Once again a really detailed and interesting documentary of the 3 fist games by Beam software. I remember getting the original just after release, yes Bruce Lee's scream scared the life out of me. Ground breaking in many ways and the 64 version was head and heels better than the other versions. Fist 2 was a game when released a very misunderstood piece of software. I found it ground breaking in its layout and atmosphere and I was beyond shocked when the lads from Zzap gave it such a low score. I'm still shocked today, I'd love to know if Julian Rignall has changed his view of it. The last game I never knew about and to be fair I was pleasantly surprised. Not a lot of extra depth but great as a two player game. Brilliant production again mate 👍
The Way Of The Exploding Fist was a killer application for the c64 in 1985, all other karate games became obsolete when it came out. I remember my mates with stunned looks on their faces when I showed it to them for the first time. And Neil Brennan was a SID god. Thanks for the video.
Those beautiful backgrounds of Way of the Exploding Fist were just so eye-popping, especially with those little touches of animation. I don't know if the C64 color palette was ever used more beautifully.
FIST II wow.. i just love this game.. the big World and the 100% AWESOME Soundtrack is one of my alltimers! i never played it thru and this game was like an adventure which never was finished ..just legendary for me
Same here dude, still have to finish the game one time after nearly 35 years ( I guess) and the sound, atmosphere and the bunch of moves you could pull off with one a one button joystick is just...unimaginable in these times with 10+ button joypads.
Lovely stuff! And I like that you emphasize the importance of Neil Brennan's tunes. The ingame-tune for the original, along with the three tunes for the sequel are to me among the most memorable pieces for the C64. They set a kind of comtemplative mood that fit the gameplay perfectly.
I've literally noticed in most TH-cam retro game videos the music barely ever gets any attention or even mention so I always like to feature the guys that made all those wonderful tunes .
I don't get why FIST 2 was polarising. It blew me away as a kid on the C64. It was absolutely dripping with atmosphere and mystery helped in no short way by that phenomenally atmospheric and ominous soundtrack. If people wanted a straight 1-1 fighting game...well, they got that too! Look on side 2 of the tape!
I think i explained it quite well on why its polarising? Not sure what else i could have said ? I also explained why tournament on side 2 had issues . Anyway thx for watching .
the music in the first one was so relaxing... i remember playing the game back in 89 and recording it so i could listen to it when i was away from home...
Great Review / History!! The Way of the Exploding Fist one of the very best games for the Commodore 64. Everything about it just was just so polished! The music alone is some of the best music I've ever heard on the mighty Commodore 64 and that's saying a lot. I enjoy that music up to this very day!
Congratulations on a really nice little documentary. Really informative, loved all the little extra bits of information that made the video very engaging. Personally, I never spent much time with either Exploding Fist and Fist + but Fist 2 drew me in with its exploring game play and steady pacing. Great stuff.
Cheers thank you , I've been wanting to make this for months 🤣👍 finally just did it , brought back so many good memories especially of the 2nd one and it's endless exploring
Hey. Really enjoyed this.. did actually realise Fist II was a thing.. I can totally relate.. around 1985 I loaded up Exploding Fist into the local primary school C64's which were all connected to one 1541... So basically the intro came up on all machines at one, and all the teachers came running in from the staff room cause they thought something was wrong... Just Exploding Fist... Heeeeeyaaaa!
The first Exploding Fist is by far a better game than both International Karate games. For a start it features a blocking system that both feels great and precise but actually works. Do people notice that nobody uses block on IK because it's so inneffecitive.- they probably don't even know it's there. because it's so poorly done. Secondly at least on the C64 version is a system that allows for the extending of moves dependent on how long the direction is held meaning you can fake moves in the way you would in a real fight. IK has the upper hand I'd say in a smoother animation but that's it. When you factor these two aspects of Exploding Fist 1 it makes for a much deeper combat than the hilariously basic always offence approach of IK. Both have excellent music although Fist I feel has a more exquisite tone.Fist 2 music is easily among the very best on the machine IK is fun if played for what it is of course but it's basically a game for chav like minds Special mention about Zzap64's total lack of any understanding for the music is in Fist II. Not a flippin clue on that one
Way of the Exploding Fist was the first head-to-head fighter I ever played, and I was going to arcades regularly at the time but I do not remember playing any head-to-head arcade fighters prior to playing Exploding Fist at home on my c64
there was only one prior on the c64 that i recall seeing called Black Belt converted from the apple 2 the only reason i ever remember it was that it had truly awful speech in it :), Karate Champ was in the arcades at the same time Fist was released but was very inferior in controls and animation. if they had stuck Fist in an arcade cab in 85 they would have made a fortune
Hey B Man! Thanks for this Great In depth look into the Exploding Fist series. I only ever played the first game. I never even knew there was any others. Definitely have to check out the others at some stage. Thanks for putting these on my radar! Awesome work as usual my man! All this work you do is greatly appreciated! Keep it up!! 😁
As a spectrum owner at the time, i'll never ever forget hearing a C64 playing the Way of The Exploding Fist music and my jaw dropping. I went home and all i could think about was how could i get my own C64. it took months of saving. But it was the music from that game that got me hooked.
