Master Karateka (GameBoy) Walkthrough by DarkChojin =================================================== TABLE OF CONTENTS: ------------------ 1. Legal Stuff 2. Introduction to Master Karateka 3. Controls 4. Walkthrough 4.1. Stage 1 4.2. Stage 2 4.3. Stage 3 5. Closing Words 1. LEGAL STUFF -------------- This walkthrough is (c) 2004-2006 DarkChojin. You are allowed to distribute this walkthrough as long as its content is NOT changed. If you want to post this on your website, drop me a email. You are NOT allowed to send this walkthrough or any part of it to other FAQ sites under your name. I will find out, trust me. Karateka (c) 1984 Jordan Mechner Master Karateka (c) 1989 Bandai Shinsei Currently this FAQ can only be found at www.gamefaqs.com. 2. INTRODUCTION TO MASTER KARATEKA ---------------------------------- Master Karateka (aka Karateka) is available on: Nintendo Game Boy NES Apple II C64 It's a short but difficult Beat 'em Up. You only have one chance to complete the game. If you die, you'll have to start all over again. It is very annoying to you battle your way through hordes of enemys just to be smashed by a gate at the end of Level 2. The GB-Version of Karateka has some slight changes: 1. The colors are reduced of course (~_~) (but at least the enemys here do not look like Smurfs -> *cough*Apple*cough*) 2. The "Bow to your enemy"-Move has practically no use here 3. Your enemys and your own life gauge are represented by a bar, not with red/blue triangles 4. When you complete the game, moving towards the princess in fighting stance will not kill you The Story: Princess Mariko has been kidnapped by the evil Master Karateka Akuma. You are a young (or old?) Karateka whose task is now to beat Akuma and rescue Mariko. "Focus your will on your objective. Put fear and self-concern behind you, accepting death as a possibility. This is the way of the Karateka." 3. CONTROLS ----------- Simple: Start-Button: pauses the game Select-button: no use Normal Stance: D-pad left: no use D-pad right: run right D-pad up: no use D-pad down: go into fighting stance B-button: Bow to your enemy A-button: no use Fighting Stance: D-pad left: slowly move backwards D-pad right: slowly move towards enemy D-pad up: usually: go into normal stance, if near an enemy: high block D-pad down: usually: no use, if near an enemy: low block B-button: punch B-button + D-pad up: high punch B-button + D-pad down: low punch A-button: kick A-Button + D-pad up: high kick A-button + D-pad down: low kick Note: Punches are pretty useless. You must be way to close to hurt an enemy with them (I didn't even manage to beat the first enemy with punches, :/ ). The only time I used punches was to kill Akuma and his eagle at the end... 4. WALKTHROUGH -------------- 4.1 Stage 1: The Courtyard When you begin the game, you get to distribute 6 points on the abilities POWER, LIFE and SPEED. Put 3 points on POWER and 3 on LIFE, because SPEED isn't really necessary (only in the 2nd Level you need at least 2 points in SPEED). You start in the Courtyard of Akumas Castle. CAUTION: If you walk left, you will fall off the cliff and die! Your first enemy will be running towards you, so switch to fighting stance and use kicks to beat him. You shouldn't have trouble beating the first enemy, because he will not block your kicks. After this, run right. You will see a Cut-Scene where Akuma is sending the first boss towards you. Run right. The first enemy you'll encounter now will throw a Shuriken at you. You can either block and receive some damage or kick/punch in the direction of the Shuriken to destroy it. The enemys here aren't much harder than first enemy you encountered, except they start blocking your attacks now and then. But since the enemys are moving slowly, you should have no problem defeating them with kicks. You will fight approximately 15 enemys before you reach the boss: you will recognize him because he's wearing a horned mask. He's got a longer life bar than a regular enemy, he's faster, more powerful and he blocks. Try to keep him on distance with normal kicks, if he comes close to you, take a hit and continue kickin'. If you get low on energy, block his attacks and your energy will regenerate over the time. Finish him off and enter the castle. You cleared Stage 1! 