnerable.

A totally unoriginal game with nothing in the gameplay to recommend it whatsoever. Give it the chop.