Jackie Chan in Fists of Fire

Also known as: Jackie Chan: The Kung-Fu Master (North America), Jackie Chan in Fists of Fire: Jackie Chan Densetsu (Japan)

Developer: Kaneko

I'm not quite sure what to say about Jackie Chan's arcade fighting game. It seems to go a little overboard with Jackie Chan - every boss fight is a variation of Jackie Chan from one of his several movies. It also seems to go overboard to protect Mr. Chan, since when you defeat him (which can be a pain due to fighting than can feel cheap), Jackie just drops to a knee. in defeat, rather than get laid out like every other fighter in the game. You can't play as any of the Jackie Chan variations, either. He's purely there to serve as boss fights and provide a name to this game. Like he's just taking it easy on you to see how much you've improved. The other fighters, who seem to be mostly actors from Jackie Chan films, don't get the same treatment. They can get knocked out, and sometimes they even get, well, murdered. The non-Jackie Chan fights feel like a sloppy Mortal Kombat, complete with the opportunity to "Finish them." The fighting feels choppy, and lacks any real excitement…I kicked my opponent towards the screen and "broke" the screen, and almost fell asleep while doing so. How dull does a fighting game have to be to have scenarios like that and still fail to feel exciting? Anyway, if you find yourself in a position to play Fists of Fire, it may be worth playing as a curiosity, but I highly doubt that anyone will consider this to be one of their favorite games. If they do, you can probably call them a "liar, liar fists of fire!"

Review added: 04/11/2023