409 · Jackie Chan's Action Kung-Fu

• Jackie and his sister Josephine are tough on Tyrants
• First off - Jackie Chan does not have a sister named Josephine. He has two half siblings. Sister and Brother
• Tough on Tyrants - Does anyone not have that stance?
• What Jackie Chan Was Doing Around 1990
• Film career context By the time this game hit in late 1990, Jackie Chan was already a gigantic star in Hong Kong and much of Asia, known for combining slapstick comedy with elaborate, dangerous stunts. Films like Project A, Police Story, and Armour of God had cemented that "I will actually hold onto this this bus for real" persona.
• Immediate pre game period (late 80s)
  • Police Story 2 (1988) and Dragons Forever (1988) continued his modern cop and ensemble action streak. Wikipedia
  • Miracles (1989) put him in a period gangster setting, again as star and director. Wikipedia
• Right around release (1990–1991)
  • Island of Fire (1990) had Jackie in a grim prison action film. Wikipedia
  • Armour of God II: Operation Condor (1991) followed shortly after, sending him on a globe trotting treasure hunt with huge stunt sequences. Wikipedia+1
  • Internationally, he was still in that odd space where he was a legend in HK cinema, but mainstream American breakout hits like Rumble in the Bronx were still a few years out. Wikipedia+1
• Why this matters for the NES game The Jackie on screen in 1990 is incredibly physical, improvising with props, and constantly one bad step away from breaking his neck. The NES Jackie cannot throw ladders or slide down buses, but the game leans into:
  • Athletic movement and clean, readable hits.
  • A light, comedic tone instead of grim violence.
  • A hero who keeps getting back up after absurd punishment, just like his film persona.
• 1. General Overview – NES Version
• Elevator pitch Side scrolling action platformer where you control Jackie Chan, knocking around cartoon martial arts enemies across five stages to rescue his kidnapped sister from an evil sorcerer. Developed by Now Production and published by Hudson Soft, released on NES in December 1990 in North America, with later Famicom and PAL releases. Wikipedia+1
• Basic feel Chunky, responsive action with big sprites, generous hitboxes, light combo juggle vibes, and very few cheap deaths compared to other NES action games. The difficulty sits more in pattern learning and managing your limited continues than in perfect jumps.
• Offbeat question for this section
• If you swapped the label and told people this was a lost Adventure Island spin off, would anyone immediately say "No, that is obviously Jackie Chan"?
• 1. Story & Objective
• Set up Jackie and his twin sister Josephine are training, when the Prince of Sorcerers swoops in, zaps Jackie, and kidnaps Josephine. Jackie recovers in a field outside town and begins a five stage march to punch through monsters and rescue her, ultimately taking down the sorcerer himself.
• Overall objective Clear five linear stages, each capped by a boss, while collecting orbs, power ups, and bonus continues. Stages move left to right or sometimes vertically, ending in a big set piece encounter before Jackie advances to the next region of China.
• Tone The plot is straight heroic kung fu fantasy, but the presentation is cute: Chibi Jackie, frogs carrying rice bowls, and goofy enemies like kappas and tigers. It is very "Saturday afternoon Hong Kong cartoon filtered through NES chibi" rather than gritty Police Story (a movie he was in). Wikipedia+1
• Offbeat questions for this section
• Does knowing he was doing prison break movies and Nazi gold treasure hunts at the time change how you read "Prince of Sorcerers steals my twin sister"?
• 1. Core Gameplay Loop & Level Structure
• Basic loop
  • Walk, jump, and kick through enemy filled stages.
  • Smack frogs for power ups and rice bowls.
  • Collect green orbs to recharge life and your special beam.
  • Reach the boss, learn their pattern, repeat for five levels. Wikipedia+2Codex Gamicus+2
• Levels Strategy guides and playthroughs generally frame it as:
  • Stage 1: Grasslands and basic platforms, introductory boss.
  • Stage 2: Mountain area with fire and lava style hazards. StrategyWiki+1
  • Stage 3: Ice and snow themed area with slippery footing and yeti type enemies. Tropedia+1
  • Stage 4: More fantastical temple and statue heavy set pieces.
  • Stage 5: Final castle / lair leading to the sorcerer and his giant spider form. Tropedia+1
• Bonus stages
  • Hit a bell in a stage to warp to a 30 second bonus game.
  • These usually have Jackie bouncing on clouds or pummeling statues to rack up points.
  • After time is up, points are converted into extra lives and special attacks. Wikipedia+1
• Only if you played The bonus stages feel almost like a proto "WarioWare warmup": weird, self-contained challenges that break up the otherwise straightforward brawling.
• Offbeat questions for this section
• Which bonus game feels more "Jackie": cloud hopping for prizes, or punching a wall of statues for pocket money?
• Is there a set piece in any of the levels that could rival his cinematic demonstrations?
• Is five stages the perfect length for this sort of game, or does it feel like a world tour that got cut short for cartridge space?
• 1. Controls, Combat & Special Moves
• Controls Standard NES layout:
  • D pad: move and crouch.
  • A: jump.
  • B: attack.
  • Certain combinations trigger spin kicks and uppercuts depending on your power ups.
• Combat flow Jackie has a short range punch and a flying kick, with a few special moves obtained via power ups. Unlike many NES action games, his attacks feel fast and give you a bit of stun on contact, so you can bully crowds if you keep moving. Wikipedia+2RetroGame Man+2
• Beam attack and power ups
  • Hitting frogs can drop special scrolls that grant limited use special moves (stronger kicks, area attacks, etc). You can only hold one at a time.
  • Jackie can also charge a beam like attack that fires a ranged blast up to five times before needing more orbs. SO HE IS A SAYIN WARRIOR TOO?
• Orbs and continues as part of the combat rhythm Most defeated enemies drop green orbs that refill both life and beam shots once you hit 30, but kills with beam attacks do not drop orbs. So there is a constant small decision: use your ranged beam now and lose a potential refill, or grind it out with fists to build your stocks.
• Offbeat questions for this section
• If you mapped these moves onto a fighting game, would Jackie’s NES kit read more like a Street Fighter character or a Mario who wandered into the wrong game?
• Game over acorn The Game Over screen shows Jackie struggling to hold up a giant acorn labeled "Game Over". If you burn all continues, you see a longer version where he fails and gets squashed under it, then get booted back to the title screen. game-over-dex.fandom.com
• 1. Difficulty, Pacing & Fail States
• Checkpoints and flow Stages are broken into segments with respawn points, so you are rarely kicked too far back. Combined with the continue system and bonus game padding, it feels tuned for kids to eventually see the ending rather than to eat all their allowance.
• Offbeat questions for this section
• Is this secretly a great "first real action game" to hand to someone who only knows Mario, since it lets them feel powerful without savaging them?
• Which is more demoralizing: losing a run to the sorcerer at the very end, or blowing all your continues on the penultimate boss and never even seeing him?
• 1. Graphics & Sound
• NES vs TurboGrafx look The TurboGrafx-16 version has more detailed, slightly more realistic art and larger sprites, while the NES version feels a bit more chunky and toy like.
• 1. Sequels, Cousins & Other Jackie Chan Games
• Not literal sequels to Action Kung Fu, but the broader Jackie-verse in games.
• Tons of MSX games based on his movies jackiechan.fandom.com+1
  • Cannon Ball II, Project A, Spartan X, The Protector, The Police Story, Project A 2 on MSX and related platforms in the mid 80s, riffing directly on his films.
  • Often simple side scrollers or beat em ups inspired by specific movies.
• Arcade presence jackiechan.fandom.com+1
  • The Kung-Fu Master Jackie Chan / Jackie Chan in Fists of Fire (1995), a 2D digitized sprite fighter where multiple versions of Jackie are boss characters.
    • One of those Mortal Kombat digitized games
• 8 and 16 bit console era jackiechan.fandom.com+1
  • Spartan X 2 on Famicom (1991) is the only other Jackie Chan game on 8 bit.
• Later console titles jackiechan.fandom.com+2V Lists+2
  • Jackie Chan Stuntmaster (PS1, 2000): 3D beat em up about stunt work and city brawling.
  • Jackie Chan Adventures: Legend of the Dark Hand (GBA, 2001) and Jackie Chan Adventures (PS2, 2004), based on the animated series.
  • Jackie Chan Studio Fitness: J-MAT / PowerBoxing for XaviXPORT, where Jackie becomes your motion control workout coach.
  • RUSH HOUR 3 was a java game where you have to complete stunts for the movie
  • SHAOLIN VS WU TANG 1 and 2
• Now we find out if Jackie Chan's Action Kung Fu can pull off one last stunt and land on the ESSENTIAL GAMES LIST."

