Jaws & The Karate Kid retrospective: Let's Just Not | NES Works
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 ก.ค. 2024
- Following on from Gotcha!, LJN continues plying the same furrow with two more games based on film properties, developed by Atlus. (Or at least someone pretending to be Atlus, anyway.) Two out of LJN's three 1987 releases are pretty decent, if a bit thin in terms of content, and really only The Karate Kid hints at the kind of crap the company would make its stock in trade over the coming years. Jaws might even be considered genuinely good, if only it had been given a little more time in the oven to allow all its concepts to come together...
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The running joke of showing Heiankyo Alien with increasingly strained relationships to what you’re talking about is quickly becoming one of my favourite things.
It's a game that can never be buried.
That Jellyfish Bomber for Atari artwork is spot on. XD
Collin Pierce definitely looks real
I did think it was real for a moment, despite the context of the video telling me it wasn't
I actually had Jaws as a kid and.... didn't hate it! It's not great and very simple, but swimming around blasting stingrays and sharks is surprisingly fun in a mindless semi-zen sorta way and the "level up" mechanic (such as it is) adds just a TINY SMIDGE of texture. Also, true to it's source material Jaws himself is big, bad, and mean and you DO NOT want to fight him if you're low level. Which makes the sonar mechanic (which pulses steadily faster the closer he gets to you) and seeing that fin come up from the water when he's in striking distance KINDA LEGITIMATELY TERRIFYING?? At least, it does if you can count your age on your fingers. Expected Jeremy to eviscerate the game, but ended up actually pleased he was able to see the same few bits of value in 7-9 year old me's C-List that I was.
I think Jaws would have been pretty fun, IF it weren't for the one-hit deaths and the fact that death meant losing half the stupid shells you got, AND losing the sonar AND one power level, AND Jaws getting full health back.
I liken this game to NES Ghostbusters in that I think the concepts here were actually pretty good, and potentially could have led to a great game, but the execution was just so terribly butchered. Oh well.
Jaws is very playable, it just gets boring after a time. (The fact that it gets harder the longer you go on is a problem.)
Its a good game
Not one of the best for sure, but I have a lot of good memories of playing it with my friends
Jaws' general "Atariness" is what always held it back for me. It never felt like a 1987 game. I'd already been spoiled by games that lasted way longer than fifteen minutes by that point.
"Atariness" is a word I very much enjoy!
for those lost at 6:00:
the game (series) in question is Etrian Odyssey.
I have to say, that pixel art image of Jaws really enhances this line from the original movie:
"You know, the thing about a shark, he's got lifeless eyes, black eyes, like a doll's eyes"
Nothing blacker or more lifeless than a blank pixel.
Even in Retronauts, FOE!
that surprised me.
(°д°)
Can I ask what the hell that was? I'm not up on Japanese culture outside of video games.
@@TheSmart-CasualGamer it was a fan animation about the Etrian Odyssey series of games that Atlus used to release on DS and 3DS. They are first person dungeon crawlers very much in the vein of Wizardry, but you use the touch screen to have you draw out the map yourself in real time as you explore. The FOE are a variety of wandering mini bosses that that will chase after you on nearly every floor and may even catch you in the middle of another battle (famously even bosses) to join the fight. The comparison to NES Jaws is very apt. But especially because of how likely are to wipe out your party if you're unprepared, they've become something of a meme among folks who have played the game, hence the fan animation.
Field Of Effect?
😢 I loved Karate Kid back in the day! Catching those flies was amazing to my 11 year old brain - it was just like being in the movie. (Of course when you couldn’t afford but a game or two a year as a kid, you tried to find the good in all of them.)
i had it as well. perfected it. i eventually could do the swinging pendulum bonus stage as well. it just needed more levels. i only got about two games a year as well. the only mistake that i never found any good in was friday the 13th. hogans alley kinda sucked too.
A multi-mode movie license? I'm surprised Ocean didn't have their grubby mitts on Jaws then, literally every movie license they pushed out in the 80s and early 90s were just a bunch of mini games to resemble scenes from whatever film they had picked up.
In fact, I feel it wasn't until Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay did publishers/developers realize they didn't have to stick verbaitm to a movie's plot to make a game based off of it.
