International Karate + is a side-view karate fighting game developed by System 3, initially released for 8-bit platforms. The game, also known as IK+ or Chop N' Drop in the US, was released for the Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, and Amstrad CPC, and later ported to the Amiga and Atari ST in 1988.
In this iconic beat 'em up, three "karatekas" compete on a beautiful Japanese beach. Up to 2 of them can be controlled by human players. The fighters have several moves at their disposal, including kicks, punches, headbutts, and more. The designer and programmer, Archer Maclean, made brilliant use of the simple one-button joysticks: each of the joystick's eight directions performs a different move or attack (e.g., up-right = fist). When the button is pressed, the action is different (e.g., pressing the button up = forward kick with jump). Some movements also change depending on the direction the fighter is facing.
The animations are probably the best aspect of the game. To draw the frames of the backflip animation, Maclean manually copied, from the TV screen, the dancers' moves in the film "Grease." Sounds were sampled from Bruce Lee's 1973 movie Enter the Dragon.
The only part not made by Archer Maclean was the music: the original C64 music was written by legendary 8-bit composer Rob Hubbard, while the Amiga version was signed by the - also legendary - David Lowe.
You will find IK+ in our Top 20 Commodore 64 Games of all time.
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