Way of the Exploding Fist, The

I played International Karate extensively before ever seeing this game, and I always found Exploding Fist the least enjoyable of the two. The sound effects and digitized screams are awesome and the graphics and sprites are very nicely done, but the controls and overall gameplay are very sluggish, which brings the entire experience down a notch. Still worth a play, but IK always felt more fluid and refined to me.

A landmark fighting game. Yes it was a bit of a rip-off of the arcade game Karate Champ, but this just oozes atmosphere - from the detailed background graphics, sublime oriental music, and digitized sound effects - including a scream digitized from Bruce Lee's "Enter the Dragon" which came from out of nowhere when the loading picture came up and made you jump! The gameplay is good, although a touch sluggish. Sadly, spamming leg kicks will usually get you the win - quite accurate technique for karate though! As a result, it's not a completely balanced fighter. There are also two versions of the game: One of them includes a Mas Oyama inspired bull fight where landing an accurate punch will knock it out!

A fantastic game, loved it on the Spectrum but this C64 version is a whole new beast. The music, the animation, the meaty sounds, they all stand out to make this version vastly superior. Very fun and addictive.

At the time, an incredible game but it got bested pretty quickly. Still, miles better than the abomination that was Fist 2

A landmark game for the C64. This is the first truly great fighting game, period.

It's got the merit of coming shortly before International Karate and setting the tone for it, but it looks and plays exactly like that: a sort of demo version of what IK (and its sequel) will perfection later on. Graphics are pretty nice for a '85 game though, albeit quite blocky, and animations were cool and realistic; good music too. Controls drag it down a bit though, being quite sluggish and not very responsive.

For me, the best fighting game on the system with excellent control and an incredible atmosphere

The first game I played where you could take a mate on in one-on-one combat. If no friend present then you could play against the computer who would get progressively harder. There were quite a few moves to master and the added bonus of getting to punch a bull!

Brilliant game - really challenging but so much fun to play. Graphics are great and the theme tune playing throughout is really catchy. I think I prefer this to IK+ after having spent time playing both games again after 20+ years.

I love this game, the animation and SFX just blew me away at the time. Note, my tape claims to load in under 3 mins with 'Pavloda' but actually takes closer to 6 mins!

Absolutely the nuts. Better than IK+, I've said it, I mean it. Archer Maclean is a tea.

Yes. After much thought I've decided this is the best fighting game on the C64. I had IK but never had the love for it I had for this. I remember watching the demo for hours before finally getting it as a christmas present... Oh to be young in the 80s again! Someone below had it right, the fact that you needed that one perfect blow made all the difference.

One of the best game ever... Played hours and hours... Great music, sounds, graphics and playability.

A really fun game. Loved playing this with friends and cousins. Loved the shout it did when the game loaded.

Fantastic for the year. Lovely serene music and kick ass sound effects.

Did you now... ? The main tune of this game is briefly played in the episode 47 (4th season) of the cartoon series "Courage the Cowardly Dog", "Squatting Tiger, Hidden Dog"

Wow, speccy version sure is ugly
Loved this game on the C64!

The best shooter on ZX Spectrum

The BEST EVER fighting game I was throwing a party on my ZX Spectrum back then Everyone wanted to play this game as it was our first martial arts game

A bonafide classic.
Kinda sad that they never followed this masterpiece up with a proper polished sequel.
International Karate got a facelift when they added the +.
Poor FIST got hit in the face with a sock stuffed with bricks.

8/10

A star quality classic. Good playability and use of digitized sampling. All I hated about it was the fact that it used Pavloda Thankfully I have a version that uses Invade-a-load on the 30 Red Hot Hits compilation

Forget all that Street Fighter rubbish, this is a proper fight! Get the right move in at the right time and that tension of knowing one blow could land you on your arse. One of my all time favs.

Fantastic fighting game! This game is one of my favorites on C64

While IK+ can be even more fun thanks to the 3 players action, this was, and still is, my favorite fighting game of all time (Street Fighter can't hold a candle to this one! )
Besides, this was also responsible for making me start studying karate. Ah, the good ol'days and games!!