Glad to see you’re watching this channel Larry. Both you and Jeremy Parish are awesome channels. Similar, yet different.
Perfecting the game was “all in wrist:”
Game on, game off.
Ah, there it is! Heiankyo Alien!
Wasn't expecting so many quips and jabs! Even from the get-go this was quite the fun ride.
what are you new here? :D
Ah, disgruntled dev rants brimming with rage hidden in the game's code... Classic.
You just can't do that anymore. 😅
I want to register a vote for Karate Kid being certainly more fun to play than outlined here. I own a copy and pop it in regularly. It's far from perfect and the unfair difficulty aspects are fair critiques, but in my collection of 200-300 NES carts, its far from the worst. Besides enjoying the basic brawler/fighting platformer gameplay, I admire the game's attempt to include different types of stages and mini games, especially the decision to open with the End of KK1--sort of a cool decision, rather than adding silly interpretations of high school fights--right to the good part.
Agreed!!!
I think Karate Kid's bad rap isn't entirely deserved. As far as licensed games go, it's very authentic to its source material. It starts off at the end of the first movie and goes through the entire second movie.
You can avoid fighting the boss in the third stage by simply ignoring him and rescuing the girl, similarly to how Daniel selflessly rescues the girl in the second movie. The challenge of not scaring Kumiko off the platform in the final fight serves to increase tension like how Chozen threatened and attacked her. (It's also very much needed to increase the challenge, since proper timing and a good supply of specials wrecks bosses normally.) And of course the bonus games are all greatest hits moments from the films.
Its technical shortcomings are unfortunate (bad collision detection being chief among them), but I daresay this game is surprisingly ambitious for a licensed side-scrolling action game.
i don't get the hate either. i actually like the game. it's flawed, but fun, and kinda charming. and can be beaten in 15 min or less.
Yeah, I enjoyed The Karate Kid. It was pretty fun. Imperfect, but enjoyable.
Things I never expected:
NES Jaws being compared to Etrian Odyssey.
I know the title says Jaws, but it really feels like you want to talk about Wonder Boy.
In Jaws you can actually earn additional "strobes" for the final scene once you got your power level up to 9 making additional port visits. I found this out while trying to beat the final scene never understanding you needed the red section of the boat to make contact with Jaws and not the boat itself. I even called a Nintendo Game Counselor in 1990 (remember them?) and all they said was "get more strobes". Thanks Nintendo!
In line for my copy of Jellyfish Bomber
IOSYS, now there is a name I haven't heard of in a long time.
Fun fact: Jaws is a game shown in the window of the "antique" store in Back to the Future 2 (along with BurgerTime)
LJN also released the heavily disparaged Back to the Future game and both films were Universal productions. Plus there's the famous Jaws 19 gag just a little bit earlier.
Man LJN was pumping out games during this time period of the NES
Riz2336 More like they got others to do if for them.
I wondered if Baby Shark would be referenced. Which is pretty fitting. Despite claims that the song is an old public domain work with an unknown creator, more evidence seems to point to the song being created during the popularity of Jaws, and the first "kid friendly" version may only date back to 2011. Which is why Johnny Only is currently suing Pinkfong for copyright infringement, as the song Pinkfong popularized appears to copy heavily from his 2011 "kid friendly" version.
I distinctly remember some students at Cambridge, who were training to be teachers, knew something like that in 2001.
For all bad LJN games, we must just watch the AVGN.
A wise man once said
"Oh boy! I HATE this game. It makes me wanna kill myself."
Check out the ljn defender for balance
Yeah, I had Jaws as a kid and I've always thought it was pretty decent. Although I never could get the timing right on the final segment.
Trick is to strobe him on the line directly in front of your boat and only if his fin is directly in front of you. Only a dead center Stab will make contact. Sometimes you might have to wait a really long time for him to get into the right position, so patience is key.
The Jaws NES game needs a bigger boat
Laughing Joking Numbnuts strikes with double trouble on this episode of NES Works.
Karate Kid is WORSE than Karate Champ?! I didn't think that was possible.
I loved the Jaws game as a kid. Was always frustrated by the negative reception it's gotten over the years.
Had to give a like for at 6:15 since that is a reference to my favorite RPG series Etrian Odyssey.
