The Making of Karateka is more than just a typical retro remaster. It has games contained within it, you can play them, and they’re highly enjoyable. But you’re not paying a good chunk of change just to play a retro PC game.
Released towards the end of August 2023, The Making of Karateka is the first entry in an exciting new series from Digital Eclipse. Responsible for both developing and publishing The Making of Karateka, this game marks the first entry in their “Gold Master Series,” a collection of interactive documentaries whose primary selling point is their exhaustive amount of archival content. If The Making of Karateka is any indication of what’s to come, this series will likely be one of the greatest efforts in game preservation we’ve seen yet. But what exactly is Karateka, and why should you care about how it was made?
Karateka was originally released in 1984 by Broderbund Software for the Apple II. Its development was handled by a single person, Jordan Mechner, acting both as his first commercially released game and as one of the earliest brawlers in video game history. Taking direct inspiration from the works of Akira Kurosawa, among other historic films at the time, Karateka sees the player assaulting a Japanese castle in order to save Princess Mariko from the malicious Akuma. To do so, you’ll have to maneuver through dozens of Akuma’s guards in one-on-one karate brawls, with each one taking place on a 2D plane.
Being a 1984 PC game, it’s comparatively simple to today’s side-scrolling brawlers, but there’s some fun to be had in just how simplistic it is. Those who’ve played Karateka extensively would even compare it more to a rhythm game than anything else, as its combat relies on reaction more than action. The game itself, while challenging, can easily be beaten in under an hour once you’ve mastered its various tricks and mechanics. It was one of the earliest examples of incorporating cinematic storytelling elements into a video game, and its influence can still be felt in the big-budget action-adventure titles we see today.
It’s understandable if you’ve never heard of Karateka prior to this review. Mechner would create multiple games aside from Karateka throughout his life, even helming a 3D remake of it in late 2012 during the expansion of the indie scene. But out of all of Mechner’s games, however, you’ll likely remember Karateka‘s follow-up more than anything else. After all, how could you forget something like Prince of Persia?
That’s right, Karateka would be a stepping stone to the long-running Prince of Persia franchise, which would be released five years later in 1989. After a successful sequel and a not-so-successful transition to 3D in 1993 and 1999, respectively, ownership of the franchise would be shifted over to Ubisoft, who successfully revived the IP with assistance from Mechner in 2003. You could argue that none of this would’ve been possible without the initial success of Karateka.
But The Making of Karateka is more than just a slapped-together remaster and repackaging of Jordan Mechner’s classic game. While you’re free to play up to four separate versions of Karateka here, including an exclusive remaster that stays true to its retro origins, the real selling point is the sheer amount of archival material found in The Making of Karateka‘s documentary portion.
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Split into five distinct sections that each chronicle a different phase of Karateka‘s development, it’s genuinely shocking to see just how much of the game’s history has been preserved. Hand-written design documentaries, scans of correspondence letters between Mechner and Broderbund software, drafts of character sprites on grid paper, and even preserved photos utilized for Karateka‘s rotoscoped animation are some of the most stunning pieces of content here, painting an authentic image of how game development was handled throughout the early 1980s.
These are combined with modern-day interviews conducted with industry legends, including John Tobias (Mortal Kombat), Raph Koster (Ultima Online), and Tom Hall (Doom). Mechner and his father, who served as a composer for the various versions of Karateka, also provide insight into his influences during every step of the creative process. All this content is formatted into a series of linear timelines, with the progression of events forming a cohesive narrative of how Karateka came into existence.
One of the most significant additions, however, is a completed version of an unfinished game that Mechner drafted prior to Karateka. Jordan Mechner’s Deathbounce, a twin-stick shooter that took direct inspiration from Asteroids, is available in a variety of formats. Aside from a fully-completed remaster, you can play the original prototype at its varying stages of development or even watch a playthrough that you can freely take over at any time.
The quality of each Karateka and Deathbounce port is stellar as well. You can expect typical emulation staples to be here and accounted for, including the ability to rewind, create save states, adjust presentation settings, and even select chapters to replay at your own leisure. The remaster of Karateka even incorporates cut features from the original commercial release, with Mechner himself providing interactive commentary that can be turned on and off as you see fit.
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Games like The Making of Karateka are exciting not only for what they offer as an entertainment package but for what they represent for the medium as a whole. Similar to how cinema was initially treated as a one-off novelty, with entire projects being disposed of via fire or other destructive methods, gaming in its infancy saw little in the means of preservation. As it stands now, about 9 in 10 games released before 2010 currently have no official means to access them, with entire libraries subject to disappearing at a moment’s notice. Efforts like The Making of Karateka not only offer these vintage games in a convenient format to a new audience but also provide context for how the medium has grown and evolved over the years.
Overall, The Making of Karateka is a niche game for an appropriately niche audience. It’s a product for people who find themselves engrossed in the history of gaming as a whole, one that both celebrates and modernizes a title that would’ve otherwise faded into obscurity. Maybe you didn’t know what Karateka was prior to discovering this review. But now that you do, you can learn everything there is to know about this humble side-scrolling brawler game. Hopefully, the next entry in Digital Eclipse’s Gold Master Series will reach a similar level of quality.
The Making of Karateka is available on PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Steam, Nintendo Switch, the Epic Games Store, and Good Old Games (GOG) for the modest price of around 20 USD.
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