Brilliant game and my fav fighting game of all time. I had some mates over after school to play this and I remember seeing their jaws drop. 1985 what a fantastic year.

I would give the game following scores:

Graphics: 10
Sound: 10
Playability: 8
Overall: 9

Best fighting game for the 64 in my opinion. It's not as fast and smooth as IK, but it has more techniques (2 kinds of foot sweeps, back kick, 3 kinds of punches) and better controls. Nice music also. 10

This was better than IK

I thought this was okay at the time and it is still okay now. Whilst it was the first of this one on one style of fighting game, subsequently IK and IK+ did everything Fist did but much better.

The graphics and sound are okay but the one move beats all was a major flaw. Once you knew it you couldn't stop yourself using it...

Worth its weight in gold! I played this alot!!! See it buy it!

Almost certainly the best combat game on the C64 and definitely the best 2 player combat game on any home computer

A disk version of this (PAL) went for almost £50 on eBay recently - hats off to the man who bought that.

One of my favourite games ever...

Love this game... Can't remember though if it only went upto 10th Dan!!??

really nice karate game, still very playable today, nice graphics and some nice offensive and defensive moves which are easy to learn...

in all an excellent game..

Nice and pioneering effort. But I found it rather ponderous as I got to know it AFTER IK and IK+.

An awesome martial arts bash. Beaten only by IK & IK+

I love it, was one of the first games I played on my C64 (it was about 1986). A classic fountain of inspiration to other games! 10/10

The first and IMO the best. Incredibly evocative and atmospheric.

Awesome fighter, I was heavily into martial arts movies back in the day and of course played Fist a lot, both in 1P and against some friends. As a Bruce Lee fan I immediately recognized the samples of the game which had been taken out of Enter The Dragon, that alone was reason enough for me to love the game to death... IK+ is superior to this but for a while, Exploding Fist was the reference martial arts game on the Commie. Nice graphics, very good sound and music. A must-have for every action fan. 9/10.

What a load of crud that TY 80 was, ask scarecrow he'd tell u

Was my bandit working or did we cut the wires in the back of it and more important did I have my TY80

Knowing rogers he would take the c-64 and exploding fist over the pit park and use the c-64 as a cricket bat and use exploding fist as a cork ball

Dont think podgy thought about it that much

I wonder what paul rogers thought about it

Must be my C-64 you are on about and I was amazed that you was amazed that everybody was amazed

I remember seeing it on my friends C-64 back in 1986 I was amazed, just awesome.

I love both International Karate and this game, they were both integral part of my childhood and still are a part of my life, as I suspect they will for as long as I can still remember them. Both games have their own advantages over the other. The gameplay is different to such a degree that it cannot be said one game has better gameplay than the other - just different. It can be a good thing to have a slower pace in game, it makes it more harmonious and less hectic. Fast pace can be good too, as it can be energetic and exciting in a different way. But one thing in everything about this game rises it above any other fighting game in my opinion is that it has a thick, lustrous and immense, immersive atmosphere that makes me miss the orient and it's wisdom and harmony. It has a mystical, esoteric quality about it that is hard to find from any other fighting games. The one-player music is a perfect example of this cosmical magic, and the graphics fit this music perfectly. The slow-paced gameplay then completes and complements it all, making it an unique experience. I am honored to have played this game. *bows*

Gotta be one of the top 10 C64 games of all time. I remember when I saw and read the first review in Zzap64! I went to the local computer shop and bought my very own copy - I was not disappointed! Awesome, bone-crunching SFX and never-before seen GFX make this a must-have.

Borrowed this off my mate at school, He was awesome at it. This is in my top 10! People might knock me for this but I think its way better than IK+

The music, sound effects are the dogs balls and so are the graphics.

Im not too sure on its sequals tho. I am slowly getting into "Fist II". Fist+ is a just a shamefull rip-off of IK+. A real "Hang your head in shame moment for all fans of this game. "

Exploding Fist is awesome!

Can get to about 4th dan then it gets hard

I was rubbish at this, one of the first games I remember playing.

In a Nutshell (superb)

Another clear Karate Champ ripoff, without the judge farting out, "Half point. " Instead, the points are signified by ying-yangs. Overall, a pretty good clone.