Auto-generated transcript. Each paragraph starts with its timestamp. Speakers are not identified.

00:00 Jackie Chan's Action Kung Fu! Jackie and his sister Josephine are tough on tyrants.

00:22 And welcome to NEStalgia! A chronological exploration of every NES game released in North America. I'm Mike. I'm Sean. And I'm Joe. Okay, first off, Jackie Chan does not have a sister named Josephine. I was Googling it right this moment. I was like, does he really have a sister? He has two half-siblings.

00:45 Or either of them Josephine. I don't even think he knew. No, they are not. And I don't think he knew either of his half-siblings until after this game came out. So there's some kind of like family drama that we haven't gotten like privy to. Right. But it just begs the question, how involved can Jackie Chan be if they're also just like making up his sister? He wouldn't have agreed to that, right?

01:07 I don't know. Why not? If he didn't know about his real siblings, why not? I'd say that if- Maybe he's always wanted a sibling. Yeah. If you're making a game about me, I say have at it. Give me siblings. Because I was thinking maybe it was like pitched originally as like, oh, this is the princess. And he was like, no, I don't do that. You know, like I don't, I'm an eligible guy. I need to be related. Right, right. Yeah. I wanted to be my sister, I say.

01:33 Also, tough on tyrants. Is that really like a stance? Does anyone not have that stance in life? Like, is that really a core value? Yeah. Tyrants probably don't. That's true. But they don't know that they're the tyrants. I guess that's the problem with the world.

01:47 Huh. Yeah. By the time this game hit in 1990, Jackie Chan was a gigantic star in Hong Kong, but didn't really have like his breakout like American films yet. You know, he had films that were shown in America, police story and stuff like that. But he didn't have like, he didn't have the same cultural zeitgeist I feel like he has now. So it's kind of interesting that he can still get a name on the box, you know, Jackie Chan's action Kung Fu. It's not like we get, you know, Arnold Schwarzenegger's Terminator or something, right?

02:23 Yeah. I don't know. I'm not actually super familiar with like Jackie Chan's history before he was an actor, but was he? I mean, I'm assuming he was like actually like an athletic martial artist performing in competitions and stuff. I'm guessing. So maybe he was known from that kind of thing before he was like. I mean, like he was really known for the Hong Kong movies though. I mean, he had done, he had done many that are like, you know. But you're saying this was before. No, this is before his like American movies. Oh, I see. Yeah. He was making Kung Fu flicks way before he got big in the States. Gotcha. Okay. So he's known. Yes.

