Way of the Exploding Fist

Long before fighting games became a dazzling arcade show, a different king ruled the home computers: The Way of the Exploding Fist. This karate simulation from the mid-eighties showed that even an eight-bit machine could offer a surprisingly elaborate man-against-man duel.

Unlike later fighting games with button combos, this was about pure karate. The player had a wide palette of punches and kicks controlled by combinations of the joystick and button, from low sweeps to high spinning kicks. The goal was not to whittle away the opponent's health, but to land a clean, well-timed blow, for which the referee awarded a half or a full point. The duel thus resembled real karate bouts, where precision and anticipation decided it, not frantic pummelling.

The game was published by the studio Melbourne House and became an enormous commercial success. At a time when the Western world was beginning to be fascinated by martial arts, it hit the mood of the day exactly and on platforms like the ZX Spectrum earned a reputation as one of the best fighting games of its generation. For many players it was their very first contact with the one-on-one duel genre.

Culturally it is one of the founding titles of the fighting-game genre on home computers. Together with its rival Karateka it helped chart the path that all later fighting games would follow. Its emphasis on style and technique was exceptional for its time and influenced how duels in digital form were viewed.

To play The Way of the Exploding Fist today means returning to the roots of the whole genre. The duels are slower and more methodical than today's fighting games, but it is precisely in that deliberation and emphasis on clean technique that their timeless magic lies. It is a piece of gaming history worth getting to know.

Why play it: For an encounter with one of the founders of the fighting-game genre, where technique and the timing of a blow decide it, not the speed of your fingers.