Great video. I was a Spectrum owner back in the day and did enjoy that version of the game, but I tried the C64 version recently for the first time and it’s a work of art. Buying a C64 in 2021 has been fantastic, simultaneously making me wish I’d had one back in the day, but also glad I didn’t so I can be making the discovery now, when all the flavour has gone from the modern state of gaming for me
Awesome , welcome to the c64 scene ... So many games to discover ... Im still finding new ones everyday and ive had a c64 since 1984 . Thanks for watching the video 👍👍
Thanks man! Your channel is really great, I’m hooked. Love the presentation and depth of detail in your videos. Your yearly roundups of modern C64 games are a brilliant resource for finding newer gems too 👍👏
@@arcadeplayer77 thanks a lot , i try to represent the games as a whole the best i can . Its also getting close to this years Top 10 C64 new games vid , should be out in December sometime.
Fist II is propably my favorite game on the C64. The Graphics, soundtrack, gameplay was simply mindblowing back in the day. The game was very flawed and had a lot of bugs, but i finally managed to finish it after 34 years with the version of the gamebase64 that has fixed everything. If you never managed to finish the game then give it a try. Legendary trilogy of games. Great video also.
Great video about an interesting trilogy. I only played part 1 and 2 and liked part 1 much better. I found Fist 2 somehow confusing as a kid. Maybe i should give it another try... I also need to look for a copy of part 3 which is missing in my collection. Thanks a lot for your great work, Brendan. I appreciate it a lot!!
11:21 I remember playing Fist II as a kid, and the fighting in the water was mind-blowing to me, it looked amazing. The backgrounds in Fist II are IMHO still great looking. The exploration was okay, but I remember preferring Mastertronic's Ninja for that aspect. Still, Fist II was ambitious and is a classic IMHO.
I remember when my neighbour Andrew Cooper first got WOTEF and invited me round, he made me sit there quietly hoping to make me jump with that scream. It was a great game and I was terrible at it, my neighbour always beat me. He was really into his martial arts and started doing Kung fu and karate and ended up becoming a kung fu instructor :-)
Finally someone says that IK was a complete rip-off of Exploding Fist. I could never understand the success of IK at the time, just seemed like an outrageous steal.
Cool retrospective! Loved Fist and Fist 2! I never knew there was a Fist+… I totally agree with your assessment of Fist 2, it is a flawed classic… there has never been an open world karate game like it until Shenmue or Jade Empire… I expect there are others! 🤣 👊 🥋 🐉
BTW you should do a video on The Hobbit. Way ahead of its time with advanced vocabulary and parsing sentence input. Nice gfx with a disc drive and ofc that music.
Fist - For being the first / best ‘champ’ / ‘karate champ’ runner up to the original arcade version & Fist 2 - for the music alone But not forgetting being one of the first open world type games back then & being able to go have yr dinner & come back & continue the mission without so much as a ‘pause’ Great ! 👍🏼
It's not very often I get to smile at somebody else's accent (I have a strong Geordie accent so I get to hear about mine quite a bit :-) ). But I love it when you say "fighting games". Sounds like "farting games" and for the stance they assume in the Fist games, it's very fitting! Hehe. I watched another TH-cam video a while ago when a guy was talking about "sheet" music. No prizes for guessing what I thought he was saying.. and to be honest, the second interpretation would probably apply to a lot of modern pop music. :-)
"Way of the exploding Fist" paved the way for all modern fighting games IMO. This was my first fighter and it looked absolutely incredible at the time of release. All this in 64k. Never liked Fighting Warrior, but loved Fist2 and Kung Fu Master. IK+ was bonkers amazing.😆💥💪
@@BastichB64K I totally agree with you. Thinking back, I can remember seeing this game at my local computer shop running on demo, and it actually drew a crowd! I immediately purchased a cassette copy of "Fist" and another called "Raid over Moscow." I thought Wow! Great memories, great games, and great times. I don't think I'm having a case of nostalgia, it was thrilling, and seemed to be at the beginning of everything we enjoy doing now IMO. One of the best versions of "IK+" later arrived on the Amiga. Another I managed to get for the Gameboy advance. It plays fantastic. Do you remember entering the codes for dropping the fighters trousers and seeing periscopes in the water? 😆 I love"Ik+"
How does World Karate and International Karate tie in with this? Fun and informative watch, Thank you. Anyone remember Ninja for the c-64? Now that's some atmospheric music.