02:57 But like in a broad sense, not in like, I'm not sure how aware kids in the 90s would have been aware of him if it's more like the kind of stuff you might see in like Grindhouse. Yeah, I guess that's true. I mean, I feel like maybe it's because I'm coming at this from like, we've seen a lot of people on the covers or big names in games that we don't recognize because we didn't grow up in the 80s. Like, or just because I'm not into a lot of sports or like Lee Trevino. Like Al Unser. Al Unser Jr.

03:27 Oh, yes. It's true. So yeah, it feels like sometimes they maybe go for like not. They do put people on here that are like not the most well known to kids. Right. I think like Rumble in the Bronx probably would have been Jackie's breakout role in the States and that was 95. So he still got a little bit. Yeah, I didn't really know who he was until, you know, like rush hour.

03:54 And so Jackie's here in a side scrolling action platformer game. You play as him knocking around. I mean, like, first off, he's kind of cute. He's like a little chibi version of Jackie Chan. And then like everything in the game is also kind of cute. Even if the tigers are going to eat you alive, they're all drawn kind of in this like, you know, I don't really want to punch this snake in the face. But if it's coming at me, I guess I have to fight back.

04:22 And that's like the general thing. It feels more like a cartoon than a than a kung fu action movie. You know, if we go back all the way to the launch games, kung fu itself did not did not have this kind of kiddish feel to it that this Jackie Chan game does. Yeah, it's got like less. I mean, it's funny to say this on the NES, but like less realistic proportions where it's like a little more like big head, smaller body cartoony. Like, yeah, chibi style, like you said, that makes it a little more cute. Whereas kung fu. Yeah, I think I could squint and imagine that as like a real person. How much do you think that looks like Jackie Chan? Almost none. Yeah.

05:05 But, you know, it's funny. It's not that's not even like it's not even a complaint I have about this game specifically in the sequels and spinoff section, which I'll get to later. It's just worth mentioning that every game, with the exception of the ones that like use digitization of him, don't really look like how I picture Jackie Chan. But maybe that's a maybe that's like an us problem because we're thinking of like rush hour. Yeah. Always rush hour. Always. It's always on my mind. They're making the fourth one.

05:35 Non-controversial. Yeah. Oh, no. I forgot there was even a third one. Yeah. I remember that one. I don't think I saw that one, but I was a big one and two fan back in the day. Two had like a tremendous response. And that actually like it was how I didn't even know about the first one until I heard about two. Everybody told me like two is like the funniest movie they ever watched. And then I went back and watched both. And I agree. Great movies. Do you understand the words that are coming out of my mouth, Mike? I do. Okay. But yeah. So the feel of the game here, besides the kind of inconsequential plot that.

06:13 Of the wizard. Yeah. Wizard kidnaps fake sister. And you got to go save her as you clear these levels. It's really just like Jackie Chan going through five stages of pretty long length. Just going through it.

06:33 You know, if your sister was kidnapped and then you also had to do like the, you know, travel this kind of. Yeah, exactly. It's like, also, I always wonder about that. They show you the world map, right? And it kind of like zigs and zags. Isn't there like a straighter path that avoids all this shit to get to the sorcerer? That's a good question. I mean, he's going up at least.

06:54 Like, I'm glad that he can at least generally move up. But there is a lot of stuff in the way. And so as you're moving through this map and you, there's five total stages. Which sounds short, but it actually like, you know, there's multiple screens within each of these stages. And some of the levels actually feel like it's unclear that, because you really are traversing through like an entire area. Not just like, oh, this is the castle stage or this is the water stage. It's like, you're clearing through a lot of areas.

07:26 It's like movements. Yeah, but I guess that's what I'm saying, too, is like, maybe he is moving in the most optimal path. And then they're just showing us this weird map of like, he's zigging this way and he's zagging that way. But maybe that's just like the way it took to get there.

07:39 Well, also, I mean, I do think that even though there are only five things that the game considers a stage, I think within each of those, I feel like there are five stages. Like, to me, it's like, these are what five in any other game, this would be five of its own stages. And like, every time I get to the end, I'm like, oh, that's the end of the stage. It's like, oh, no, you just like went into a building.

07:58 But it almost looks like it almost looks like the end of like a Super Mario World level where you're going to go between the two the two poles. Like, you're good. That's how you go into a building. It looks like the end of a level to me. And then it's just like, no, there's more of it right after this. Yeah, I was going to kind of bring into the sorry, Mike, I was going to sort of say that like Mario is kind of like the like low attention span version, whereas this is like, oh, no, it's a full level. Like there's different places between the same level. But sorry, Mike, you continue.

08:30 No, no, I was just gonna say that, you know, while we covered like the the cartoonish look of everything, I think it's worth saying that this is a really good looking game. So like the cartoon thing is working into its favor and not like some crudely drawn cran thing where it's like, I think that while this game's graphics are, you know, pretty like chunky, so is the like action. The action is pretty like responsive, chunky, like generous hitboxes.

08:59 Everything's like pretty readable. And there's like not too much confusion. If anything, it's kind of confusing that Jackie can walk on water, but then you can like figure out that like it's like maybe he's not walking on the water and you can fall down to the next area of the water. So he's on like he's on like he's walking on like the top of a waterfall. Maybe he's like he's walking along like the the ridge of a babbling brook, you know, like he's walking on the rocks.

09:26 And if you wait there too long, he slips off the rocks. See, I thought that I actually thought that you were like running on water because like that's how fast you are. You're running on water. Well, no, because there's fall in because there's other water that you just walk into like you go into the water and you kind of wait. Yeah, but that's surprising, right? That like you walk you walk into this water.

