Brief Karate Fighter is a 2D Fighting in where we pick from one of nine brief wearing manly men to fight as. There are two modes to choose from, them being Vs and Arcade. Vs is for local coop only so you will not be able to practice against an AI opponent there, though if you have someone willing to play with you then…well damn. In any case, for us solo gamers, Arcade will be where we spend all our time in and features us taking on all of the game’s cast of characters leading up to Zoro, the rebel with black undergarments.
You may want to take a quick peek at this manual in order to learn how to play since this title throws you right into the head-turning action. Each character has a distinct fighting style to learn from and master with the most surprising part being that the gameplay is actually not half bad. I was expecting to play this game for a while, snicker a bit and move on with my day. That is until I got stomped by Zoro and trained to beat him using my cat cosplaying hero with determination worthy of a montage. This is no King of Fighters or Street Fighter killer, surprising I know, but it actually is accessible and with enough depth to be enjoyable for near any fighting game fan.
The first few matches of the arcade mode will be a breeze, and the challenge will gradually increase from there. It never becomes overwhelming with the boss Zoro mostly being difficult for his speed increase. There are no difficulty settings so once you “git gud” your only alternative will be to increase the speed of the game in the options menu. In turn making it look like you’ve gotten completely mad as you rapidly mash buttons to a bunch of out of shape men jumping around the screen in fast forward. Or just attend a tournament to show off your made Brief Karate Foolish skills. It’s also worth mentioning that if you both pick the same fighter, there is absolutely no difference between them, making for a confusing match.
This is a four-button fighter that has a heavy, medium and light attack to combo your foes with. It also features a special attack button that doubles as a dash/dodge as well as unleashing a powerful move onto your opponent if you have enough of your bottom candle meter filled. I’d definitely suggest using a gamepad or arcade stick to play this since the keyboard placement for the commands are funky, to say the least. It was designed for Windows 98 and runs at a 640×480 resolution leaving me curious as to when this was originally made. Whenever that was, it is now on Steam as a free to play title and features characters so manly that they can defeat their foes by merely doing push-ups in front of them. Brief Karate Foolish is a solid and enjoyable way to kill a few hours for the low price of free.
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