Fist II is probably the first Metroidvania ever! the music is outstanding and I played a lot at the time, even the version I had was bugged (there was a waterfall I suppose to fall but nothing happened) Definitely one of the best games for the C64
Surely that would be Metroid. ;) Seriously though. It has nothing much in common with that genre (which really needs a better name) other than a large scrolling map to explore. There are no collectables or power-ups to unlock other areas of the map. It's like calling Jet-Set Willy or Dizzy a Metroidvania.
@@obsoleteworlds you need to use some scrolls to unlock certain areas, or to unlock some abilities that let you pass some corridors, that's something that Metroidvanias do a lot
Great video. I have the first two games but never knew there was a third. Unfortunately I didn't like Fist 2. it was a great idea but I found it too difficult to stick with.
The Way of the Exploding Fist - I played International Karate before I ever saw this, so even though I knew it came first, this game seemed like the copy to me. It had been really hyped up to me, but when I played it, I was disappointed in the choppier animation and the slower pace of the fights. The digitized audio also seemed rougher to me. Fist II: The Legend Continues - I liked this one, but I never knew what to do. Like most games, I had a pirated copy without the instructions. I liked the exploration aspect of it, but I ended up just wandering around for hours. I remember getting frustrated because there was an item (a scroll?) on the other side of a gap and as many times as I tried, I couldn't figure out how to reach it. I'd try jumping, fall to the screen below and then have to cycle all the way around to get back there, only to fail again. Exploding Fist+ - This didn't make much of an impression on me. I'm probably alone on this, but I always preferred the original International Karate over IK+. I liked the one-on-one fights better than having to fight two other enemies at once. So when this came out, I didn't really care for it at all. I have a vague memory of there being a way for a third person to control the green fighter, or there maybe being a hacked version that allowed it, but I can't find any reference to that on the net, so maybe I'm mistaken. I know it was possible in the Spectrum version. Anyway, nice job on the video. :)
Great video. With your accent, to my ears, it sounds at 12:31 like you say: "And it's combination of farts and that wonderful music...". Which really only makes the video better...I don't think I even knew about the 3rd Exploding fist game, and also, for some reason, the passage of time I suppose, had it in my head that Kung Fu 2: Sticks Of Death, was a the first sequel to Exploding Fist, and that Fist: The Legend Continues was the 3rd game. Way off on that one.
Excellent overview of this series. In retrospect a case of diminishing returns but Fist II is the one I have the strongest memories of nonetheless. I agree the game is flawed, bugged (possibly fatally so in places) and at times very harsh (a save function or check point/continue option would have been a godsend) but oh.. the atmosphere and the epic length of the quest! Zzap! could have at least acknowledged some of the ambitiousness for its time, besides mainly pointing out the downsides?... only 27% for lastabilty! Yet... the game is huge. Oh well. The game (like some other beat 'em ups) does have one epic flaw though: SPOILER ALERT! (nothing to see here folks) (move along) (you sure?) (well, OK, you asked for it) You can beat every opponent without them hurting you, by just using the back kick...
😂 yeah I didn't know this trick back then , it would have made everything so much easier I only found out about it while researching this vid . ZZAP64 were super harsh on any no Brit made game to be honest ... I've only noticed this in retrospect going through my old mags ...... 😵
@@BastichB64K What did they think of the Ultima games? I mean, Richard Garriott was technically born in England, but ... uhh ... I mean, like ... you may have known people who have an unhealthy obsession with Japan, you know?
Fist II was amazing! The way of the Exploding Fist was a bit boring like IK+, always stuck in one place. Fist II inspired at least 2 unreleased games at the time.
@@BastichB64K Of course the graphical glitches could annoy a rock in the backyard to suicide, however it was the map aspect that made me like it. Fort Apocalypse, Tomb Raider, and Monkey Island all had this map thing to them in which I loved.
i agree with you 100% - fist 2 was ambitious and just wandering around i used to think i was david carradine in the show kung fu........... i reckon it was grouse
I just need 15 minutes of the first games complete music loop, straight, no interruptions. I had it on my C64 and would watch the entire demo cycle twice to hear it, because I usually wasn't good enough to play vs the computer through a complete background cycle to get to "hard" mode.
@@BastichB64K Yeah, you did. Wanted my comment before the end of the video. Sorry about. :( Great video by way. C64 was my computer growing up alongside the NES.
Considering the C64's limited memory I always wondered why Fist 2 had some many locations with nothing in them, seemed like a waste of memory and time to design them.