I know I stumbled into too many garage sales when I have TWO copies of Karate Kid and I have no idea how I obtained either
More than Jaws serving as the original F.O.E. (🎵F.O.E., F.O.E.🎵), Jaws' gameplay look makes me wonder if the folks at WayForward weren't a little inspired by it when they designed the JRPG/sidescrolling shooter Sigma Star Saga. Probably not, but the similarities are palpable.
2:55 The real enemy in Jaws.
I so look forward to your videos every wednesday! They really help make my days! :)
Even during NES Works F O E
I want to say that it is possible to beat Jaws all the way down at power level 0. You don't want to do it, because you have to almost chase Jaws off screen, circle around close behind, and stay still as much as possible so that you only get Jaws fights. It's definitely worth it to get at least power level 1 or 2 if you are feeling masochistic and want to get a chance at a win before you 'should.'
The 3rd stage in Karate Kid is an absolute nightmare
Starting the end credits music was unexpected and I like it!
I am absolutely chomping at the bit for this episode about Jaws
There's definitely some-fin special about this game.
Heh, never thought I'd see an IOSYS clip here. That was nice. :)
Karate Kid is pretty good if you think about it as a sequel to Kung Fu, which it basically was.
As a kid I had Jaws, Ghostbusters and the first TMNT game. I thought these were all of similar quality to each other and Super Mario 3. Kids are dumb.
*Sees Karate Kid*
*Remembers LJN*
-Eventually we're going to get a NES Back to the Future video, right?
*Shudders*
I really enjoyed Karate Kid when I had it in the early 90s. It was hard, but there was something that kept bringing me back to it.
Alright. Guess I'll do the honors this time:
That's what she said!
I remember “The Karate Kid”, and I finally beat the entire game that quick. It’s way too easy, but not hard. The total length of playing “The Karate Kid” was 15 to 20 minutes in length.
The ending goes like this:
“You have successfully guided Daniel-San through all of the challenges and have become a martial arts master.”
That was a good way to end a game like that.
You can tell Jeremy got bored while playing these games due the amount of jokes there are in video
You can always tell an action platformer is going to suck when it lacks any kind of grace period after taking damage. I didn't play many games during the NES era when I was a kid, so luckily I was spared the experience of LJN games.
Rubbing alcohol and a magic eraser takes permanent marker off NES cartridges super easily (Karate Kid cart)
But it can't erase the stain of the game itself...
Jaws' overworld theme, Lunar Pool's in-game theme, The Incredible Machine's "Euro"...
I always had hoped that we'd get a huge Jaws sprite underwater ala the crocodile sprite in The Adventure of Tom Sawyer
I remember renting both of these games. Jaws was fun, but don't remember wanting to buy it! As for Karate Kid, it was one of the first times I could distinctly remember not liking a video game. Still beat it as I was seven and apparently must have hated myself.
My younger friend and his brother that lived next door loved movies and were suckers for these LJN releases. Way too much time spent trying to get through the frustrating single player parts. At least Karate Kid's versus mode provided some mutual amusement.
HUH. Jaws wasn't developed by LJN...just licensed by them. That would explain why it's the sole LJN game that I actually like, unironically.
LJN didn't develop any of their own games. They were all contracted out to other developers. Many were actually made by Atlus and Rare, but they also worked with several other developers as well.
I rented Jaws more than once as a kid and had fun with it. Yes, the end-stage was baffling to me and I never came close to getting through it, but I didn't understand its bad reputation. After playing the X-Men game, I at least understood why LJN had a bad reputation.
Was LJN dissolved before Bart vs the Space Mutants was released? Because I can’t think of any other reason why Acclaim would have put their own name on that on instead of giving it the Alan Smithee treatment.
I think you're a little rough on Karate Kid. Like, the technical things you pointed out are especially correct, but the fact that we didn't get an infinite loop of the 1v1 section with maybe some mini-games thrown in is kind of astounding considering devs had a month to work on this. Also, I've seen games that have more dev time that are borderline unplayable, not just unfair, so the fact that this game doesn't pull some Cheetahmen softlocking nonsense is sort of a miracle in itself.
Looking forward to your Mega Man review
Good video as per usual mr. parish.
