Yie Ar Kung-Fu

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Yie Ar Kung-Fu
Oolong (blue pants) vs. Buchu (white pants) in a screenshot of Yie Ar Kung-Fu
Developer(s)	Imagine Entertainment, Konami
Release date(s)	1985
Genre(s)	Fighting game
Mode(s)	Two players, alternating turns
Platform(s)	Arcade, Commodore 64, MSX, Famicom, Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum, Acorn Electron, BBC Micro
Media	Floppy disk, audio cassette, cartridge
Input	Keyboard, joystick

Yie Ar Kung-Fu is a computer game where the main character, named Oolong, fights martial arts masters. This game originated as an Arcade machine and was subsequently widely ported to platforms including the MSX, NES, Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum. Yie Ar Kung-Fu will be released on Xbox Live Arcade for the Xbox 360 in 2006.

A sequel Yie Ar Kung-Fu II was released a year later.

1 Characters
- 1.1 Characters in NES (and in MSX's YAKF 1)
- 1.2 Hidden Characters
2 Trivia
3 References

[edit] Characters

The martial arts masters are listed below (in fight order):

Buchu: Buchu is a big sumo wrestler who uses a leaping motion to land on Oolong with his body. Buchu may be big, but he's also slow. Buchu does not use weapons to fight. He is the first opponent in the first gauntlet.

Star: The first female opponent Oolong faces. Star is a young ninja girl in a pink jumpsuit who uses shuriken to slow Oolong down along with fast punches and kicks.

Nuncha: Nuncha is a man in a yellow gi swinging nunchucks at Oolong in an effort to slow him down.

Pole: Pole is a short man who carries a large bo and uses it on Oolong. Pole also uses it to pole vault for extra momentum for his moves.

Feedle: Feedle is basically an endurance test for Oolong. Feedle is unarmed but has a trick of splitting into three different beings. For Oolong to win, he must beat all three Feedles. (On the BBC Micro version, Feedle did not appear on screen; instead, he threw items from off-screen at Oolong, who was required to dodge or kick them to survive. Also, in some other home versions, such as the Amstrad CPC, Feedle was not in the game at all.)

Chain: Chain awaits Oolong at the start of the second gauntlet. He's a large man which swings a giant chain with a claw-like attachment at the end. Chain also has a tattoo of the Chinese symbol for "death" on his left arm.

Club: Club is another large man that attacks Oolong. Club swings a giant club called a bonbori and wears a shielded glove on his right arm to block most of Oolong's attacks.

Fan: Fan is another female warrior who wears a cheongsam and is more feminine than Star. Fan throws steel fans at Oolong like shuriken and seldom attacks.

Sword: Sword is a dangerous warrior who comes ready to pounce on Oolong with a Dao sword and impressive aerial moves.

Tonfun: Tonfun is the final opponent Oolong must face before meeting his ultimate challenger, Blues. Tonfun attacks with 2 tonfas and fast-paced martial arts. Oolong has to time his attacks and hope that Tonfun makes a mistake to survive.

Blues: Blues is a mirror image of Oolong and can match him move for move. Oolong has to find some weakness on Blues to win. When Blues is defeated, Oolong is the winner and the game begins again with Buchu. (ON the BBC Micro version, Blues is replaced by a second round of Feedle.)

[edit] Characters in NES (and in MSX's YAKF 1)

The MSX game Ye Ar Kung-Fu 1 (in which the NES version was based) has many differences from its arcade "parent". The hero is called "Lee" and faces only five opponents: Wang, armed with a stick; Tao, who throws small fireballs in the same way as the arcade's enemy Star; Chen, this game's version of Chain; Lang, the "true" version of Star, but with quickier shots and moves; and, finally, Mu, this game's Buchu (except that Mu is white and seems bearded, while Buchu is black and has a shaven face). After Chen's defeat, there is a bonus round where the hero must hit objects thrown at him to score points.

It is also from MSX that comes the only sequel known to a YAKF game: bearing the name YAKF 2: The Emperor Ye-Gah, its opponents are also different from the arcade (although the first two are "homages" to Chain and Fan).

[edit] Hidden Characters

From the GBA game Konami Collector's Series: Arcade Advanced, rumor says two new characters named Bishoo and Clayman/Claman would have been introduced. Much about them is unknown, and despite some screenshots showing a different swamp-like scenario and a fight with a woman dressed in white, the rumor is still unconfirmed.

In recent years, this game was re-released on some TV game products.

MSX2 version of Yie Ar Kung Fu

[edit] Trivia

Yie-Ar is pronounced (Yee-Err). Its name means one-two in Chinese and is normally spelled yi-er.
Star and Fan are considered the first girls of fighting games before Street Fighter II's Chun-Li.
Regardless of the move that defeated them, male characters always fall unconscious lying on their backs with their legs apart, and female characters always fall demurely lying on their sides.
Rumors spread that Oolong and Blues are brothers from their similar styles. Oolong means "black dragon" and Blues is a play on Bruce, as in Bruce Lee.
Nuncha's nunchucks and yellow costume are taken from Bruce Lee's movie Game of Death.