Backgrounds are tile based, i.e. using a limited set of graphical "pieces". If you have two (or more) very similar backgrounds, they basically take up almost the same amount of memory as one background, so it actually saves memory. If they were all stored separately as bitmaps (think JPEGs) then it would waste memory.
I don't know anyone back then who played Fist II and didn't love it. Great atmosphere and it had something for everyone. Fist+ is just an eyesore. Too much visual distraction with the background, kind of the opposite of what IK+ did. Feels like they missed the point.
Sometimes i really hated Zzap64. First they talked shit about Rock and Wrestle and then they put Fist 2 down. And Friday the 13th was also not that bad! And the Wizard was sometimes an arrogant bastard. But then all in all Zzap64 was still a must read! And Fist 2 is one of my favorite games on the C64.
I loved WotEF II, except for jumping those annoying pumas. I'd get the timing wrong and lose so much energy. Also, pro-tip from a local, "Melbourne" is pronounced "Malbun". You're closer than a lot of people though.
Very nice and interesting. The animated backgrounds are a bit annoying. Back to the game, it is real nostalgia to me. Part 2 was very mysterious. I used to play it but i never finished it.
I was a Commodore User reader, but no way was Fist 2 worthy of 8/10. That game had too many flaws to be rated that highly. As for Fist +, well it was impossible to best IK+, and that proved to be the case. Good video.
64K...who in their right mind needs that much RAM?! I can't see any program needing that much RAM ever. You will never use all of it and it's such a waste of money. Do you guys remember these arguments? ;)
Once again a really detailed and interesting documentary of the 3 fist games by Beam software.
I remember getting the original just after release, yes Bruce Lee's scream scared the life out of me.
Ground breaking in many ways and the 64 version was head and heels better than the other versions.
Fist 2 was a game when released a very misunderstood piece of software. I found it ground breaking in its layout and atmosphere and I was beyond shocked when the lads from Zzap gave it such a low score. I'm still shocked today, I'd love to know if Julian Rignall has changed his view of it.
The last game I never knew about and to be fair I was pleasantly surprised. Not a lot of extra depth but great as a two player game.
Brilliant production again mate 👍
Thank you as always 🕹️ much appreciated
The Way Of The Exploding Fist was a killer application for the c64 in 1985, all other karate games became obsolete when it came out. I remember my mates with stunned looks on their faces when I showed it to them for the first time. And Neil Brennan was a SID god. Thanks for the video.
It truly blew all fighting games away at the time , there was no competition
Those beautiful backgrounds of Way of the Exploding Fist were just so eye-popping, especially with those little touches of animation. I don't know if the C64 color palette was ever used more beautifully.
I hear ya.
FIST II wow.. i just love this game.. the big World and the 100% AWESOME Soundtrack is one of my alltimers! i never played it thru and this game was like an adventure which never was finished ..just legendary for me
Same here dude, still have to finish the game one time after nearly 35 years ( I guess) and the sound, atmosphere and the bunch of moves you could pull off with one a one button joystick is just...unimaginable in these times with 10+ button joypads.
It's hugely flawed but I still just love the adventure 🕹️
I loved the mood, sound and open world character of Fist II. I didn't know what to do but still enjoyed it very much :).
the best way to start this week. thank you
Thank you 😀👍
Thanks for the retrospective!
My pleasure thx for watching
Lovely stuff! And I like that you emphasize the importance of Neil Brennan's tunes. The ingame-tune for the original, along with the three tunes for the sequel are to me among the most memorable pieces for the C64. They set a kind of comtemplative mood that fit the gameplay perfectly.
I've literally noticed in most TH-cam retro game videos the music barely ever gets any attention or even mention so I always like to feature the guys that made all those wonderful tunes .
I don't get why FIST 2 was polarising. It blew me away as a kid on the C64. It was absolutely dripping with atmosphere and mystery helped in no short way by that phenomenally atmospheric and ominous soundtrack.
If people wanted a straight 1-1 fighting game...well, they got that too! Look on side 2 of the tape!
I think i explained it quite well on why its polarising? Not sure what else i could have said ? I also explained why tournament on side 2 had issues . Anyway thx for watching .
the music in the first one was so relaxing... i remember playing the game back in 89 and recording it so i could listen to it when i was away from home...
Yeah I used to record game music for my walkman 😂
Great Review / History!!
The Way of the Exploding Fist one of the very best games for the Commodore 64.
Everything about it just was just so polished!
The music alone is some of the best music I've ever heard on the mighty Commodore 64 and that's saying a lot.
I enjoy that music up to this very day!
One of the best Sid tracks for sure
The Way Of The Exploding Fist was one of the first non copied games I played! Loved it.
Me too my first bought game 👍 well worth the money
I was a simple C64 gamer back in the day, so I liked them all!
