Ah karate kid, It was another awesome movie from the 80's, It had action, excitement, and adventure, so how could you turn all of this into an NES game? Oh well, you guys are about to see how LJN managed to mess up one of the greatest film trilogies of all time! This is the karate kid for the NES.

Story-5/10
The main story behind this one is really not that much excited about! It has very very little to do with the movie, just kidding! the plot of this game is that you must guide our hero Daniel laRusso through 4 big challenging (Hmm I may of over-exaggerated that) levels in order to get to the karate tournament finals, This is his toughest challenge yet, so you will have to work very hard to get Daniel to the finals, or the job is all blown to pieces if you are not at the control!

Gameplay-5/10
The karate kid for the NES is just your typical brawler, You control Daniel larusso as you get from the beginning of the level to the end without getting torn down, Standing in his way are just your typical double dragon like enemies, Thugs, bullies, etc. The first problem I have with this game is the hit detection! You can't hit an enemy without getting hit by them first! Like say I am trying to hit spike over there, I try to hit him first but he manages to hit me without giving me anytime to react at all! It is unfair beyond relief, But anyways, the controls are pretty simple, The D-pad lets you move, A punches, B kicks, and something you might notice, In order to jump, you must press up on the D-pad! They could've just made A the jump button, And B the main attack button, But no, After all, the game is made by LJN! In between levels, you must do some sort of weird bonus stages, one has you catching flies with a chopstick, one has you trying to hit and dodge this log, and so on. Daniel does not jump high enough, which means if you are trapped in a sea of enemies, jumping won't help because you will just lose more health then usual! Anyways, that is it for the gameplay, I guess that is all that I can say about it! It is just your average beat'em'up...

Graphics-5/10
The graphics are pretty darn plain and simple for an NES game! Daniel looks like your simple little kid with karate gear and bandanna, The enemies you will be beating up look like your typical bullies, and oh god, that picture of Daniel's karate teacher at the end of the game! It really scared me the first time I played this game, I did not play the game for another 2 weeks or so, and that is alot if you ask me! As for the actual levels and their design, it is pretty lacking if you ask me, Most times when playing a level I just grew bored of the same stuff in the background looping over and over again until the level was over! The HUD is pretty self explanatory, it shows you how many times you can use these so called special moves, your amount of health left until you die and lose a life, and your score as an entirety, These are the kind of games where I can understand why they put a scoring system in the first place, because there is quite alot of "Beep" to destroy! Just like what? Every single beat'em'up ever made?

Sound-6/10
The sound in karate kid is very and I say VERY bland, It is so bland you will forget that there is music playing in the first place! First thing you get when you boot up the game is some very Chinese sounding music, and It is all here from there, Each level you will be exploring has very forgettable music that sounds so generic, so paint by numbers, that you will instantly want to mute your TV the second you hear it! As for the sound effects, they are there, but they are hardly noticeable because the very loud music, but here are some of them, You get your punch, you get your little sounds when you are getting trashed by a sea of enemies, and whenever you die you hear some sort of weird "Do do dun dun dun" noise upon your death! I swear, you will hear that sound over and over and over and over until you lose all of your lives and have to start the whole entire game over from the start! BTW, I got to hand it to you guys LJN! The music in this game sounds very mega-man esque! Nice touch! Especially considering that mega-man is way better then this game will ever be! 

Addictiveness-5/10
To be completely fair, the game just doesn't offer that much for you to come back through after your long hard quest! I remembered leaving this one alone for quite a long time because I didn't find any reason so to come back and start playing it again! No, the only reason why I ever play this game again is to break my high score for each playthrough! My current high-score is 356,789 points, That is quite alot if you ask me, but anyways, that is pretty much it for the addictive factor.

Depth-3/10
This is really disappointing to say the least, this is probably one of THE shortest NES games I have ever played in a while!  This game is only a whooping 4 levels long! So chances are you can beat this game in about 5-10 minutes, I expected way better and longer, but oh well, It is LJN! Remember that!

Difficulty-8/10
This is definitely one of the more harder NES games I have played in a while! Most times in each level you just want to finish the level as soon as possible, but there is no way that can happen because all these freaking bullies are coming out of nowhere not letting you progress any farther! You will die and die and die and die and die! I know, it is really possible to say that this game is too broken and unplayable to be recommended to anyone!

Overall-5.4/10
If I were you, I would seriously rent this one before you decide to buy it for reals! I gave this game a 5.4 because the game itself is too broken and unplayable to even be reccomended to any huge diehard karate kid fan! Anyways, this has been RedHotToddy, and I am signing off! See you guys tomorrow, I don't think I can make it to 100 reviews this week because school is coming up, But I will see what I can do!

Thanks for your honest review of The Karate Kid!  It is an NES game that I never tried, so it seems I'm not missing out too much