Can't believe you completely ignored the first true fighting game on the NES: Urban Champion
No, that was the first true fighting shame
"in which Pat Morita turns Ralph Macchio into the great white hope of martial arts" 😂😂😂
I don't care what anyone says. Jaws Rawks!
9:09 It’s a ghost!
AHA! I've been scouring the comments section to see if anyone else noticed it as well! I never played the game, but it looks like she represents a super health powerup which recovers all your health, and she popped in for four frames before Daniel-san was kicked into her. Hmmm!
I wonder how many viewers actually got the reference to that Etrian Odyssey song, that's a pretty dated reference tbh
It's 20 years more recent than the two games covered here
I love Jaws, and karate kid is on my top 10 favorite NES games. But I’ll forgive you because this video is pretty funny anyway. If you Give karate kid a good hour or two you should be able to beat the game in 10 minutes or less. My computer died so I can’t fire it up in the emulator, but I’m pretty sure you can’t select difficulty in karate kid. Also the trick to killing jaws in that final part, you have to press the stab button when you see his soft white underbelly (blue oyster cult reference)
Also, the key to beating the last boss in karate kid: stay to the far left of the platform, the damsel in distress won’t move if you do
That's weird. I always thought The Karate Kid stage 4 was based off of the cliff sequence in the horrible third movie. But it couldn't be because the game came out well before part III. But when were they in a desert during the second film? Could the designers have been briefed on part III while making the game?
love this show
Happy Wednesday morning, everyone.
Is Jaws's overworld theme the same as the Lunar Pool music...?
beatable in 15 minutes yet i never beat it as a kid lol
Let's Just N- oh. OH!
LJN the angry video game nerd favorite company
Can we please publish your reviews in a quarterly magazine, and send them back in time to correspond them with the release date of these games? I’d love to see the video games in that parallel universe that would be produced.
AVGN intensifies...
Junior, I was making snarky remarks about video games on the internet half a decade before TH-cam even existed. Now march to your room and think about what you've said.
@@JeremyParish I was just making reference to the fact that these two games were among his most infamous reviews he's done. I'm not saying you were trying to ape him or anything, your work is nothing like his.
Your work is well-researched and informative, the AVGN is a comedy show.
And I'm not going to my room, you can't make me. You're not my dad! 😄
@@JeremyParish Also, I'm in my late thirties. Who you calling "Junior"?
Someone who is several years younger than I am, whippersnapper
With all this talk about Atlus I kind of want to see a Famicom Works Gaiden on Megami Tensei now
I do take requests via Patreon
Retronaut$
I've always enjoyed both games, actually play through Karate Kid pretty regularly. It's a little quirky but there are far worse games out there.
Same, I enjoyed both games for what they were. The final fight was challenging but it's doable!
I disliked Karate Kid when I was younger, but playing it again after honing my game senses for decades led me to appreciate it much more. I never noticed before that the hitbox on Daniel's attacks lingers a good while and that the special attacks have i-frames.
I quite enjoy The Karate Kid.
Graphics are decent, music is catchy. Gameplay is fun (at least to me anyway), although it can get repetitive... but you should beat the game before it gets tiresome.
Was Karate Kid supposed to be a sequel to the movie? Like, a Symphony of the Night-style final boss intro?
"the first proper fighting game on NES" No, I'm going to have to give Trojan that honor as it's a much better game.
Hi Jeremy
I'm a big fan of your video series and your longer game history pieces on USGamer. they're a great comfort in my self quarantine (as most Belgians are required bye the government to do so).
An off topic question: I've got a golden NES PAL cartridge of Zelda (so far so good :) ) But the cartridge it self was actually produced bye Bandai. I'm very surprised that Nintendo would release a first party game on a Bandai cartridge. If this is a Bootleg, it must be one of the finest ever produced , sine it looks and works immaculate. As the leading NES historian (at least in my book ;) ), could you shed some light on the matter?!
Sorry, I don't know enough about this to offer even a haphazard guess! Tracking versions differences is not really my thing.
The Karate Kid was not that bad on the N.E.S. I completed the game quite a few times. The game is pretty fun.
The shark is actually called Jaws?
Technically he's Dr. Jaws, but he hates to sound pretentious
Or, as he puts in his suave English accent: "Jaws...Bruce Jaws."
