Before he became a game design superstar with the original Prince of Persia in 1989, Jordan Mechner made another game in 1984: Karateka. It was, in fact, his first title — a sidescrolling action game about a martial-arts expert who did a whole lot of kicking. Today Mechner announced that he's reviving the game with an all-new Xbox Live Arcade version for 2012. We caught up with the designer to pick his brain about revisiting his first creation.
OXM: So what spurred the idea to bring back this mega-old-school sidescroller? Was it something you'd been thinking about doing for a while, or did a more recent event spark the idea, or...?
JORDAN: I've been wanting to bring back Karateka for a long time. Doing Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time back in 2003 got me started thinking about what could be done with Karateka as a modern console game. Since then, I've been busy with the Prince's adaptation to the big screen, writing other film and TV projects and graphic novels, but Karateka has stayed in the back of my mind. It was my first game, the one that started my career and made Prince of Persia possible. It's close to my heart and I'm tremendously excited to be revisiting it now.
OXM: How much of a remake/redo is the new Karateka? Is it still a 2D sidescroller, just with enhanced graphics/sound? Or is it more of a spiritual successor, perhaps even a different genre entirely?
JORDAN: The story is very close to the original. It's set in feudal Japan; you play the nameless, stoic hero whose beloved Mariko has been captured by the warlord Akuma. But it's much more than just a remake; it's a reinvention of Karateka for today, taking advantage of what we can do on high-def consoles that wasn't possible on the Apple II. We've not only upgraded the game's visual style, sound, and music, we've reconceived the gameplay and combat mechanic to make it more accessible to a new generation of gamers. The original Karateka was a straightforward, pick-up-and-play game with a simple human story that impressed people in 1984 as being cinematic and emotionally appealing. I wanted to recapture what the equivalent of that would be in 2012.
OXM: Along the same lines, how will the combat mechanics differ from those in the original game? Will they still be fairly simplistic (kick up, mid-level, down), or have they been expanded? And if they have been expanded, in what way(s)?
JORDAN: We've revamped the controls for the new game. It was important to me to keep it simple. You won't need a training session or a list of button combos as in many modern fighting games. The original Karateka was a game anyone could pick up and start playing immediately, and I wanted to stay true to that. As we developed it, this philosophy actually led us to streamline the controls even further in certain ways. Gamers' expectations have evolved in the last 30 years, and it's no longer considered quite so much fun to die because you accidentally ran into an enemy instead of dropping into a fighting stance. The challenge and depth of the gameplay can arise in other ways.
OXM: Who's the target audience?
JORDAN: We wanted to make a game that would warm the hearts of old-school gamers, but still be simple enough that even a little kid or someone who's not a hardcore player can pick it up and instantly understand it and start having fun with it. The original Karateka had that simplicity, and a lot of us were little kids when we played it. So it's a game that's easy to get into, but challenging to really master. Also, it's a love story. We're hoping that it will appeal to multiple generations in Xbox households, and to guys and girls alike.
OXM: That swooping bird freaked us out in the Apple II version! Will this avian attacker reappear?
JORDAN: You mean, of course, Akuma's hawk that sits on his shoulder! For sure. Akuma is the kind of evil warlord who won't fight you himself until he's thrown every minion at you that he possibly can. If he can let a bird do his fighting for him, he will.
Yes, this just happened. Game over, man.
OXM: Finally, will the princess still kill you at the end if you approach her in a threatening manner?
JORDAN: I've received a fair amount of feedback over the years from those who unfortunately stepped into that surprise ending. It was a real kick in the…face, given the original's "one-life" philosophy that sent you all the way back to the beginning of the game. But in my — and Mariko's — defense, if you were being held prisoner in a warlord's castle, and some dude burst into your cell in a karate stance, wouldn't you feel somewhat threatened?
Part of what excites me to this day about redoing the original Karateka is that people still carry these visceral memories of the first game that they've held for all these years (or alternatively, are still upset about and have never quite forgiven me for). I wanted to honor that and connect with fans' memories of Karateka in a way that's meaningful, while also giving them a new experience that's fun in 2012. That said…no, the princess won't kill you this time. I won't say we didn't think about it, but there was just no way to do it that wouldn't be an anticlimax. Gamers who remember the original would be looking for it, so it wouldn't be a surprise; and really, if it doesn't make you replay the whole game from the beginning, it wouldn't be the same. As for the new generation of gamers that is too young to have played the original Karateka, who wouldn't be expecting it…well, I have a feeling they might not appreciate being sent back to the beginning of the game in quite the same way we did back then.