Nothing wrong with that they all have good elements
Congratulations on a really nice little documentary. Really informative, loved all the little extra bits of information that made the video very engaging. Personally, I never spent much time with either Exploding Fist and Fist + but Fist 2 drew me in with its exploring game play and steady pacing. Great stuff.
Cheers thank you , I've been wanting to make this for months 🤣👍 finally just did it , brought back so many good memories especially of the 2nd one and it's endless exploring
Hey. Really enjoyed this.. did actually realise Fist II was a thing.. I can totally relate.. around 1985 I loaded up Exploding Fist into the local primary school C64's which were all connected to one 1541... So basically the intro came up on all machines at one, and all the teachers came running in from the staff room cause they thought something was wrong... Just Exploding Fist... Heeeeeyaaaa!
🤣👍
Excellent documentary on a memorable series of beat em ups.
Superb work BastichB!
Cheers thank you , glad you enjoyed it
The first Exploding Fist is by far a better game than both International Karate games. For a start it features a blocking system that both feels great and precise but actually works. Do people notice that nobody uses block on IK because it's so inneffecitive.- they probably don't even know it's there. because it's so poorly done. Secondly at least on the C64 version is a system that allows for the extending of moves dependent on how long the direction is held meaning you can fake moves in the way you would in a real fight. IK has the upper hand I'd say in a smoother animation but that's it. When you factor these two aspects of Exploding Fist 1 it makes for a much deeper combat than the hilariously basic always offence approach of IK. Both have excellent music although Fist I feel has a more exquisite tone.Fist 2 music is easily among the very best on the machine
IK is fun if played for what it is of course but it's basically a game for chav like minds
Special mention about Zzap64's total lack of any understanding for the music is in Fist II. Not a flippin clue on that one
Thank you for watching , I like both fist and Ik .. they both different enough to be unique and are worth playing
Excellent review of the trilogy! 👍
Cheers thank you
Love the games, Fist II specially.
Way of the Exploding Fist was the first head-to-head fighter I ever played, and I was going to arcades regularly at the time but I do not remember playing any head-to-head arcade fighters prior to playing Exploding Fist at home on my c64
there was only one prior on the c64 that i recall seeing called Black Belt converted from the apple 2 the only reason i ever remember it was that it had truly awful speech in it :), Karate Champ was in the arcades at the same time Fist was released but was very inferior in controls and animation. if they had stuck Fist in an arcade cab in 85 they would have made a fortune
Yeah black belt on the C64 was garbage but it was an attempt at a fighting game . Karate Champ was the 1st vs game I played on the arcade .
Greetings from Melbourne! Thanks for covering this. Fist 2 is one of my favourite c64 games despite it's flaws.
Yeah mine too , great memories of playing this back then
Hey B Man! Thanks for this Great In depth look into the Exploding Fist series. I only ever played the first game. I never even knew there was any others. Definitely have to check out the others at some stage. Thanks for putting these on my radar! Awesome work as usual my man! All this work you do is greatly appreciated! Keep it up!! 😁
No probs glad you enjoyed it 🕹️👍
Amazing documentary. Great editing. I'm an Atari ST freak myself but you grabbed my attention from start to finish. Very well done!
Cheers thx , glad you enjoyed it
Thanks for your videos.. they really bring me back to those times.
No problem , thanks for watching
As a spectrum owner at the time, i'll never ever forget hearing a C64 playing the Way of The Exploding Fist music and my jaw dropping. I went home and all i could think about was how could i get my own C64. it took months of saving. But it was the music from that game that got me hooked.
The music is mesmerizing 🎶 so goood ✅
Great video. I was a Spectrum owner back in the day and did enjoy that version of the game, but I tried the C64 version recently for the first time and it’s a work of art. Buying a C64 in 2021 has been fantastic, simultaneously making me wish I’d had one back in the day, but also glad I didn’t so I can be making the discovery now, when all the flavour has gone from the modern state of gaming for me
Awesome , welcome to the c64 scene ... So many games to discover ... Im still finding new ones everyday and ive had a c64 since 1984 . Thanks for watching the video 👍👍
Thanks man! Your channel is really great, I’m hooked. Love the presentation and depth of detail in your videos. Your yearly roundups of modern C64 games are a brilliant resource for finding newer gems too 👍👏
@@arcadeplayer77 thanks a lot , i try to represent the games as a whole the best i can . Its also getting close to this years Top 10 C64 new games vid , should be out in December sometime.
I saved up my milk round and paper round money just to get fist 2 on launch. It was awesome. Mates loved it. Still play it on my Emu Arcade cabinet 👌
Yeah a flawed masterpiece 🕹️👍
Fist II is propably my favorite game on the C64. The Graphics, soundtrack, gameplay was simply mindblowing back in the day. The game was very flawed and had a lot of bugs, but i finally managed to finish it after 34 years with the version of the gamebase64 that has fixed everything. If you never managed to finish the game then give it a try. Legendary trilogy of games. Great video also.
