On first glance, Head to Head Karate might seem a little misplaced in a genre overview like this. It wasn't even released commercially, but apparently contained on some disk mag by Softdisk Publishing. Superficially it's also just a bad Karate Champ clone, even though it cunningly replaces the karateka in the white gi by a blue one. (The other colorful fighters from the title screen never appear in the game.) The bonus rounds after each match are also ripped straight from Karate Champ.

In some respects, on the other hand, Head to Head Karate seems like a weird forgotten forebear to Nintendo's Smash Bros. series. The characters are tiny, allowing for a large battlefield, where it's even possible to jump up and down between two stories. In later levels, bombs start randomly appearing around the battlefield, who instantly knock down anyone who stands too close when they detonate. It's also possible to knock the opponent off the building. The fight continues until one of the rivals has no lives left, upon which the winner receives a trophy and the loser bursts into flames! The referees are ladies in opulent dresses, who fall in love with the winner after the bonus round. This game also seems to be the first one to acknowledge a double KO, upon which the referee inquires: "What?"

Taito's Kageki is a not-so-hot fighter that merits a nod because it is more well known than most early fighters. It plays pretty much like a less horrible Pit Fighter, although here the characters look like weird punching puppet dolls. There is a light attack button and a strong attack button. Pressing both attacks at the same time makes the fighter duck for avoiding attacks. The simple move set makes for simple gameplay as the player has to time dodges precisely and then get in a few hits between the enemy's attacks. After an opponent is knocked down, a goofy looking referee counts them out and then a character from the background hurls the loser down a manhole.

Despite repetitive gameplay, Kageki is relatively fast paced and it does provide a fair challenge, which are its greatest merits. While it isn't very good, maybe even terrible, it is the best Pit-Fighter style fighter. It has horrible music and is ugly as hell, the visual design is actually somewhat interesting.

The Genesis port was retitled Ka-Ge-Ki: Fists of Steel. It is the same as the arcade game, except there are easily defeated mooks to be fought before each boss.

After Double Dragon's 1987 release in arcades, it was ported to the NES in modified form in 1988. This version lacked the option of playing the beat-em-up with two players at the same time. In a attempt to make up for this, a two player fighting mode was made available exclusively for this version. Choosing Mode B at the title screen leads to a selection of six characters from the game to choose from. Strangely, it is only possible to fight mirror matches, regardless of how many people are playing. There is no jumping, and the character specific move sets are small (A punches, B kicks, A & B jumpkicks, except for Abobo, who lacks the jumpkick), but they are adequate. When playing as Will, Rowper or Chin in two player mode, there is a weapon on the ground that can be picked up to fight with it, a knife, billy club, or nunchuks, respectively.

Tapping forward or back twice starts a dashing maneuver, making this the first fighting game to include that technique. This is definitely a great innovation, but here it isn't well executed. Computer opponents have more health than the player, and it's disappointing that different characters cannot be pitted against each other. Control responsiveness, game physics, and the general feel of the game are exactly like the beat-em-up mode, even though it uses larger sprites. It's even still possible to move toward and away from the screen like in a beat-em-up.

This is a multi-event sports game, but it has a fencing game and a taekwondo game that each play like fighting games. The fencing game is like a faster version of Great Swordsman, but height of attacks are controlled with the directional pad. The second button executes a block. This is a pretty good game, but not as good as Great Swordsman. The best feature that sets it apart from the earlier arcade game is simultaneous two player competition.

The taekwondo game is mediocre. It plays sort of like a vastly inferior version of Human Entertainment's SNES game Taekwondo from 1994. There is a health bar, pressing up executes a jump, and the two buttons are for punching and kicking. It is repetitive, the controls are fairly awkward, hit detection isn't very good, and it could have benefited from larger move sets. Despite these complaints, it's still playable. It's not a bad game, but also not a very good one.

Without a doubt, Last Apostle Puppet Show is the most high-end looking fighting game to be released prior to Street Fighter II. It's also the first to use digitized sprites. The main character is based on a traditional Chinese puppet, like every other character in the game.

Contrary to the unique look, the gameplay is completely generic. There are three buttons: Kick, Punch, and Jump. Simple stuff. The game offers no interesting mechanics, except for the ability to attack multiple times while airborne. A stork releases health items and hazards every once in a while. A similar feature would be seen in Samurai Shodown several years later.

There are two problems with this game: While the controls and physics are decent enough, the hit detection is something of a problem. It's pretty much a guessing game whether or not an attack will hit the opponent from any given position. The game is also inexcusably difficult. Opponent's attacks are much more devastating than the main character's, and opponents don't ever die easily, which is a big pain. Even after their health meter is depleted, it can take several more hits to achieve a victory.

While most motion capture games look gaudy after their "wow factor" wears off, this game is able to get by on its character designs, which are actually fairly novel. Every character looks like a bobble head doll, and their heads will even fall off when they are defeated. Backgrounds are superbly designed as well. All in all, Last Apostle Puppet Show is a really great looking title, even if the gameplay is lacking.