One of the greatest games ever made on any platform. Superbly balanced learning curve in 1 player but terrific fun with a mate. The thing about the sweep move being unbeatable and thus spoiling the game is rubbish. It will get you through to about 4th Dan but not much further.
The best beat-em-up ever made! 10/10

The C64 owned the mid 80s and this was one of the many highlight games. Makes me proud to be an Aussie.

A classic, pure and simple. There is also a certain logic in the way punches, kicks and blocks are mapped to the joystick direction. Like, jump kick = hold fire and joystick up, side kick = hold fire and joystick to the side, upper kick = hold fire and joystick diagonally up, etc. Sometimes people say it is hard to learn all the movements, but it is not that difficult if you put some effort into it. After all these years I think I sort of remember them all, or at least would be able to remember them very quickly if I played the game for a few minutes.

Definitely the best fighting game on a C64 when it came out. Unforgettably cool!

I always used to get this confused with IK+. Are these games related in any way? I remember when I played IK+ I was confused why you were stuck on one screen. This game was like Shinobi or something. Cool game, though I could never do the special moves.

Groundbreaking when you consider the year it was released! I got this for my birthday in the same year methinks, can had great fun playing it. The crunching SFX were so satisfying and it was quite a surprise when a bull suddenly ran at you! Oh, also totally crapped myself the first time hearing that "aaarrggchhhoooo" half way thru loading!

Good game, but I like IK a bit more.

Hideous sound with samples that just hurt your ears and a very unnecessary clunky sort of feeling, but despite this, a very impressive game.
Well thought out moves and some decent strategy, but a fair few of the moves need to be tuned and the AI needs serious work. The international karate series fixed most of the problems with fist, but then, they introduced problems of their own...

This game honestly inspired me to take up Karate as a kid. :-) A ground-breaking beat-em-up with the most wonderfully soothing oriental music accompanying the violence! Ah, the memories...

I was totally blown away by this game after playing it for the first time. Absolutely a C64 Hall of Famer.

An improved version of this game is included in Exploding Fist II, as a sub-game (or a training, depends how you consider it).

Ummm... How the HECK did I not leave a comment for this earlier? One of the first C64 chopsocky games I ever played, and still an important benchmark. Sure, it's a mite slow but it's still brimming with playability and when you bear in mind how much of a forefather this was to later games, that excuses the slightly sedate pace for me. BTW, to the guys at Melbourne House, RE: the article in Edge's Retro special with you guys... As mentioned in the Edge piece, you scared the living snot outta me with the loading scream! Makes me proud to be a Melburnian... *sniffle*

Grandmother of all karate games! System 3 simply copied the whole consept from Melbourne House and improved it slightly on International Karate. The orginal was just phenomenal when it was released and there was nothing like it before! Superb game!

Groundbreaking. A wonderful game *but* International Karate was slightly better. Like the music a lot.

My best mate bought this and we used to play it all the time. The graphics at the time were superb, as were the digitised war cries from the fighters!!! My favourites move to land was the roundhouse kick!

Great game experience, a very good fighting game, with wonderful music.

Loved this game! Fist was the first martial arts game I ever played and I still think it was amazing for it's time, though yes it looks pretty dated now. The music is great, especially the eerie one player mode music. The graphics are rather blocky, but atmospheric and nice to look at. It was quite hard to play until you got the hang of all the moves (and of course if you didn't just use the sweep, sweep, sweep method!) The best I ever managed I think was 5th dan.
Yes, international Karate was more polished, better graphics, faster and smoother to play etc, but I have to say that I didn't spend anywhere near as much time playing I. K. As I had spent playing 'fist' when that came out. Perhaps I'd already overdosed on the karate theme, or perhaps Fist was just the better game - still undecided about that one. Anyway, it's still one of my all time favourite games. 9 out of 10

Still good for some stress relief.

This is one of the greatest games on the C64. But I prefer The Way of the Exploding Fist II - The Fist continues better. Specially the adventure game version where you have to wander around. But still, this one is a classic and should be in everyones collection.

The dreaded HockShee! Maneuver is unbeatable!

