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Karate Chanpu, originally known as "The Way of the Empty Hand", is a fighting game developed by Technōs Japan and released in arcades by Data East in 1984. A variety of moves can be performed using the dual-joystick controls using a best-of-three matches format like later fighting games. The game was commercially successful, especially in the United States where it was the highest-grossing arcade game of 1985 and the best-selling home computer game up until 1989. Karate Champ established and popularized the one-on-one fighting game genre, for which it is considered one of the most influential games of all time.
An updated version that allows two players the option to compete against each other was released in 1984 under the title "The Competitive Way of the Empty Hand: Pretty Maiden Edition", featuring a multiplayer mode and more varied gameplay. It was released for the arcades shortly after the original during the same year, also published by Data East. This version was released internationally as Karate Champ (the original single-player version was exclusive to Japan), and would serve as the basis for the home versions of Karate Champ.
Unlike most later fighting games, there is no health bar or hit point system. A hit successfully landed ends the round and earns the hitter either one point or half point (along with a numeric score for the top ten, but this has no effect on winning a match). The first to score two points is the winner. If the player loses a battle, the game ends. The game features speech synthesis for the judge to call out such phrases as "Half point" or "Full point". The speech is in Japanese in the original version.
Player vs Player has the characters fighting it out over girls in twelve different locations around the world (similar to the later SNK's Street Smart). A scene runs as a best out of three rounds competition for one girl. After every competition, the player has a chance to earn bonus points by evading a series of potted plants flying at the player, kicking through a series of boards and stopping a charging bull. The locations of the game are: A harbor, a garden with a view of Mount Fuji, a bamboo forest, on a tree trunk over a chasm, on the stern of a Japanese registered ship, on the side of a road or runway, Holland with windmills, a big city, a North American desert with Indian , a Japanese garden, a dojo, and finally a forest path at night. Afterwards, the game returns to the first scene for a second loop. Completing all 12 scenes again completes the game.
An emulator of the arcade version was released by Hamster for the PlayStation 2 as part of its Oretachi Geasen Zoku Sono lineup. Only the original game was included (the Player vs. Player version being ignored from the compilation). The emulated version from Hamster was re-released in 2015 for the PlayStation 4 on the Arcade Archives compilation which, unlike Oretachi Geasen Zoku Sono, was officially distributed outside of Japan.
In 2010, it was released on the iPhone platform by developer Revolutionary Concepts. Although visually identical to the 1984 arcade edition of Karate Champ — Player vs Player, the iPhone version is actually a remake rather than an emulation, as it includes new features such as a difficulty mode as well as the ability for players to compete through a gaming network via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. The game was also released for the iPad under the title Karate Champ XL, again developed by Revolutionary Concepts. Karate Champ XL is basically the same game as the iPhone's Karate Champ, but with additional attributes over its phone counterpart such as a split-screen option.
The arcade version and the NES version were released in 2018 by Dreamgear LLC under its "My Arcade" brand. The arcade version of Karate Champ is part of a compilation released in the shape of a mini arcade cabinet featuring 34 Data East games. The NES version was released both as a standalone mini arcade cabinet and in a handheld device that includes 300 built-in games. In the case of the NES version, the referee's digital voice was removed and the music tracks were replaced. The arcade version is unedited. Since My Arcade's releases are single-player only, the two-player mode was removed from the NES version, and the Karate Champ — Player vs Player edition was not included in the compilation of 34 arcade games.
The NES version returned as part of the "Data East Collection 1" set for the Evercade handheld console. Except for the removal of the Nintendo license on the game's titlescreen, the re-release is identical to the 1986 original with all soundtracks and digital voice intact as well as the two-player mode.
In North America, it was among the most successful arcade games in 1984, generating significant sales. In the United States, Karate Champ had shipped 30,000 arcade units by April 1985. It was the top-grossing arcade game during Summer 1985, and the fourth-top-grossing upright arcade cabinet on the monthly RePlay charts in November 1985, when each cabinet was selling for about $2,400 and earning an average coin drop revenue of $200 per week. It ended the year as the highest-grossing arcade game of 1985, and the year's highest-grossing game in route/street locations. In 1995, Flux magazine ranked the game 91st on their "Top 100 Video Games" list.
Rick Teverbaugh reviewed the home computer version for Computer Gaming World, stating the game is "fast-paced" and "the graphics are very good" but "my only complaint is that some of the in-match options are counters for a move of your opponent, but there often isn't any time for those reactions". Ahoy! opined that the Commodore 64 version "isn't quite as electrifying as the arcade version, but it's an entertaining action-strategy test". The magazine concluded that "the learning curve is steep, but ... when the joysticks are in the hands of two practiced gamers, it is one of the most exciting games to hit the computer screen in a long time".
Karate Champ influenced titles such as Konami's Yie Ar Kung-Fu (1985), Beam Software's The Way of the Exploding Fist (1985), and other fighting games. John Tobias cited Karate Champ as the primary inspiration for the gameplay of Mortal Kombat (1992).
In 1985, Data East began taking legal action against counterfeit arcade manufacturers, both in Japan and internationally. Data East later brought suit against Epyx alleging copyright infringement for its 1986 game World Karate Championship. The case, Data East USA, Inc. v. Epyx, Inc., went to the Ninth Circuit Court, where it was held that the typical purchaser of the games would not find them substantially similar. Karate Champ was again involved in a later case, Capcom U.S.A. Inc. v. Data East Corp., in Data East's defence over Capcom's allegations of Fighter's History (1993) plagiarizing Street Fighter II (1991).
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