Jordan Mechner announces Karateka remake

15 Feb 2012 at 20:29:59 by Peter Parrish

Jordan Mechner, the chap behind Prince of Persia, has announced that he will be revisiting his very first published game, Karateka, for release on Xbox Live and PlayStation Network later this year. Mechner says this will be a "both a remake and a re-imagining", making the point that the leap won't be as huge as that between the first Prince of Persia and Sands of Time but will be greater than the difference between the original and Xbox Live's Prince of Persia Classic.

Karateka was an Apple II title in which you had to rescue your kidnapped girlfriend from a feudal Japanese warlord by battling his karate-trained minions. It sold 500,000 copies which, at the time (and even now, really), was pretty spectacular.

Mechner's stated intent with the original was to create something "visually sophisticated, yet so easy to play that even a non-gamer could immediately grasp the story, pick up the joystick and and become addicted". With this re-release, he's hoping to revisit that vision, saying "I want to show that a game can be simple fun while also telling a human story in a way that’s emotional, atmospheric, and beautiful".

There aren't any screenshots of the remake available yet, so enjoy some 1980s goodness from the original release.

Comment