Officially the first game released for the TurboGrafx, China Warrior created quite a buzz when screenshots first hit magazines. The huge sprites were unlike anything gamers had ever seen on a home console. Too bad that the game plays like a ton of bricks.

This is a shameless rip-off of Kung Fu Master, with the only real difference being that instead of being based on Bruce Lee's Tower of Death, it's an "homage" to Jackie Chan's Drunken Master.

Except that I don't recall waves upon waves of anonymous monks trying to kick Jackie's ass, much less the hordes of mutant flies which seem to infest the Chinese countryside here. But get used to them, because you'll be punching and kicking them a lot. A whole lot.

China Warrior's graphics and sound can only carry it so far. After beating up the hundreth monk, the question comes up if all the effort is really worth it.

As you might guess, the answer is no. China Warrior was a substandard game at the time of its' release, and its' shortcomings are even more painfully apparent now.

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