09:48 It's like in this kind of game, especially a game that's already like in my opinion, kind of forgiving. I was surprised to find out the first time I fell in the water that it wasn't a death. It wasn't like a pitfall and you just like continue to fall through the stage. You just chill in the water now and then you're like, cool, I'm going to get out of the water and go back to the platform.

10:06 Well, that was going to be a word that I use to describe like, you know, the actual gameplay of this is it's like very forgiving around or like just around the whole thing. Like whether it's like pitfalls, not being pitfalls, you just kind of fall down to the screen below. You're you're you actually can swim, which maybe this is like a thing that Jackie actually like required requested. Like I can swim. You can't make me die if I fall into water. Who knows? I know whatever you want to do with my siblings, family history. Yeah. As long as I can swim. Yeah. I just feel like he's got some like probably some weird requests, but I would also like to to the original point about just the the visuals of this game.

10:51 I think we usually kind of complain about massive sprites, whether it just makes them kind of unwieldy or if it just doesn't fit. I remember like, you know, Godzilla is just massive and it's kind of weird, but I think it actually worked out in this like it. Everything kind of holistically works together and it doesn't get in the way that it's in the way of itself. And yeah.

11:18 Yeah. For me, it's not even about the size of the sprite. It's it's about like how clean the sprites are and how like I think that this is like this is probably something we've talked about in the past, too. Like the more the more like fine detail you try to put into a sprite, especially in the NES, kind of the sloppier it looks a lot of the time. Whereas this it's like, no, it's just a clean drawing. It's not trying to be like this is a photorealistic human. The best thing we can do on the NES or but like it's everything is clean. I think Mike, you use the word readable.

11:48 I think that that is like the biggest like help in this game. Everything is everything is crisp. There's a clear edge to everything. It's like the everything is filled with like a single colors. They're not trying to do any shading or anything. And you can tell what everything is and it's got its own like nice little style.

12:05 I think that kind of thing is like always is always there, even in even in like PS2 games and stuff like I mean, obviously now it's not so much. But you go back to some PS2 games and they're like, OK, they've aged poorly because they're trying to be so detailed. But then you look at where I'll say it Kingdom Hearts where it's like, yeah, that doesn't look realistic, but it's like cartoony and therefore everything is clear and like easy to read and it looks good because it's got a style. That walk cycle has got frames for days, man.

12:36 I think they also just nailed like making a guy who's like a kind of a badass, like feel like a badass when you're playing at us. You know, it's like his attacks aren't necessarily anything too cool. He has some special moves that have like a little more flair to them. But it just makes sense that like you're playing as Jackie Chan. You should you should be the one kicking butt, not the other way around. I never get that with some games like I obviously Clint Eastwood and Jackie Chan are two different kinds of badasses, but they were they're both in the category of badass.

13:09 But Dirty Harry felt terrible to control by comparison. And it's like, why wouldn't you want to make like that character, the strong one in the game and the enemies just kind of like fodder that you have to get through in this game? If anything, too, it's like it's kind of fun to fight the enemies and they're inconsequential.

13:27 You could just skip right over them and continue on with the platforming part. And the way that they like dole out these enemies isn't like the screen is ever littered with like, you know, oh, you got you got to take care of these guys because more are going to keep spawning in. It's very deliberately placed. You know, there's checking a lot of the boxes of the stuff we like when it comes to these these platformer games specifically, but as one that's also like an action platformer,

13:53 I think the limited move set with the addition of the the ones that you can pick up as like limited time moves feels like everything has clear hit boxes, one hit KOs and makes progression not a chore of like, hold on, I got to like with the exception of like some some tigers and some bigger enemies. It's not hold on, I got to fight this guy and hit him like six times before I can move to the right. You move through this these stages as big as they are pretty quickly.

14:23 Yeah. And I think to your point about like it being you feeling like a badass, I've always just felt like it took it took like the game industry as a whole a really long time to realize that like it's not better to look at it like, oh, it's hard to do what the things that Jackie Chan does. So let's make it this game hard to do those things.

14:45 Like there's a lot of games that are like about about something that's very difficult, whether it's a sport or a some a fighting style, whatever, where it's like, oh, that's really difficult. So it's a really difficult game. I think slowly people started to realize, oh, no, we want wish fulfillment here. We want people to feel like they can do this stuff even if they can't. And that's what this game does instead of like instead of making it like, yeah, it's really tough to be a kung fu master. Like it's like, yeah, this is what it would be like if you were one.

15:12 Joe, what I've what I know about video games in general is that if I if I want to be a Ghostbuster or if I want to pretend to be a Ghostbuster, I want to know what it's like to have to run that business. I want to know what it's like to have. That's true. You know what I mean? Ghostbusters is the one exception where they did everything right. Nothing, nothing wrong with that game at all.

15:36 And then the way you get power ups is interesting. I don't know what it's a reference to, but you you just punch frogs and they and they like burp out the power up. Maybe that's some some Hong Kong folklore I'm missing. But like, I think it's cute. It's got a nice animation to it. It's a little different than like eating a mushroom and getting bigger. Right. But they're not power ups in in that sense, either of the Mario.

16:05 Still psychedelic. Right. Sure. They give you special moves that first off, have a great inclusion in the user interface where you don't just like get a letter that tells you like what the you know, like, oh, if you're doing the backflip, it's like you get a B as your as your thing on the UI. You actually see like the motion for a backflip or for a kick in the air or for a somersault. It's like those are those extra drawings are really helpful, too, in like making every part of this game feel like they thought through like the actual experience, which is not something that most NES games like go all in on.