If you like this game check out Legend of the Exploding Fist on an (emulated) Amiga... Or don't.

This Karate game is quite like International Karate. The graphics are good, and the music is sort of ok. The game is a bit slow, not as the one on International Karate, but when I kick the opponent, he goes down in a slow motion. Not a bad game for me to play however, it was a bit hard when I first played it, but I got the hang of it.

I know I'm on my own but I actually prefer the graphics of this game to International Karate. IK's graphics are neater but are cartoonish. The graphics of WOTEF are more messy but much more realistic in my opinion.

Doing what the person below is suggesting defeats the whole object of playing the game, besides, it's good to let an opponent jump behind you because you can back kick him. My best score so far is 180800 but when I achieved this I played the game PROPERLY.

This is a superb game, I love the sound effects. It makes a really satisfying smack noise when you land a flying kick in an opponents face. There is a way of making yourself pretty unbeatable, all you have to do is immediately walk backwards to the edge of the screen so that the opponent cant jump behind you. Now keep in the crouch position and just keep foot sweeping really quickly again and again. If you do this and your timing is good you'll beat everyone. I once beat about 20 10th Dans in a row but then got bored and let myself get beaten up.

The DADDY.

Another classic game.
Superb with 2 players, great fun. Like other people, I would put this in my top 10 C64 games. One of the all-time great beat-em ups!

Slower than ik+ but still fun, especially in multiplayer mode when you punch your opponent in the groin!

A great fighting-game!! We played it for hours and hours making our joystick moves ultimate!!!

When this came out in 1985, I thought it was closest to life any computer game would ever be. Excellent playability it has, too.

Oops, I forgot to say... Thank you Neil Brennan, thank you!!!

Ahh, Ye Olde Exploding Fist! What memories and what a serenely gentle oriental atmosphere it provides!
My first three copies of this game never had the music! Instead, all I used to hear were surreal freaky blurpy fart noises and the sprites would randomly flicker. But then the day I heard the music... I almost fell over with joy. I can get to around 10th Dan, but struggle after that! The ol' sweep, then back kick combination works very well! I liked the fact that this game was slower than the IK's, for it meant that more planning and strategy could go into the fighting. This was more prevalent in the brilliant sequel however, where you didn't always have full energy. The original is a jubilant, serenely powerful martial arts experience!

First Karate Game I never played! . Really good! . But I would have a preference for Internationnal Karate and IK+!

Great game. I'll never forget it. I always thought "exploding fist" was amusing. This was the best Kung Fu Master style game I played on the 64. However once you've learned the crouching punch things got a lot easier.

Great fighting game. Nice graphics and superb music. The game-play is extremly fun. This is a true classic that no one should miss.

This was the best fighting game of its genre. IK+ was fun and fast, but this was more tactical. Many a fight nearly lasted the full time as my opposition blocked, jumped or avoided my attacks. And you should always look out for the counter-attack. A flying kick could always be counter by a high-kick hitting your opponent before they landed.
I had 2 versions. 1 with a bull and 1 without. Dont know why. But still the best game of its genre.
It will always be in my heart and on my Hard-Drive

I think I booted this game that much that the floppy disk must be almost worn out. It didn't start the genre (the coin op Karate Champ did it) but it was by far the best fighting game available at that time.

I'm sure the scream during loading was taken from the scene in Enter the Dragon where Bruce Lee kicks Oharra into a row of chairs. It sounds just the same.

Great game apart from the fact that you can beat even the hardest opponent just by using the foot sweep only (IK has the same problem) still a great game though. A real classic.

It's true that International Karate and IK+ are faster, but they were released one/two years after this. I played it for ages... 9/10

My favourite ass-kick game. A lot of fun. I remember that you had to knock out a bull too. Awesome tune. Check it out.

A true classic. One of my favourite 10 games for the C64. I and my friends played it for hours, days and weeks.

It's true - without the simple delights of ... Fist, we may never have seen the likes of IK+, Tekken, Street Fighter et al. Although a fairly simple one-on-one fight, the sheer amount of moves available was a revalation. It also contained some superb sampled screams and yells, which would be used to great effect in the game's spiritual successor, IK+.

