Good clean kung-fu fun

Competition The Gamesmen has an XBox copy of Kung Fu Chaos to give away. Entries should be e-mailed to ADFgamesmen@telstra.com with the name of the game you would like to win in the subject line. Only one entry a person please as subsequent entries will be discarded. Include your full name and mailing address in the e-mail or your entry won’t be accepted. Congratulations to our recent winners – Command & Conquer: Generals, Leut-Cmdr Robert Mayes, Edinburgh, SA, and Time Splitters 2 (PS2), Sgt Jane Harvey, Adelaide, SA.

Good clean kung-fu fun

Kung Fu Chaos
Microsoft Games Studios www.microsoft.com/games

Back in the days of the Commodore 64 many a lunch hour was spent emulating the great karate movies in an addictive game called International Karate.

In fact I haven’t really been into fighting games ever since, probably because of the increased levels of gore and ridiculous super powers that seem to dominate in today’s fighting games.

Kung Fu Chaos harks back to the old days when kicking your mate when he was down (virtually of course) while simultaneously hurling copious amounts of lame abuse was clean fun. It doesn’t take itself seriously; in fact it is just the opposite.

The developers have based the game around every dodgy kung-fu movie seen with weird characters, funny moves, and great commentary provided by the director who is filming the fights for the next big action movie. As the game is based on a film set, almost anything goes and fights are varied and challenging as the director aims for the ultimate shot.

I read recently that the developers had come under criticism from the Asian XBox market for its blatant stereotyping. Call me ignorant but I’m yet to see a kung-fu movie that wasn’t at least Asian inspired.

The best bit is the game is simple to learn but immensely fun. While it is violent in a kicking and throwing sense there is none of the gruesome effects of modern fighting games and inbuilt taunts add to the light-hearted nature of the game.

Perhaps I shouldn’t admit it here but it hasn’t taken all that long for my seven-year-old son to starting throwing me around the game and we’ve spent several nights playing co-operatively against the AI characters and in a slug-fest against one another.

It’s like an interactive version of Big Trouble in Little China – no pretences, just good kung-fu fun. Oh, and it’s got all the great music to go with it as well.

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