16:50 I think what we're really what we what we really like here is is just they really like they made it really user friendly. Yes. And maybe maybe we're over. Maybe there's a little bit of like being a little too too nice to the game. But when they don't when the game doesn't waste your time, like a lot of games that we played,

17:19 then it's it's it's pretty easy to to sing its praises. And I don't have any actual comment on the things that you've called out. But I just I just wanted to note that in regard to our tone during this episode. Right. Well, yeah, because like, OK, the game is definitely easier than most NES games we play. And so it's kind of like welcome in the year 2025 to be playing a game that feels good to kind of clear. But I would not describe this as like a an easy game on the way that games are today. Like there's still plenty of pattern recognition and like understanding, like, you know, what enemies are coming up ahead. Or I'm thinking about those fireballs.

18:03 I think they're in the second stage, but they're also kind of like littered throughout. They have an arc that that is kind of like you're going to take a hit. But also it's kind of like, OK, take the hit then, because they give you a pretty generous health bar to this kind of game being as easy as it is.

18:18 Didn't necessarily need to give you, you know, six hits to death because you would think in other harder platformers, it's like one hit and you're dead. But this kind of understands and adopts a lot of the rules of of other games we like, such as Super Mario Brothers, Mega Man and just the attention to detail on everything. I think while maybe like simpler isn't better overall, it helps in the sense of like, you know, it makes it harder to complain about things because what they didn't add doesn't make it feel empty. Yeah, there are bonus stages in addition to the five main stages. But they are like bonus levels that happen inside those stages.

19:03 You sometimes see a bell. And if you hit that bell or ring that bell, you warp to a little minigame. And the minigame, I think there's two. I think there's the one where you bounce on the clouds, which is like a little unclear to me because I get that it's just about points and everything. But like he's on a cloud.

19:24 Then there's other clouds, like many ones that you that are platformers. You jump on those and each one of those you land on gives you like a score at the end. But there's no penalty for like missing the clouds and just falling back through. Like, no, you just land on another cloud and you continue to get like a chance. So now it's almost like, wait a minute. Is this a game for babies? Like there's actually like very little consequence going on here. Well, it's a bonus level. I mean, you're not getting points for it. You get a lower score. Yeah. But like score doesn't score never matters. I think that it matters in terms of like the reward that you get. That is true. Yeah.

20:03 Like that's what it's that's what it's there for. Like you can get into you can get an extra continue, which I guess is just to clarify. There are no lives in this game. There is only continues. So that's your extra live. You can get more super mega action points and health through there. So, I mean, that's your thing. I mean, you know, I wouldn't want to lose a life because I did bad in a bonus level. Well, you're a baby. I am a baby. That's true. So am I. So. And then the other one, you're like punching statues for for points as well.

20:40 I guess that one feels more like at least something Jackie Chan would do. The cloud hopping really does feel like it's coming out of nowhere. That's the psychedelic part.

20:50 OK. Yeah, I was I was all in on this game until there is something so completely out of left field as jumping on clouds. Well, is there a set piece in any of these levels that could rival the stuff that Jackie was doing on screen? You know, like, are you are you really doing any sort of martial arts stuff or facing off against anybody who's creating a not obviously cinematic isn't the right word, but like something

21:21 to level or rival what was happening? Yeah. You know, now that you mention it, I am kind of surprised. Like it is just a really good like game where you fight weird monsters and enemies and stuff. But like and punch frogs. I've got to imagine that like most of his movies he was fighting other people, which is like very little of that, actually.

21:42 Yeah. It's not really till like the end. I mean, there's other like little grunts and stuff, but they're they're kind of like non-interactive. It's it's the the at the end when you fight the. Who's that little guy from Dragon Ball Z?

21:56 Krillin? No, no, no. The littler guy. He wears like a dress. Yeah. Uh, you fight him at one point. Yeah. Well, and he's even doing the Kamehameha pose. So like maybe maybe there is something going on there. Yeah. But like, yeah, that's like that's a fight where it's like, oh, this is actually like another person, same scale and everything. They have their own move set that's similar to ours.

22:21 Uh, but you know, like it's kind of interesting because at the time Jackie was doing like police story and like treasure hunts and stuff like that. And and then this this game kind of has like this cartoon Saturday morning vibe going for it. Does that does that matter at all that it's not doing the the gritty police drama? Like, did they put Jackie in the right game here?

22:46 Yeah, it's funny because I feel like I feel like he belongs more in this game now in retrospect just because of like the Jackie Chan adventures cartoon and everything. But I don't really know because based on what it sounds like, this is not the type of movie he was in, uh, in general, unless there was some kind of like fantasy movie that he was in, like fantasy Kung Fu movie with a little more like, um, you know, a little more nonfiction fantasy stuff in there. But like it just yeah, it I didn't bat an eye at it because of like, because I'm coming from a modern perspective where Jackie Chan has been in content like this.

23:24 Well, I mean, I actually don't have an answer to this, but when you you made me think of like when you know when you mentioned Arnold Schwarzenegger, uh, the Terminator, like I would play a cutesy Terminator game like where like maybe you're playing as, uh, Arnold Schwarzenegger from the first Terminator, like, and just like sort of, uh, ruining the resistance and, and be like being the, uh, the, the, the robot uprising, like kill all the humans, but cute. Like, I think that would be cool. There should be a cute version of every property. Yes. I'm actually not opposed to that for what it's worth. I, I, I want to see like, um, Kratos as, as like his sack boy version.

24:14 Well, he's in, uh, isn't he in, what's it called? Uh, uh, what's the new PlayStation? Astro Bot. Yeah. There you go. Yep. Uh, if you, but if you map these moves over to a fighting game, right? Like Jackie's not going to be able to compete against street fighter characters. He doesn't have like enough of a move set. Again, to the game's benefit, like less is more here because you don't want to find out they have to do like button input combos to do any of his special moves. It's just like, again, taking, borrowing another thing from another great NES game, Castlevania. You just hold up on the D-pad and do the attack move. And now you do the special move instead of the normal move, just like you would in Castlevania when you have a secondary weapon.