Fist was, and still is, one of my top ten games of all time. It was the first Beat 'em Up I'd ever played, (some 20 years ago!), and yes I was blown away! I couldn't believe my eyes and my ears, it was a truly awesome experience.
Tekken, Soul Calibur and Virua Fighter might of been very different games if Fist had never existed.
Brilliant Stuff!

All modern beat-um_ups should pay homage to this game now!

People should stop saying 'IK was better than Fist - it may well be better but it was made after fist - all they did was improve on an already excellent game. This is THE beat em up for the C64. Sure IK+ is much better but its about 3 years younger. Fist was great - fairly limited gameplay but far better than all these modern games with loads of special moves - fist was all or nothing - one hit and you're out. A classic.

Brilliant game that advanced the beat em up genre. Top graphics, great sound effects and the very memorable oriental music made it a winner for me, used to play this one a lot.

This was my first karate game and it has invoked my interest in this type of sport. One year after playing this game, I have joined a dojo to train. There I was for 3 years and now I can say, this game was the reason, that I have explored this fascinating sport.

My favourite beat'em up ever, along with IK. Fist + wasn't as good as this, not to mention fist 2. The music's superb as well, even if a bit too short.

Best beat em up game on the C64 and like many others the main reason I bought the console.
Not as fast, or as smooth as IK+ but for me the most playable fighting game (still) on any format.
Still think Fist 2 was a let down though!!!

Too slow... Ik + is best of all and Its my opinion. Graphic is beautifull but the fighters are too slow.

There haven't been many fighting games as good as this. Most of them rely on frenzied button pressing or "special moves" (read large memory feats involving pressing lots of buttons in order).
Fist had gameplay pissing out of every orifice and not only is it the original but to my mind it's better than most (if not all) fighting games for the next 10-12 YEARS!

I am an avid hardcore Unreal Tournament PC gamer but I say it again, these (C64) are the real games!!! I wish I could play this one again.

Best. Fighting game. Ever!!! Also check out "Thai Boxing", another good C64 fighting game.

A dated classic. I doubt that anyone who plays modern beat'em'ups will find much in the way of gameplay here, but no-one should forget what a debt those modern games owe to their ancestors. Great title music, gorgeous one player music, but both tunes too short to enjoy in themselves.

Sweep, sweep, sweep, sweep, sweep, sweep, sweep, sweep, sweep, sweep, sweep, win...

A brilliant game when it came out! I first saw on the TV screen in a local computer shop. I rushed in and played it for nearly 3 hours. The next day I came back and bought a c-64 and fist. I haven't been seen in school for one week.

This game was the sole reason I bought my first C64! Me an my friends had a blast playing this one. Hiayyy!

Exploding fist was an absolute classic when first released, killer app of its time for games. All ik did was improve on a classic (not very hard to do). Exploding fist had it all, the great music, great graphics and excellent gameplay - Melbourne House on fire!! And the intro while it was loading... Fantastic!!!

The local Sears was dumb enough to have this game installed on a C64 on display. I used to love rebooting and turning the volume all the way up then seeing everyone jump when that initial Hi YAA hit

A classic! Liked International Karate more though.

One of the first beat'em up games, very far from today's standards, but excellent in those days (maybe second only to the International Karate series). I can't forget the hours/days/months spent on it.

This was one of the first examples of the beat-em-up genre and arguably the most influential of it's time. Considering this, the depth of gameplay is even more surprising. Here you have a game that demands real skill to play. Button bashing was not an option, unlike most of the games which would follow. Blocking an opponent's attack was relatively easy if you it was coming and your reactions were fast enough. Making counter striking strategies very effective. Gameplay issues aside, there wasn't much to the game. What is there, is presented in a very professional manner.

Although there were only four backdrops to this game they were all quite well done for the time that the game was released. Music was excellent too, especially the tune for the Demo mode. One player mode was always a challenge to get to 10th Dan (if you avoided the temptation to use the leg sweep constantly) and it was always satisfying to knock the bull down. Put all this together with the two player mode and you have a superb beat em up.

Another Brilliant game... The Music & Graphics were superb... Gameplay had that 'just one more go... ' factor... Brilliant!