Spartan X (1984)

Irem

Arcade

2.90 from 121 ratings

282 members have it in their collection · 6 playing now · 37 backlogged · 16 wish listed

How long? Main story 3h (from 2 logged playthroughs)

Spartan X, known in North America by the Kung-Fu Master port, is a 1984 beat 'em up arcade game developed and published in Japan by Irem. It was later published in North America by Data East, without the movie license. The Japanese version was based on the Jackie Chan movie Wheels on Meals, known as Spartan X in Japan, and … Read more
Spartan X, known in North America by the Kung-Fu Master port, is a 1984 beat 'em up arcade game developed and published in Japan by Irem. It was later published in North America by Data East, without the movie license. The Japanese version was based on the Jackie Chan movie Wheels on Meals, known as Spartan X in Japan, and credited "Paragon Films Ltd., Towa Promotion", who produced the film upon which it was based. The game is considered by many to be the first beat 'em up video game, and contains elements of Bruce Lee's Game of Death. Read less
Remove Ads with Grouvee Gold

Details

Developers
Irem
Publishers
Data East USA
Genres
Hack and slash/Beat 'em up
Themes
Action
Franchises
Spartan X
Series
Spartan X

Release dates

  • Dec 1984 (Full Release) (Japan) Arcade

Also available on

Related

Bundled in

Remove Ads with Grouvee Gold

Rating distribution

5 stars
4
4 stars
25
3 stars
52
2 stars
34
1 star
5
Remove Ads with Grouvee Gold

Community All Reviews Statuses

garamir

Status garamir Feb 14, 2025

Forty games from forty years. Going to try bit of a project, and finish game from every year from 1985 to 2025. Why? It's kinda round nice number.

Game for 1985. NES port of arcade game. You kick, punch and jump around with rather clunky controls. Slim pickings for 1985.

scoopings

Status scoopings Jun 1, 2022

Always cool when an early game is "modern" enough to include music/visual interludes when you afk on the title screen, feels very modern to do that heh. And thank goodness this allowed for a Kempston Joystick option, everything I read online said the keyboard controls are hell-ish. Even with a joystick tho, as you can probly imagine, this extremely early …

Read more

Always cool when an early game is "modern" enough to include music/visual interludes when you afk on the title screen, feels very modern to do that heh. And thank goodness this allowed for a Kempston Joystick option, everything I read online said the keyboard controls are hell-ish. Even with a joystick tho, as you can probly imagine, this extremely early fighting game was super clunky, slow-to-respond, and ultimately not fun. I could see it being more fun 2-player with someone else completely struggling ha. It is super cool and advanced that they have the Replay function, so you can rewatch the knockout haha

Read less
kingbk83

Review kingbk83 3/5 · May 7, 2022

NES Lookback - Kung-Fu

One of the original "black box" titles for the NES, Kung-Fu was based off of the Chinese cult action-comedy "Wheels on Meals", one of Jackie Chan's first roles. In the movie, he plays Thomas, who works as a food delivery guy. He meets Sylvia, falls in love, and in the end has to save her from being kidnapped from a …

Read more

One of the original "black box" titles for the NES, Kung-Fu was based off of the Chinese cult action-comedy "Wheels on Meals", one of Jackie Chan's first roles. In the movie, he plays Thomas, who works as a food delivery guy. He meets Sylvia, falls in love, and in the end has to save her from being kidnapped from a gang. The climax of the movie is when he climbs the stairs of the building she is held hostage in, fighting hordes of enemies before proceeding to the next floor.

That is basically what this game is. You play as Thomas, and you go from right to left, defeating enemies, before taking on a boss. Beat him, you climb the stairs, and then go from left to right doing the same thing. You do this for five levels and after you beat these levels, the game loops again with harder difficulty.

This game is simple, bare bones action. It's easy plug in and play fun. The challenge level is fair and reasonable. It set the stage for the beat 'em up genre, and could be called the Grandfather for games like Double Dragon, Final Fight and Streets of Rage.

For some reason, the game hasn't been rereleased in a long time. It never released on any iteration of the Virtual Console, it was missing from the NES Classic mini and it's not a part of the Switch Online service. Maybe it has to do with licensing, although this version of the game was not technically licensed, so I'm not sure why we haven't seen it in a while.

Again, a very simple, but fun, action game. A solid 3 stars.

Read less
scoopings

Status scoopings Apr 25, 2022

Gotta love it for starting the beat em up genre, it even felt like the upcoming NES era ones I am so fond of (I used to play so much Double Dragon, the NES port). But it just simply isn't that fun as it is. Important, innovative, and getting me ready for a genre I love--but in practice, clunky and …

Read more

Gotta love it for starting the beat em up genre, it even felt like the upcoming NES era ones I am so fond of (I used to play so much Double Dragon, the NES port). But it just simply isn't that fun as it is. Important, innovative, and getting me ready for a genre I love--but in practice, clunky and goofy and repetitive real fast. (And yes, be ready for a bunch of status updates and reviews in a row, dating all the way back from 4/12. Darn Runescape has been distracting me for that long ha)

Read less
ApramPepo

Review ApramPepo 2/5 · Sep 19, 2021

Bad Controls and Difficult Gameplay

A two combination that can easily result into making one of the worst games Ever. Here we have Kung-Fu, an NES launch title that can certainly be one the worst, yet it has some redeeming quality.

If you know what you're doing and got a hangover the controls, This game can be rewarded, but in many ways you'll find yourself …

Read more

A two combination that can easily result into making one of the worst games Ever. Here we have Kung-Fu, an NES launch title that can certainly be one the worst, yet it has some redeeming quality.

If you know what you're doing and got a hangover the controls, This game can be rewarded, but in many ways you'll find yourself battling with the controls and pressing the wrong button all day, you'll get tired of it quickly.

Can't Find it much fun with all the High difficulty and the clunky controls.

Read less
GigaDeathNullGolem

Status GigaDeathNullGolem Jul 24, 2020

I've been playing this a little bit each week and it's incredibly hard. It's a bit of pattern matching but comes along with randomness, to make the toughest kind of game. Today I couldnt even get out of the first stage. Grrr... I think it's time to retire this one.