Cheers thanks for watching 🕹️👍👍
Great video about an interesting trilogy. I only played part 1 and 2 and liked part 1 much better. I found Fist 2 somehow confusing as a kid. Maybe i should give it another try... I also need to look for a copy of part 3 which is missing in my collection. Thanks a lot for your great work, Brendan. I appreciate it a lot!!
Cheers and thank you for always watching 👍
The cave music is phenomenal.
yeah it really is especially good. Among the best I've heard. Not according to ZZap64 though lol
🤣
Yeah it's great , always creeped me out
Haha the scream while loading , I remember the first time I heard that as well .
Excellent video and history of my favourite game Fist 2 ! , Thankyou!
No probs 👍 thx for watching
11:21 I remember playing Fist II as a kid, and the fighting in the water was mind-blowing to me, it looked amazing. The backgrounds in Fist II are IMHO still great looking. The exploration was okay, but I remember preferring Mastertronic's Ninja for that aspect. Still, Fist II was ambitious and is a classic IMHO.
I agree , Ninja is more fun to explore and faster Fist 2 has a lot of issues but has so much atmosphere
I remember when my neighbour Andrew Cooper first got WOTEF and invited me round, he made me sit there quietly hoping to make me jump with that scream.
It was a great game and I was terrible at it, my neighbour always beat me. He was really into his martial arts and started doing Kung fu and karate and ended up becoming a kung fu instructor :-)
Awesome 👍 great times with that game and friends
Loved fist 2 but it always glitched out at a waterfall.
I never had that happen but it did crash on me before .
Really enjoyed this! Thank you!
Cheers no probs 😀👍
Finally someone says that IK was a complete rip-off of Exploding Fist. I could never understand the success of IK at the time, just seemed like an outrageous steal.
Well it is a clone , it's done well and I like it but it is a steal of Fist essentially
Also, for example, Atari ST owners like myself only had IK, so I'm a bit thankfull ;-) But yes, it looks very familiar to say the least ...
Cool retrospective! Loved Fist and Fist 2! I never knew there was a Fist+… I totally agree with your assessment of Fist 2, it is a flawed classic… there has never been an open world karate game like it until Shenmue or Jade Empire… I expect there are others! 🤣 👊 🥋 🐉
Cheers thank you for watching 👍
The easiest way to make my fists explode would be to play a C64 and sit through those waiting times
The first game still kicks. Start it and it will hook you up for days.
I really did love Fist 2 there wasn't much else left in the day.
Brennan is probably THE most underrated c64 musician. This, The Hobbit, Asterix, Usagi etc.
Deserves equal recognition as Galway and Hubbard.
BTW you should do a video on The Hobbit. Way ahead of its time with advanced vocabulary and parsing sentence input. Nice gfx with a disc drive and ofc that music.
You bet. Castle Of terror and Bazooka Bill are musical masterpieces.
Yeah I'll cover it when I eventually do a graphic text adventure vid
I agree he's very underated , Samurai Warriors tune is one of my all time favs
Fist - For being the first / best ‘champ’ / ‘karate champ’ runner up to the original arcade version
&
Fist 2 - for the music alone
But not forgetting being one of the first open world type games back then & being able to go have yr dinner & come back & continue the mission without so much as a ‘pause’
Great ! 👍🏼
Totally agree 👍👍👍
Great presentation thank you
Cheers , thank you for watching
It's not very often I get to smile at somebody else's accent (I have a strong Geordie accent so I get to hear about mine quite a bit :-) ). But I love it when you say "fighting games". Sounds like "farting games" and for the stance they assume in the Fist games, it's very fitting! Hehe. I watched another TH-cam video a while ago when a guy was talking about "sheet" music. No prizes for guessing what I thought he was saying.. and to be honest, the second interpretation would probably apply to a lot of modern pop music. :-)
🤣👍 ill be referring to these games as vs games from now on 😂
@@BastichB64K Don't do that. LOL :-)
Cool video! Great job sir!
Thanks a lot 😄👍
@@BastichB64K your welcome!
"Way of the exploding Fist" paved the way for all modern fighting games IMO. This was my first fighter and it looked absolutely incredible at the time of release. All this in 64k. Never liked Fighting Warrior, but loved Fist2 and Kung Fu Master. IK+ was bonkers amazing.😆💥💪
Even though Karate Champ came out a few months earlier i think exploding fist is better and is the real start of the vs genre IMHO
@@BastichB64K I totally agree with you.
