(Karate Champ, November 1986, Data East)
The fighting game genre didn't explode until around 1991, when the first of a gazillion incarnations of Street Fighter II was released. Everything before that fucking blew baboon smegma. An attempt at a fighting game Urban Champion was one of the worst of the original Black Box offerings. There wasn't another fighting game for the NES until today's little piece of curious crap, Karate Champ. If you're in the mood for the good old fashioned NESquester vitriol, strap the fuck in kiddies!

Kinda reminds me of the Sweet Factory in Mother 1. Too obscure"
Brought to life in 1984 by Technos but published by Data East, Karate Champ ("The Way Of The Empty Hand" overseas) was one of the earliest examples of the fighting genre. It truly was an ambitious and inspired arcade game that utilized two joysticks in a deep moveset very unlike Urban Champion's punch-punch-punch bullshit. Other innovations included multiple bonus stages, 12-plus stage backgrounds, and, with the release of Karate Champ: Player Vs Player edition, an actual 2 player fighting game. It was a difficult game to master and required perseverance and a total memorization of the game's moves to even attempt basic survival. As a young 'Quester, I hated this game because one quarter was usually wasted within seconds of hearing the earliest digitized voice I can recall bellow out "RED!"
If this was what the NES controls were trying to pull off, kudos!
Well, ...