MMMC - Yie Ar Kung Fu

[scooterb23]

Guess who fell asleep last night trying to put this post together. Yeah, this guy.

Anyway, we are back with this classic (classic?) fighting game. Years before Street Fighter II, years before Mortal Kombat... there was Yie Ar Kung Fu. I have to admit that I was a big fan of this game on my Commodore 64 back in the day, but I always had trouble with the arcade version for some reason.

Post here, tell us what you think. I could use some more suggestions. Almost everything I still have on my list is a scrolling shooter of some sort. Anyone have ideas for some more variety?

[portnoyd]

Yie Ar is fucking awesome.

[Cardkeeper]

Yie Ar is fucking awesome.

Agreed.

[Bloodreign]

Great game, never could quite get to Blues, the last guy, to loop this damned game. Tonfun right before him would pretty much kill off any remaining lives I had, damned you Tonfun.

One suggestion, Liquid Kids.

[Flack]

I'm not sure where to start or what to add, only that this is one of my top 10 favorite games of all time. I first played this game as a kid at our local skating rink (it sat between Galaga and Crossbow), and learned to play it while standing on roller skates.

In the arcade version, I can usually beat the first page of enemies without using a life. Most of the time I use the "jump around" technique, where you simply jump back and forth and attack when you land at the right distance. Typically I do this by "jump around" in a stupid Beavis and Butthead voice, in reference to when they watched House of Pain's "Jump Around" video. On the first six or seven enemies, about the only way to get killed is to get greedy and keep hitting them over and over. Sometimes it works but sometimes they'll pin you down and then it's game over.

The game really doesn't get hard until you hit Sword and Tonfun, who will pin you in the corner and kill you quickly. Jumping around is a great technique for these guys as long as you stay away from the corners. Pole will do the same thing to you if you trap yourself in a corner.

The fighting system isn't as deep as the fighting games that would follow it, but I've always loved this game's action and sound. It also taught me how to say "thank you" in Chinese. "Shi shi", indeed.

[Rifter01]

My high score is 124,900 and made it to Stage 7. I couldn't get past the club guy.

I have this on the Konami Arcade Hits (GBA) & I think once a long time ago around Christmas I actually made it to Tonfun, yet I don't recall what my score was then. A very enjoyable game once your in sync with how fast the opponents can move.

I'm sure someone can beat my score, yet, my suggestions for games are: Mr. Do (Original, or Castle), Crazy Climber, Q-Bert.

[Flack]

The hardest thing about the GBA release is hitting the diagonal perfect with that d-pad. All it takes is one vertical jump instead of a diagonal one and it can mean lights out.

[scooterb23]

I've actually gotten to the last character once. It did not end well, needless to say. Has anyone here actually finished the loop? What happens? Are the bosses harder the next time around? Inquiring minds want to know!

[Flack]

It's been a long time since I did it. I know the game wraps around, but I've forgot if it gets harder or not.

[Shellshock!]

Oh cool! I just got done playing this and Road Fighter on the PSX's Konami Arcade Classics, and I looped it once with 3 extra lives and then turned it off when I realized it just kept going but with harder enemies (Star, for example, throws 3 stars in a row instead of just one). Being a huge fighting game fan, I moved one because there isn't any depth for me here. I actually like the Famicom sequel better. It's shorter but more polished.

Yie Ar Kung Fu is about 3 things: figuring out which of Oolong's move is the one that puts each enemy down, very picky hit detection, and a lot of luck to defeat Blues' totally cheap combos. Here's what I learned:

Enemy (always positioned on the right):

Buchu: no specific moves to defeat this one, really. It's too easy. Hit him in the balls with Down-Left + Punch for a funny bit.

Star: Jump over stars and hit her with low kicks. Up + Punch helps you inch your way closer and jump over stars at the same time. You can knock stars out of the air with the right moves.

Nuncha: Low kicks are enough. Right + Punch when enemy cornered often resulted in combos. Make sure you spank him hard when he starts showing off.

Pole: Jumping around and low kicks.

Feeble: Bonus stage? Get a Perfect for 50000 points and maybe an extra life.

Chain: Jump towards him when you see his chain coming and kick him low. He'll take distance to use his chain again. Repeat. When You can hit chain in mid-air with the right moves.

Club: Now it starts getting hard. Club is vulnerable to low kicks and but especially jumping punches and kicks (mindless repetition of Up + Punch works the best). Otherwise he blocks and returns the hit.

Fan: Easy. Wait for fans to loop and jump over them. Low kicks after landing near her.

Sword: You can corner Sword by walking slowly towards him and timing low kicks. There's a chance Sword will take extra hits when cornered because he isn't very good at escaping it.

Tonfun: This one is a bitch until you find the trick. His weakness is that he gets cornered easily if you jump towards him. Land, do one low kick (two if you are really sure it's going to connect while Tonfun is trying to escape the cornering, otherwise you'll get hit), and then jump away. Repeat.

Blues: this one is completely unfair. Fuck you, old-school Konami. Wait for him to get close, use ONLY Down-Left + Punch to hit him once, then jump over him and repeat. The timing for the hit must be near perfect, and always jump out if you are cornered. If you are cornered he will get at least 3 hits in in a combo. There are instances where you can combo Blues with up to 3 hits in a row if you are really good, but it's really hard and I'm not sure what triggers it. Even with all this you'll need a lot of luck and patience to finally beat him. I'm not ever doing it again.

[scooterb23]

Totally forgot this week, will have a new game next week!

[Rendclaw]

I used to be able to kill this game... I used to beat Blues at least twice, now I have all kinds of problems beating Tonfun the first time through. Thanks for the tips!