24:57 Uh, but you know what I mean? It's like the Kung Fu moves. I mean, like this doesn't feel like a mixed martial arts master, right? Well, it's not mixed martial arts. That's, that's something else. Oh, right, right. That's true. He's just doing, he's just displaying Kung Fu in this game.

25:14 I don't know. It's, it kind of like harkens back to me to the game Kung Fu where it's like, yeah, they're not doing any crazy moves, but just the, I think it's just like the sharpness and the, and the reach of the hit box of your punches and kicks that feel like, oh yeah, it feels like, like, oh, it's not just a regular guy throwing a kick. This is like someone who knows what they're doing.

25:32 And it like, you know, in, in a sense for like a platformer like this, where you're fighting little, little one hit enemies and stuff, I think it does work. I mean, I get what you're saying that it's like, you're not like, you're not holding up in a one-on-one fight with like equal competitors or anything. And I feel like we have had a game like that where like, it feels like a little more like

25:52 someone, they block, you have to block and think in, you know, there's a little more to like each encounter. But, but for what it is, it did, I think like to me evoke like, okay, this guy's a martial artist and not just like someone punching and kicking. I think that all boils down to just like polish. Like the game has a lot of polish. So everything feels better, even though it's super simple.

26:15 And I didn't get here, but I know that like at the end of the game, you do have more so like a one-on-one fight against like, like a dark version of you or something, but that feels very different, or at least it looks like it plays very different. Um, so I, I don't think that there needs to be that much. As long as it feels good to do the things that it has, uh, we're gonna, we're gonna give it lots of praise. Um, yeah.

27:27 Did you guys die at all in the game? Of course. Sure. So the game over screen has a little bit of, uh, comedic effect as well.

27:38 Yeah, I don't. It's fine. The game over screen has Jackie holding this like giant, I'm not even sure what it is. It kind of looks like a poop, but it could also be an acorn or something. It's just this big brown thing with the text game over, uh, and he's holding it up. And, uh, after you, um, after that screen, you, you know, you have, uh, you can continue from the stage that you, um, that you died on. But if you run out of continues, you see that same game over screen, but now the acorn thing actually crushes, uh, Jackie.

28:14 Oh. And so it's like, it's like, again, another little like personality thing to it, uh, that, I don't know, you don't even see too often in game over screens nowadays. Sometimes it's just like game over. What was the game where, oh, uh, all the Arkham games where like after you die, whoever killed you, like gives, like a little like thing to say to your dead body. It's like, that's a, that's like the kind of touch that we need in video games of like the, what happens after.

28:41 Yeah. That felt, that felt fun or infuriating depending on who killed you. And then if it was Scarecrow, he'd tell you to push down the middle thumbstick or something like that. It was funny stuff. Um, but speaking of reasons that I'm a baby, it's because, uh, I hate the continue thing.

29:02 Like, I mean, I know this is like maybe because of the generation I grew up in and it wasn't as much of a thing in like the PlayStation one and beyond era, but, uh, running out of my continues, I don't want to start this game over again as much as I'm enjoying it. Like, I just want to start where I left off. I just want unlimited continues.

29:22 I just, just let me, let me play the game. I know. Maybe that's too, uh, too forgiving. But for me, I'm just like, that is like the, the one, uh, negative that I have of this experience is like, I just want to keep playing, but I don't want to redo everything I had to do already. Maybe I should just get better and not get to the continue screen.

29:40 Yeah. Cause even these kinds of games have like evolved a little bit to be, you know, uh, more like the roguelikes and everything where it's, you know, okay. Like, you know, yeah, you got to start the run over and everything, but you, you gain so much and like it, progress carries over. It's like, it seems like everybody's kind of done with this idea of like, no, you have to like actually start the game over if you die. Yeah. It's hard for me to get my head around when it's not an, it's not an arcade game and they're not trying to eat my quarters.

30:07 I'm just like, well, just let me keep, let me keep playing. Like a roguelike is designed around that and that's fine. But if it's just like, I don't, it's almost like, I don't know how, how good do you think the first three levels of your game were that like, you think that I want to play it over and over and over again. Um, but I know, I know that's me coming out of a modern perspective, but that's where, uh, this feels aged.

30:27 That's what we're here for. But I also think like, it's weird that the game, the way that it uses its continues is more like lives because when I think of a continue, I think you got to start all the way at the beginning of the level. And this game doesn't make you go back to the beginning of the level if you die, it brings you back to whatever screen or like the big, like whenever you sort of moved from one area of a level to another. So it's, it kind of acts like a life and then it just doesn't have what we would think of as continues, which is strange. Yeah. So maybe that is sort of just like a balance thing in terms of like, we made the game kind of easy. Pitfalls don't kill you.

31:09 Um, uh, so I don't know. I can't really hate it, but I also understand like that our time is precious. So, yeah. I mean, now that you mentioned it, I hadn't even really realized that it is different than most, the way that we see continues most of the time. But I think that what I would have, what I would prefer in this situation is like, give me no lives where like, I don't ever get to start back at where I am, but give me unlimited continues where I have to start at the beginning of the level. Like that's my punishment. Restart the one level, but not go have to do all the things I've already completed again. Can you stop being so sensible?

31:47 Sorry. Uh, so there is a TurboGrafx-16 version of this game as well. And, uh, I, I did take the chance to play that one just to see, you know, like, all right, that is a 16 bit version of this same game. And they, you know, they, they are kind of like, they're kind of the same version of the game in the sense of like the stages and everything, but they're, they're not laid out exactly the same. And graphics wise, there's like a slightly more realistic art style to everything while also still preserving that cartoon look.

