Karateka

Karateka is a 1984 beat-'em-up video game by Jordan Mechner. It was the first game he developed while studying at Yale University. It was originally programmed for the Apple II and later ported to various other home computers and early game consoles. The game was published in North America by Brøderbund and in Europe by Ariolasoft. The player controls an unnamed protagonist who attempts to rescue his lover, Princess Mariko, from Akuma's castle fortress. The game is a combination of a side-scrolling platformer and fighting game elements. The player uses punches and kicks to defeat Akuma and his guards and advance deeper into the fortress. As with most games at the time of development, there were no checkpoints or ability to save the game, which made it a challenge to finish the game in a single session. Karateka was very well received, mainly because of the realistic animations of the game characters. The game was considered a breakthrough success for Mechner and would eventually lead to the development of the Prince of Persia series. A Mechner-directed high-definition remake was released as a downloadable title for the Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows, and PlayStation 3; ports for iOS and Wii U are planned.