The Making Of Karateka Review (PlayStation 5)

by Jim Smale · Published August 29, 2023 · Updated September 5, 2023

For this The Making Of Karateka Review, we ‍discover how Karateka was made through an exhaustive archive of design documents, playable prototypes, and all-new video features. Like walking through a museum, you can explore the interactive timelines at your own pace. The timelines reveal how Karateka became one of the first games to include cinematic scenes, a moving original soundtrack, rotoscoped animation, and a Hollywood-style love story, influencing the decades of games that followed.

The Making Of Karateka Review Pros:

Decent graphics.
3.23GB download size.
Platinum trophy.
You get the PlayStation 4 and the PlayStation 5 versions of the game.
Interactive documentary gameplay.
The Making Of a Masterpiece is a collection of short videos detailing the history of the game from conception to reality.
You work your way along the timeline of events.
Videos can be fast-forwarded, rewound, and paused.
Subtitles can be turned on and off with a button press.
High-quality video.
Simple controls.
You can turn menu music on and off.
Clear crisp and clean menu system that is just so good to look at.
An excellent time capsule.
If you have played the Atari 50 The Anniversary Celebration you get that again but for the one game.
Has allowed me to learn and master the art of pronouncing the game name correctly… Ish.
High-quality images and photo scans complete with a description.
14 games –
- Karateka Apple 2 (1984)
- Karateka C64 (1985)
- Karateka 8 Bit Atari (1985)
- Karateka Remastered and Reimagined (2023)
- Deathbounce Rebounded reimagined (2023)
- Deathbounce first prototype Apple 2 (1982)
- Deathbounce colored balls prototype Apple 2 (1982)
- Deathbounce Little Man prototype Apple 2 (1982)
- Deathbounce Space Train Prototype Apple 2 (1983)
- Karateka Jordans prototype Apple 2 (1984)
- Karateka Broderbund prototype 1 Apple 2 (1984)
- Karateka Broderbund prototype 2 Apple 2 (1984)
- Asteroid Blaster Apple 2 (1981)
- Star Blaster Apple 2 (1982)
Thumbnails for the games show the original box art and original scans of the floppy discs.
There are five sections of the documentary and each has a completion percentage.
Original scans of paperwork, concept art, letters, and more.
All images can be zoomed in and out and pan around.
Attack the documentary in any order you like.
I love how you can watch them all discussing this game and play it as they made it back then albeit not on an Apple 2.
The games have a watch feature where you watch a playthrough and at any time you can take over control.
Games have the following settings –
- Rebind controls
- Screen mode (original/full/wide)
- Filter (tv/off)
- Display (color/monochrome: green/amber/white)
- Border on/off
- Save and load when you want
When watching a game playthrough you can fast forward and rewind game time.
If the game supports it then you also get an instruction manual.
Deathbounce Rebounded has in-game goals, a manual, and two control types.
Karateka Remastered and Reimagined have an optional commentary track, in-game goals, a Hud with your choice of offerings, a game manual, scan lines option, and a set of how many lives you have.
The gameplay of Karateka is that you go from one side to the other punching, kicking, and blocking enemy attacks until you defeat them.
The remaster of Karateka is really good, with smooth animations, and tight controls, and looks like a natural step forward for the series.
Karateka remaster has the goals pop up once completed and features a full combo system.
Deathbounce is a shooter where you move around a box and must shoot enemies without getting hit, putting a shield on means bullets bounce away from you.

The Making Of Karateka Review Cons:

I cannot always pronounce the game name.
You have to go back to the main menu to see your full completion percentage.
Would be handy to know what you are missing in your goal of 100 percent completion.
The Remastered games don’t offer save and load features.
It doesn’t have the 2011 version that came out on the Xbox Arcade store. (You can still play the demo of it on the 360 as it is not backwards compatible)
Cannot rebind controls in the Remastered versions of the games.
Doesn’t offer any online interactions like leaderboards.