Dr. Bruce Jaws, M.D. (Doctor of Mastication)
The sharks were named Brucette by the directors(Not making this up) in Jaws 2-4, while in the first film, Steven Spielberg names the shark Bruce.
@@JeremyParish Nature will castigate those who don't masticate!
Why were so many games created by departments at music labels? Why is that? I get they obviously wouldn't have a department especially for games at this point in time, but music departments seem like a weird choice.
I think any company with a toehold in media attempted to make games in the ’80s. Music labels make a certain amount of sense as video game creators; both games and records/tapes (along with CDs for the more cutting-edge publishers) were forms of entertainment media that required similar manufacturing and distribution pipelines.
@@JeremyParish I still find the CBS credit on Vegas Dream to be one of the most interesting things, since it came out during that short window where Sony (Epic Records) still had a temporary license to use the CBS name.
I got Jaws when I got my NES for Christmas in 1988. I played the heck out of it. And so did my mom. When I got a Genesis she moved the NES into her room and loved Jaws and Galaga. She actually discovered that Jaws has a kill screen like Donkey Kong. If you keep collecting shells and power ups without killing Jaws, it breaks the game. Not surprising considering the development story.
Is it hip to hate Jaws now? Was it all the merch? WAS IT??!!!!!
WE DIDN’T LISTEN!!!!!!
I have hazy memories of playing Karate Kid as a child, and I seem to remember the AI was predictable enough that I could fairly reliably finish up through the typhoon section (and I wasn't very good at either beat-em-ups or platformers). I don't think I ever got much farther than that, because I literally have no memory of the rest.
But yeah, the only real appeal was that I was a fan of the movies.
The game's not that difficult at all. It's weird how many TH-cam channels claim NES games that I had no trouble completing as an 8-year-old are super difficult. It's also not as bad as its reputation. It's just not great. But then LJN licensed games are rather maligned. Some are legit terrible like Bill and Ted, but games like The Karate Kid and Back to the Future game were perfectly playable and enjoyable enough for what they were.
I have fun memories of playing Jaws with my friend Danny who had autism. When I got my Analogue Nt Mini, Jaws was one of the first cartridges I bought on eBay :)
Interesting to hear somebody called Jaws a bad movie, people think it's a masterpiece, I agree with you though LOL! I enjoyed the game but its mostly Nostalgia why I would still play it. There are far too few enemy types etc but I did like it as a kid quite a bit, I liked the "travel back and forth leveling up the boat 🛥 " aspect and as a kid it felt like a real world in a way most games that aren't Zelda didn't.
Jaws III.
@@JeremyParish oops. Well I stand by MY disliking of the movie and liking of the game... cest la vie.
@@MaxW-er1hmYou're not alone! The game is better than the movie
You didnt mention the roaring jaws in Jaws the revenge. For shame. Everyone needs to know this movie was so bad the fuckin shark roars like a lion or bear! 😉😆
Crap! It is an RPG. So was this one of my first RPGs as a kid?
So Karate Kid nes game its based on the second movie....
how about Roger Rabbit 1989 LJN.
I feel like every episode should have a little IOSYS
"god-awful movie"?! Surely you jest.
Oh, Jaws: The Revenge. *Whew*
I love NES Jaws.
There is also a sub! in the game you can find so long as you hit enough points.
I think it's 35,000, and then 55,000...
Too harsh on Karate Kid.
LJN the mark of quality...
NOT!
JAWS was one of the very first video games I'd ever played. Prior to that, I had played the arcade version of TRON once, and a couple tries at Round 42 on my dad's Apple II. The game is not very good, and definitely not the best introduction to the NES, but dang it if I don't have a lot of nostalgia for it.
Karate Kid is a game that I wanted to like. But the main event (the side scrolling action) really is that terrible. I like the other bits though... The minigames, and even the 1x1 fights.
Jeremy, I would have to disagree with you about The Karate Kid nes game being "absolute junk". I had fun playing the game and completed the game many times. Still.. great video.
I actually enjoyed the Karate Kid back in the day. Was it great? Not even close but it was fun to beat every once in a while. The things that held it back more than anything in my opinion was jump being assigned to up on the d-pad and having to stop moving to do special moves.
Jaws is a great film but not a fan of this game and I own it.
I didn't think jaws and karate kid were that bad.
I wish jaws would have been longer thou.