Thinking back, I can remember seeing this game at my local computer shop running on demo, and it actually drew a crowd! I immediately purchased a cassette copy of "Fist" and another called "Raid over Moscow." I thought Wow!
Great memories, great games, and great times. I don't think I'm having a case of nostalgia, it was thrilling, and seemed to be at the beginning of everything we enjoy doing now IMO.
One of the best versions of "IK+" later arrived on the Amiga. Another I managed to get for the Gameboy advance. It plays fantastic.
Do you remember entering the codes for dropping the fighters trousers and seeing periscopes in the water? 😆 I love"Ik+"
So cool, thanks for sharing ♥️
Thank you for watching 👍
How does World Karate and International Karate tie in with this? Fun and informative watch, Thank you. Anyone remember Ninja for the c-64? Now that's some atmospheric music.
Ninja is great , one of my fav budget games
Fist II is probably the first Metroidvania ever! the music is outstanding and I played a lot at the time, even the version I had was bugged (there was a waterfall I suppose to fall but nothing happened) Definitely one of the best games for the C64
Great game despite the bugs at least IMHO 👍 thanks for watching
Surely that would be Metroid. ;)
Seriously though. It has nothing much in common with that genre (which really needs a better name) other than a large scrolling map to explore. There are no collectables or power-ups to unlock other areas of the map. It's like calling Jet-Set Willy or Dizzy a Metroidvania.
@@obsoleteworlds you need to use some scrolls to unlock certain areas, or to unlock some abilities that let you pass some corridors, that's something that Metroidvanias do a lot
Check out 8-bit trip by Rymdeglage
Great video. I have the first two games but never knew there was a third. Unfortunately I didn't like Fist 2. it was a great idea but I found it too difficult to stick with.
Thx , like i said you either love it or hate it lol thats ok .. its hugely flawed but i still like it 😄
The Way of the Exploding Fist - I played International Karate before I ever saw this, so even though I knew it came first, this game seemed like the copy to me. It had been really hyped up to me, but when I played it, I was disappointed in the choppier animation and the slower pace of the fights. The digitized audio also seemed rougher to me.
Fist II: The Legend Continues - I liked this one, but I never knew what to do. Like most games, I had a pirated copy without the instructions. I liked the exploration aspect of it, but I ended up just wandering around for hours. I remember getting frustrated because there was an item (a scroll?) on the other side of a gap and as many times as I tried, I couldn't figure out how to reach it. I'd try jumping, fall to the screen below and then have to cycle all the way around to get back there, only to fail again.
Exploding Fist+ - This didn't make much of an impression on me. I'm probably alone on this, but I always preferred the original International Karate over IK+. I liked the one-on-one fights better than having to fight two other enemies at once. So when this came out, I didn't really care for it at all. I have a vague memory of there being a way for a third person to control the green fighter, or there maybe being a hacked version that allowed it, but I can't find any reference to that on the net, so maybe I'm mistaken. I know it was possible in the Spectrum version.
Anyway, nice job on the video. :)
Yeah I believe the spectrum version you could.have 3 players but not the C64 , not counting any hacked versions. Thanks for watching 👍
Great video, I have excellent memories of this game (God I am old) ;)
🤣👍 thanks for watching
Video molto bello,rappresenta perfettamente il C64 con dei giochi mitici.questo e' il computer piu leggendario di tutti!
Great video. With your accent, to my ears, it sounds at 12:31 like you say: "And it's combination of farts and that wonderful music...". Which really only makes the video better...I don't think I even knew about the 3rd Exploding fist game, and also, for some reason, the passage of time I suppose, had it in my head that Kung Fu 2: Sticks Of Death, was a the first sequel to Exploding Fist, and that Fist: The Legend Continues was the 3rd game. Way off on that one.
Thx for watching , the US versions had their names changed so that could easily confuse the whole thing .
Excellent overview of this series. In retrospect a case of diminishing returns but Fist II is the one I have the strongest memories of nonetheless. I agree the game is flawed, bugged (possibly fatally so in places) and at times very harsh (a save function or check point/continue option would have been a godsend) but oh.. the atmosphere and the epic length of the quest! Zzap! could have at least acknowledged some of the ambitiousness for its time, besides mainly pointing out the downsides?... only 27% for lastabilty! Yet... the game is huge. Oh well.
The game (like some other beat 'em ups) does have one epic flaw though:
SPOILER ALERT!
(nothing to see here folks)
(move along)
(you sure?)
(well, OK, you asked for it)
You can beat every opponent without them hurting you, by just using the back kick...