32:19 Does he look like Jackie Chan? He looks a little more like Jackie Chan. The face is, is much more Jackie. I wouldn't, uh, you know, I'm not going to comment about the rest of the body cause it's still kind of a cartoon. Uh, but like, I guess I played the NES version first and was enjoying it. So going over to the TurboGrafx-16 one, I thought I was just going to get like a more polished experience.

32:41 But the fact that they changed the graphics, like even in a way where it's like, okay, yeah, it's 16 bit now. Like what's not to like, I actually was like, well, I think I kind of liked how basic it was on the 8 bit. And I was like, am I just a really like secretly an old man trapped inside a young dude's body where like, I just all, I always dig older video games, but then I kept playing more of the game. And because it's not exactly laid out, like, like it's not just a, a port of the NES version. They were developed alongside one another.

33:12 There was actually like things that they added that I was like, well, I don't know if we needed that, you know, like just even like types of enemies and the way the enemies behave. It was all like, we, we have the power to do this now. So let's do it because we have the extra eight bits, but it was like, uh, kind of made it more of a, like it's logged down the pace of the game that was incredibly fast on the NES version. It's funny. I'm looking at a screenshot of the TurboGrafx version and it does look a lot more like Jackie Chan, but the rest of the game looks a lot more like, uh, Sonic the Hedgehog.

33:48 Okay. Yep. At least in a screen still. Um, I cannot comment on what the game feels like and the speed of the game as you're describing. Um, but just going off of the screenshot, I kind of liked the vibe more, but if it's slow, then yeah, fuck it. Even the, I would say it's slow, but even like the structure of some of the levels in the NES when they were like auto scrolling parts of the, of the level. Oh yeah. That doesn't happen in this game. That's a completely different, uh, style. Yeah. I don't know why that would change that.

34:20 Mm hmm. Um, otherwise for Jackie, uh, there was a ton of, uh, video games on the MSX in Japan that were actually based on movies he was in. So Jackie Chan's action Kung Fu on the NES isn't based on any of his movies, but they, there's games like Cannonball two project a Spartan X, the protector, the police story project a two.

34:46 Uh, these are all MSX games and they're all just like either like arcade games where it's just kind of like Mario brothers, but with Jackie Chan, it's like hard to describe, but like it's all on one screen, I guess I mean, in terms of the action and enemies just keep spawning in. Um, all that stuff is just like, and then here's like, you know, uh, it's it, but it's in the environment of the movie. So they call it like the movie game, but it's not, none of these are like full plot, like, you know, level to level action platformers like Jackie Chan's action Kung Fu is. So all these games, even though they come before them do feel, uh, a little more archaic than the first true Jackie Chan adventure game that we have here.

35:27 And then I was looking for like other Jackie Chan stuff and there was a, like a fighting game with his name on it, uh, Jackie Chan in fists of fire. And that's one of those like going over the, uh, mortal combat 2d digitization thing where it's like, you know, you were scanning the actual people. And so it looks like that. It's like, yeah, but does it play like mortal combat? And the answer is an obvious no.

35:54 Um, then there was Jackie Chan's stunt master on PlayStation one. Either of you get ahold of this? Uh, I've seen, like, I've seen this before, before this video, like, I think I've seen a let's play of it before.

36:08 It's a little like insulting how, how they make Jackie look on, on PS one with these polygons. Uh, he could have done so much better. They almost went for like the chibi look again, but also committing to like, but we should put his face on, on this character. Yeah. I, that's the, that's why I remember this. Cause it's like, it looks like they mapped the face on a character and then put like, I think the let's player I was talking about, how it looks like it's like Jackie Chan's face with like a mesh sock over it. So you can't really see. It's like very blurry. Yes. Very like, Oh, like the Max Payne look.

36:40 Yeah. Yes. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. It would be like if, um, but because of like the polygon count, it would be like if cloud strife had like a photo realistic face on that body. Is it just his headshot? And like the face is like stretched over like a non proportional size, like head. Love it. And that one is a, uh, a 3d beat them up. Um, but like, I don't know. It looked kind of, people apparently do like it. So I'm not gonna, I have not played this one, but it looked kind of empty, uh, as do most, uh, like early PS one and 64 games. Cause what are you going to do? You know, Jackie Chan adventures.

37:21 Joe, you seem to know stuff about this. You want to talk about the cartoon? To be honest, I really don't. I never really watched it. I just remember being on like before Pokemon or after Pokemon.

37:30 And I, I'm probably watching an episode here and there, but I was not like a, not a big WB guy other than, other than the Pokemon when I was a kid. So I misled you. That's okay. Because Jackie Chan adventures. One thing that has going for it, uh, just like, uh, our last episode, dragon's lair is that it got like, you know, okay. Jackie Chan adventures on PlayStation two. Let's do that whole like cell shaded animation thing. And it's like, I've already said it on that episode. I'll say it again. Best way to experience, uh, that generation of video games is like with that kind of graphic look.

38:03 What'd you guys think of, uh, Shanghai noon? I remember liking it at the time. I remember loving the way that they escaped from jail. That's really all I remember about it.

38:12 God, how did they escape from jail? They like, he like poured water on his t-shirt so it wouldn't rip. And then he broke off the leg of a bench and like wrapped the t-shirt around two bars and then use the leg of the bench to like twist it. And supposedly because it's not ripping and you're using a leverage, you can kind of bend the bars in towards each other. And then I'm pretty sure that's made up. But I do. But I always thought it was cool. I do remember that scene now.

