Shanghai Karate

Shanghai Karate is a one-on-one beat 'em up set in ancient China. The Changchun Academy, one of the most prestigious karate schools, has been attacked by the evil Wang Chen, a disgruntled former student. All pupils and masters are slaughtered, but young Yo Lin escapes with the academy's sacred scrolls. Wang Chen dispatches his finest warriors to retrieve the scrolls, while Yo Lin travels from Changchun to Shanghai to confront his enemy. The battle takes place across four iconic Chinese locations: the Great Wall, the forest by the Yangtze River, the Loyang Caves, and the mysterious Dragon Temple. Each opponent can be defeated by depleting their health bar or pushing them off the screen. Eight joystick directions plus fire produce sixteen moves, including kicks, punches, sweeps, blocks, and a high jump.

ZX Spectrum

Released in 1988 by Players Software for 48K and 128K models, with code by Kevin Parker, backdrops by Martin Severn, sprites by Colin Swinbourne, and music by Mike Brown . The 128K version loads all levels at once and features digitised gongs, sampled grunts and slaps, plus in-game music via the AY chip; the 48K version loads levels separately with basic beeper sound . Sinclair User praised the "lovely" backgrounds, especially the Dragon Temple, but criticised the "dodgy" movement and lack of animation frames, which makes reacting to opponents "too late" . The two-player mode is restricted to the Great Wall level only. Selecting "sound off" slightly speeds up the sluggish movement. A practice mode is also available