😂 yeah I didn't know this trick back then , it would have made everything so much easier I only found out about it while researching this vid . ZZAP64 were super harsh on any no Brit made game to be honest ... I've only noticed this in retrospect going through my old mags ...... 😵
@@BastichB64K That's funny... well not really! If it ain't British it ain't proper! 😂
@@OperationPhantom 😂👍
@@BastichB64K What did they think of the Ultima games? I mean, Richard Garriott was technically born in England, but ... uhh ...
I mean, like ... you may have known people who have an unhealthy obsession with Japan, you know?
Exploding fist was better than karate champ. Better background, atmisphere and music.
Fist II was amazing! The way of the Exploding Fist was a bit boring like IK+, always stuck in one place. Fist II inspired at least 2 unreleased games at the time.
Yeah fist 2 is pretty cool , flawed but cool never the less 🕹️
@@BastichB64K Of course the graphical glitches could annoy a rock in the backyard to suicide, however it was the map aspect that made me like it. Fort Apocalypse, Tomb Raider, and Monkey Island all had this map thing to them in which I loved.
I remember the first time I loaded the game and heard "Bruce Lee kick O'Hara" from Enter The Dragon...this presaged a good game ;)
Yeah that speech sample game me a literal heart attack as my tv was set high and didn't know that was gonna happen 😂😂😂😂
@@BastichB64K
One of the best of my C64 SID !☺
i agree with you 100% - fist 2 was ambitious and just wandering around i used to think i was david carradine in the show kung fu........... i reckon it was grouse
Yeah flawed but still cool at least in IMHO
Best review ever
Much appreciated 👍
I just need 15 minutes of the first games complete music loop, straight, no interruptions.
I had it on my C64 and would watch the entire demo cycle twice to hear it, because I usually wasn't good enough to play vs the computer through a complete background cycle to get to "hard" mode.
Epic music 🎶🎶👍
Looks a lot like International Karate by System 3. The characters are almost exactly alike. I wonder what came out first.
I literally explain that in the video ???
@@BastichB64K Yeah, you did. Wanted my comment before the end of the video. Sorry about. :( Great video by way. C64 was my computer growing up alongside the NES.
Oh ok 🤣👍 no probs glad you enjoyed it
Considering the C64's limited memory I always wondered why Fist 2 had some many locations with nothing in them, seemed like a waste of memory and time to design them.
Backgrounds are tile based, i.e. using a limited set of graphical "pieces". If you have two (or more) very similar backgrounds, they basically take up almost the same amount of memory as one background, so it actually saves memory. If they were all stored separately as bitmaps (think JPEGs) then it would waste memory.
The bull? I had no idea!
🤣👍
Yo Bastich. Tnx for the vid.
No probs 😀 cheers for watching 🤜
Amazing game just class
Thx for watching 👍
I don't know anyone back then who played Fist II and didn't love it. Great atmosphere and it had something for everyone. Fist+ is just an eyesore. Too much visual distraction with the background, kind of the opposite of what IK+ did. Feels like they missed the point.
Fist + is the weakest entrie , it tries hard to be IK+ but doesn't quite get it right
Sometimes i really hated Zzap64. First they talked shit about Rock and Wrestle and then they put Fist 2 down. And Friday the 13th was also not that bad! And the Wizard was sometimes an arrogant bastard. But then all in all Zzap64 was still a must read! And Fist 2 is one of my favorite games on the C64.
I agree they were pretty off sometimes with the reviews but still worth reading .
I WISH! I had the Vic 20 :(
I loved WotEF II, except for jumping those annoying pumas. I'd get the timing wrong and lose so much energy. Also, pro-tip from a local, "Melbourne" is pronounced "Malbun". You're closer than a lot of people though.
The jumps are a real pain for sure and I'll attempt to say it right next time 🤣👍
i never knew there was a fist 2
Yeah , different style of game , exploration mixed with fighting
👍👍👍
😀👍
Very nice and interesting. The animated backgrounds are a bit annoying. Back to the game, it is real nostalgia to me. Part 2 was very mysterious. I used to play it but i never finished it.
I used to wander around in fist 2 for hours until I eventually made a bad jump 🤣
I was a Commodore User reader, but no way was Fist 2 worthy of 8/10. That game had too many flaws to be rated that highly. As for Fist +, well it was impossible to best IK+, and that proved to be the case. Good video.
Yeah I mean my rating would be a 7 out of 10 but that's just me , like I said it does have many flaws but Zzap giving it 39% is way too harsh IMHO
AAAHHHHRRRU-URRRR.....................nah. IK+ for me all the way.
Both have merit , both for me 🕹️
64K...who in their right mind needs that much RAM?! I can't see any program needing that much RAM ever. You will never use all of it and it's such a waste of money. Do you guys remember these arguments? ;)
🤣👍
@@BastichB64K
Oops where are my manners? Subbed.
@@Sinn0100 thank you very much