4.2. Stage 2: The Castle You will now get 2 more points to distribute on POWER, LIFE and SPEED. Put one point on POWER and one on SPEED. You will see a short Cut-Scene: Princess Mariko sitting in her prison cell. Run right and pick up the scroll from the ground. Then the first enemy appears with a new look and more difficult than those wimps in Stage 1. He is one of the weaker enemys on this Stage, because he too, like his friend in Stage 1, won't block your attacks. Kick him, take a hit, kick him, take a hit and so on...you get the idea. After you kicked the hell outta him, move right. Cut-Scene: Akuma is sending the second boss towards you. Run right. Like in Stage 1, the first enemy will throw a Shuriken at you, either block it or destroy it. After you have beaten the fourth enemy, an eagle will fly towards you and attack. One single kick makes him back off. After (approximately) the 10th enemy, the eagle will show up again. Kick him and continue right. The second boss is coming up. Beat him by using this (works well on regular enemys too): Block his kick, immediatly move backwards and kick. With the right timing, your enemy won't be able to block, but it takes practice. You thought the Stage is over now, did you? Hah, think again, there's one more obstacle to overcome: The evil, evil Demon Gate! Walk slowly towards the open Gate (WALK, don't RUN or you get crushed). When you are just before it, punch. The Gate will crush down, then rise. Punch again and IMMEDIATLY RUN right! If you're lucky (and fast enough), you'll make it through. It's almost impossible to do if you don't have 2 points in SPEED. Stage 2 cleared! 4.3. Stage 3: Under the Castle You get 2 fresh points to distribute on your skills. Spend both for POWER. After this, yet another Cut-Scene: again, the Princess in her prison cell. Run and pick up the potion on the ground (not sure what the potion is for, but...oh well). Unlike Stage 1 and 2, the first enemy Karateka will now throw a Shuriken at you. The enemy Karateka looks the same as in Stage 2, but beware: he's much faster now and has a longer life bar. His only weak points are his power, which seems to have not improved, and he won't block attacks. As usual, keep him on distance with normal kicks, take a hit,.... After whiping the floor with him, proceed through the door to your right. Run right and kick/punch the locked door to smash it. Regenerate your life bar to full strenght. You will now get to fight Akumas 3 bodyguards, the first one is an enhanced version of the Stage 1 boss. You can only beat him by kicking him, then taking a hit, kicking him again, taking a hit,... (if you have 7 points on POWER and 5 points on LIFE you'll be fine). Oh yeah, and don't think you can walk left and exit the room to regenerate, because if you do, Akumas bodyguard will chase you! Exit the room through the right door. The next bodyguard (he looks funny) is VERY fast, but thats his weak point. Just do high kicks and the bodyguard will be down in no time. Again, smash the door and prepare for the next bodyguard, who is an enhanced version of the Stage 2 boss, so use the "Block, back, kick"-Technique. Now, smash the door again (gets boring, huh?) and prepare for... No, not Akuma, but his eagle! Use low punches to defeat it (jupee, the first time you use punches). It will fly off the screen, but then return to attack you again. Continue using low punches until the eagle...explodes or something. Never mind, proceed to the next room and prepare for... THE ULTIMATE INCARNATION OF EVIL: MASTER KARATEKA AKUMA HIMSELF!!! Basically, he's as strong and as fast as you are, but he's got a VERY long life bar and he's using high and low kicks, unlike other enemys. As long as Akuma is in his room, you can't beat him, because he will block ALL your attacks. So move back into the last room and wait. After some time, Akuma will show up and run towards you. Punch him, because he is unable to block or attack now! After a few punches, you have beaten "the mighty" Akuma. Run back to Akumas room, smash the door to your right, run to the Princess. *THE END* 5. CLOSING WORDS ---------------- Thank you for reading this crap. This is actually my first time I'm writing a walktrough in english, so don't be suprised if you see some grammar/spelling errors :) Thx to Bloomer, because I borrowed some info on the games story from his review of the Apple II version (c) 12/28/2005 00:45 a.m. DarkChojin (darkchojin@gmx.de) ...............................................................................