Bruce Lee Download (1984 Arcade action Game)

The late martial arts hero features in this platform game, with the aim of reaching a wizard in an underground lair, defeat of whom can offer him untold wealth. In each area you must collect the many strategically-placed lanterns before exiting through the newly-revealed passageway. Some rooms also have escalator-type sections to run along, and the standard (although slightly illogical in this context) ladders. On the way, you'll fight two enemies - a ninja and a green sumo warrior named Yamo. You can defeat them by punching, kicking, dropping on their heads or luring them into hazardous terrain, or even by making them accidentally hit each other. Even after they are killed, however, they keep coming back for more after a few seconds. Since they can move pretty intelligently (they even climb ladders), you should watch out for them. There are lots of hazards to avoid by either walking round or jumping - walls of electrical charge and exploding bushes for example.

I'm convinced that everybody who's reading this review has already heard of Bruce Lee. It is a name that is commonly connected with martial arts movies or simple martial arts themselves. It is no wonder that the gaming industry wanted to profit from this well know name. It was Datasoft that got the idea to make a game entitled Bruce Lee. And the game was a big hit! The name helped a lot. Just imagine how it sounded when you said to your friends at school, you're playing a Bruce Lee game! It definitely sounded much better then to say, you're playing Bouncing Babies. ;)

Now this game is one of the earlier platform action games. The gameplay is simple enough. You can run left or right, lie on the floor (this makes you invulnerable to hits of the enemies), jump (climb) or hit. There are two hits you can perform. You can punch (press space while standing still) or do the flying kick (press space while moving left or right). While running, climbing and jumping all over the place you need to collect some glowing objects (I'm not sure what they should be). Collecting them will open you passages to continue further on (example: once you collect everything in the first three rooms, a trap door will open and you can go to the underworld).

There are off course obstacles on your way. There are beams that kill you instantly, geysers that make you evaporate and there are two guys trying to stop you. There is a cool looking Ninja and a fat Sumo Wrestler. They will start beating on you as soon as they can reach you. Watch out for the Sumo guy, he's stronger then Ninja and can perform the same two moves as you. He's also tougher, so you'll need to hit him more times in order to make him disappear (but remember - the object of this game isn't to fight these two guys off).

Thus far this sounds like a fairly average action game. Yet there is a twist to this game. The game supports four different modes of play! The game supports up to three players!!! You can play in one or two player mode, where the computer controls both opponents and the players are taking turns. When one looses a life the other one starts playing. But you can select a player to control an opponent! This would mean that you're Bruce Lee and your friend would control the Sumo guy and try to stop you! Unfortunately you need joysticks for this mode!

Unfortunately the PC game is much worse then the Commodore 64 version was! Besides the PC speaker sound and slightly worse graphics, the game also had a bad interface. When you press a button to go in a direction, you'll keep on running in that direction until something stops you (it's easy to get killed this way).

One of the first semi-realistic side-scrollers for PC. MobyGames has the scoop on this martial arts classic: "Bruce Lee is a decent platform game with a lot of action thrown in. Reflexes are needed to pass certain sections, as is a lot of timing to jump past obstacles. You're pursued by two enemies, who unrelentlessly come after you, snapping at your heels. It's very fun for anyone who likes platform games. There is no "easy" mode to help novice gamers get used to the game. Also, fighting the enemies is relatively easy and just gets irritating after a while. Finally, Bruce Lee only runs at the correct speed on a 4.77MHz PC. Well, one more gripe, actually--you're Bruce Lee, yet you only have two moves, punching and a flying kick. A little disappointing from a master of martial arts. If you love platform games that require good reflexes and timing, Bruce Lee fits the bill."

The game also features a great range of movement and attacks that makes games such as Bushido simplistic in comparison.

Note: If you like the game, also check out Mark Rosten's amazing 2001 remake of the 16-color Commodore 64 version, also on this site.

I remember this one from my C64. Basically it's a Jump 'n Run with some fighting elements, although the name sounds more like a real Kung Fu-Game or something like that Bruce Lee is far from being that. You are very limited in the ways of fighting. Basically you are collecting some kind of lamps (?) that sometimes open doors and are running away and/or fighting that black ninja and the fat guy - the game is not bad, quite enjoyable, but pretty fast without a slowdown-program. Still playable though. My cousin and I used to play this a lot, well... as far as I remember the C64-version was a bit better.

How to run this game on modern Windows PC?

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