38:38 Uh, Rush Hour 3 was a Java game where you have to complete stunts for the movie. Uh, it looks really detailed for being just like. They interpreted that as like, it was like Rush Hour 3 instead of being a movie, they released it as a Java game. Like straight to, straight to VHS except straight to Java game. Rush Hour 3 was a pop-up ad you'd get in 2005 that you had to play and then it would steal your fucking identity.

39:09 That's a great idea actually, Sean. You know how we talk about those games that aren't actually games but they're ads and then you like download the app and it's not that game? Someone should do that for like a movie. It should be like the Avatar 3 game. And it's like, but it's not that. It's just a trailer to the movie. Um, Avatar 3 is pretty, it's pretty imminent at the time of this release of coming out. So that's why I mentioned it. Uh, and then. Unless they cancel every tax rate off. Right. A $2 billion tax rate off. Hey. And then my last thing on Jackie Chan games, because I just thought this was interesting. Uh, Shaolin versus Wu-Tang. Uh, there's two of these.

39:49 They're fighting games made by some indie studio and apparently they're terrible. But, um, Jackie is in balls. Bruce Lee's in them. Um, just seems like something that's like a bit of a missed opportunity because that is like a cool, uh, thing to make into a fighting game. Didn't they make a Warriors fighting game too? There's just a Warriors video game. Okay. It's a video game, not, not a like fighter. I mean, I think it's like a beat-em-up slash open world kinda.

40:20 But it's by Rockstar too, right? It's Rockstar. It's like a, it's like a very good game I've heard. Okay. I mean, that's cool. I, I guess I was thinking more like what they did for Rocky where they, there was like a, there's no Rocky like recreate the events of the movie or anything. But there is like a, a Rocky like boxing game where you can play as all the boxers in like a fighting style game. That'd be interesting. All right. But now we're going to find out if Jackie can pull one last stunt and land on the essential games list.

40:52 Jackie Chan's Action Kung Fu has checked basically every box that I look for in, uh, not just NES games, but just in like what I enjoy about video games. However, like it's pretty simple. So like, does that discount it? Like what is the actual goal of the essential games list?

41:11 I'm not here to decide that at this very moment. I'm going to put a vote in the yes column for this one just in case that matters. I can debate it later. To me, I had enough fun playing this game and it's such a competently made game that it's such a welcome surprise amongst the kind of like garbage we've been playing since Mega Man 3. Like Mega Man 3 for me felt more of like a clear essential vote than Jackie Chan where I'm like, am I just like, have I just played so much bad stuff lately on the NES that this is just a welcome surprise? Maybe, but I'll rather get into that later. So it's a yes for me. Sean? Yeah, I get where you're coming from. I haven't really said anything really negative about this game.

41:59 However, I don't think I can put a second vote in. I really did have fun with it. I do think that it's got the user friendliness, but I think we have been kind of ruined by a lot of pretty bad stuff. And I'm not willing to trust myself at this moment. I think that this is just like a really good play it that I don't know how much of a memory I'm going to have for this game going forward.

42:40 So definitely play it. I don't know if I can vote as essential though. Joe? Yeah, I've been going back and forth on this one before we started recording. And I think that for a while I was like, well, this is this is almost definitely essential. But then when I got to the when I got to the realization that I have to play this whole thing again. And like that was almost kind of a just enough of a point for me to be like, do I is does is that welcome to me? Is that type of gameplay welcome to me now today?

43:13 And while no, it really isn't. I think that the rest of the game still stands out enough for me to throw it a vote right now. But I do I do wonder if, you know, I come back to this game and it's like kind of a forgotten game. And I'll you know, maybe I'll maybe maybe I'll, you know, be interested in looking and taking it off in the future. But for now, like I really do feel like this game was really good.

43:39 And, you know, even though there's that one that one flaw that kind of bugs me with it. Like, I think I will remember this game. I do like the way it plays. And I, you know, I haven't beaten it, but I'd like to. And I think that that that alone is something that rarely happens where I want to continue playing a game after we're done with it for the episode. So, yeah, I think I think it's enough to for me to throw a vote.

44:04 All right. We got there. It's Jackie Chan's Action Kung Fu is the latest addition to the essential games list. Just I think one thing else to note about this is just how surprising it is, not even just like that it got on the list, but like how surprising it was when I played it. Because sometimes you hear, oh, OK, it's a you know, it's it's a license thing or it's like they just got the rights to this to this person. So now they're making a video game. We were joking about Al Unser Jr.

44:33 earlier in the show. But like it was surprising that it was so well made. And, you know, we've been struggling to say a lot of nice things about it because it's simple. So it is tough to say it's like as polished as Super Mario Brothers. But I think it's like as fun to play moment to moment as the original Super Mario Brothers. And that's kind of like a crazy thing to say out loud. I never doubted the polish. The polish is definitely there.

45:04 But my my argument was more so that like beyond the polish, I'm not sure how much is there. Right. I guess that's what I'm saying. Right. If you're trying to cabinet is is empty, how much do you have to polish anyway?

45:17 Whoa. And that is a great segue to next week's game because it takes place in China land. So they'll have to do a lot of polishing in order to get that one on the essential games list. And that is Little Ninja Brothers, which please be excited for. It's hard to describe because there's like three different genres going on in this. Please clap. Yeah. Please clap for Little Ninja Brothers.

45:41 There's I don't I can't think of the last time we had a back to back essential games list. So it does have a lot going up against it. Last back to back was Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers and then Dragon Spirit, the new legend. You ever go back to any of those, Sean? Every goddamn day, Mike. Let's hell. Hell yeah. Yeah. You you know what? If you like Chip, just wait till you get to Dale. He's got fireballs. So he can't fireballs. Thank you.