Amiga ~ Way of the Little Dragon Review

Overview

Way of the Little Dragon is a Bruce Lee parody. It's your typical side on view beat em up game. Still worth a look? It's a cheap little thing, that's either funny or lame. You decide.

Gameplay

In this game, you take control of a chinaman named young Lee, the Bruce Lee wannabe. The objective of this game is to beat 4 guys twice. So you face 4 guys one on one, then do it all over again to finish the game. Sure this is a typical side on view beat-em up, but it's no Street Fighter II clone. You can't duck or jump. Move left and right to move, up and down to block high and low. Hold down the fire button and move in the 8 directions of the joystick to perform 8 fancy kung fu moves. Going clockwise starting at 12 o'clock, we have face punch, side kick to face, side kick to body, groin kick, stomach punch, shin kick, round house kick and the spectacular flying dragon kick! After playing this game for about a minute, you'll realise that this isn't a serious fighting game. Your first opponent who is a ninja is so easy, he doesn't attack you at all. This gives you a chance to get use to the moves. Your moves appear to have harmless effects. A flying kick to the head will just knock your opponent's head back. Forget about holding down the fire button and moving the joystick all around. Doing that will eventually deplete your energy meaning you can get yourself into a pretty lousy situation later in the game; when you're so low on energy, it's impossible to beat the other guy without dying, no matter how many times you kick em in the groin.

7 out of 10

Graphics

Obviously they tried to make this game look like Mortal Kombat. It turned out looking homemade and goofy. You only fight on the one screen with no side-scrolling. The backdrops are only static and grainy pictures of Asia locations.

3.5 out of 5

Sound and Music

The sound effects sound very homemade. Your guy will do some rather funny Bruce Lee impersonations, with some whipin and celery bashing effects thrown into the mix. Shots to the body have a comedic "boep" sound. The music sounds like oriental techno stuff, again sounding very homemade. So thumbs up on that!

5 out of 5

Replayability and Longevity

If you can manage to correctly position young Lee and keeping landing a quick move (I prefer the groin kick), then you'll finish this game in no time. There is two-player, where player-1 uses young Lee and player-2 simply takes place of the same computer opponents. I can't help but say this is cheap.

3 out of 5

Character and Storyline

We have the young Lee, and the 4 other computer opponents, all of whom have different sound effects and the exact same moves. As for the storyline, you don't get to see it until you finish the game. And it's something to do with defeating the Tai Sai gang and bringing law and order to your island. Opps, that was the whole storyline!

2.5 out of 5

For: Bruce Lee parody, funny Bruce Lee and kung fu sound effects.

Against: fight 8 guys and that's it, can tire yourself in fights, not much of a storyline.

If you're a huge as Bruce Lee fan, you'll constipate, but not as much as the Bruce Li and Bruce Lei movies. Otherwise, this game is a cheap crack-up!