Brawl ’n ball: Kung Fu Heroes & Bandai Golf | NES Works 111

Developer/publisher Culture Brain makes its debut on NES by riding into town on the same "conversions of pre-NES arcade games" that we saw last episode, though with considerably less success than Konami and Ultra. We can probably mark that down to the inadequacy of the source material, because Culture Brain did make a genuine effort here to tart up their port of Chinese Hero for the console, even swiping material directly from Super Mario Bros. They just forgot to swipe Mario's brilliant design and ebullient sense of fun. Oh well.
Faring better, Bandai Golf: Challenge Pebble Beach looks pretty mundane but offers a solid take on golf with an interesting wind-based mechanic on a digital rendition of a world-famous PGA course. Which counts for a lot! Assuming you like golf games.
Production notes:
Video Works is funded via Patreon ( / gamespite ) - support the show and get access to every episode up to two weeks in advance of its KZbin debut! Plus, exclusive podcasts, eBooks, and more!
Why watch when you can read? Check out the massive hardcover print editions of NES Works, Super NES Works, and Virtual Boy works, available now at Limited Run Games (limitedrungame...! SG-1000 Works: Segaiden Vol. I is available NOW, and Metroidvania: The First Decade is due in 2024.
NES footage captured from Analogue Nt Mini. Video upscaled to 720 with xRGB Mini Framemeister.

[@HPRshredder]

Mom: "No, we already have Ganbare Goemon Karakuri Douchuu at home"

[@bradybrapples]

I remember Kung Fu Heroes being one of the first major rental disappointments I had after winning our Nintendo from a spaghetti-o's sweepstakes. They gave us the Action Set without Super Mario/Duck hunt so when I'd finally get to rent a game every other week or so it really hurt when it was hot garbage. Was a while before I got any games of my own

[@FenderTele71]

Same. I rented KFH from my local video store and my friends and I suffered for 2 days because we had spent all our allowance renting it.

[@bradybrapples]

@@FenderTele71 lol we would collect pop cans from the ditch until we had enough money

[@robertlauncher]

Aww, no mama mia.

[@BB-te8tc]

I'm something of a Culture Brain apologist, especially the Super Chinese series, but I can't really argue with anything you've stated here. The games do get better though, but as a rule, Culture Brain games are usually too ambitious for their own good

[@AQuestionofCharacter]

Agree 100 percent. There is a certain charm for their games although they don't always deliver. I kind of feel the same way about Vic Tokai.

[@adammiddleton3309]

Super Ninja Boy would be a real gem if it had a playable frame rate

[@edguty3811]

He said Chutzpa…I love it😂😂

[@MCastleberry1980]

I think I booted up Kung Fu Heroes once on the Switch, played about 5 minutes and was like "Nope!" I can't even imagine 1989 me trying that thing

[@robertlauncher]

Dang you made it five minutes lol

[@8bitjoystick]

It was super great meeting you at Portland Retro Gaming Expo. If you have a new book out next year, I will buy it at the Expo instead of schlepping my copy around for the entire day. Ha ha ha

[@lindsaywheatcroft8247]

My mate had the game boy one on a forty-on-one cart. It was titled ‘Super Chinese Land’.

[@JeremyParish]

Yeah, the series is called "Super Chinese" in Japan, and wouldn't you know it, they knocked off the Mario series' approach of calling the portable version "Land." Creative fellows, Culture Brain.

[@moshingsafely]

I know this game is broken and wonky in a lot of ways, but as a kid my friends and I found something about it fascinating. Maybe it was just the kinetic satisfaction of punching the blocks to make powerups spew forth and such. Maybe it was the music. Also the box art was very cute.

[@Bro3256]

I thought I was crazy when I told people about the sound effect similarities with Kung Fu Heroes. I have a feeling that they not only took sound effects from Super Mario Bros. but Kung Fu as well with some of the punching sounds and voice samples. Listening to these via an NSF file and comparing them to their respective games its almost identical.

[@JeremyParish]

Maybe there really is something to those Yakuza rumors.

[@ElectronicWitchcraft]

Wait, you can listen to sounds within the rom file?? How do you do that??!

[@Bro3256]

@ElectronicWitchcraft NSF (Nintendo Sound File) is the file format that allows playback of audio from 8-bit Nintendo data such as Famicom and NES games

[@TheSmart-CasualGamer]

Literally everything about Kung Fu Heroes feels like it's cribbed from some other source. The sound effects are from Super Mario Bros, the perspective is like The Legend of Zelda, the action and the kiai are like Irem's Kung Fu, the bosses in daft hats are like the bosses in daft hats from Karateka, and there's probably some more in there too.

[@ginormousaurus8394]

The music in the first level sounds similar to "Wipe Out" by the Surfaris.

[@gfhrtshergheghegewgewgew1730]

never knew ninja boy dated back so far back to the arcades, neat

[@GarrettCRW]

Everything Culture Brain did (and in the case of this game stealing sound effects from Super Mario Bros. and Kung Fu, got away with) can be explained if you believe the rumors that the company was a front for the Yakuza.

[@TeruteruBozusama]

That makes sense. I wonder how much yakuza involment there is in the industry today..!

[@JeremyParish]

I think the Yakuza have been pushed out of power by Kpop stans

[@mets137781]

OTOH Baseball simulator 1000 was awesome

[@ValkyrieTiara]

​@@TeruteruBozusamaConsidering the Yakuza, barely a shadow of its former self, has lost almost all of its power and is quickly being replaced by the Russian mafia, I'm gonna guess not much. Ryuu ga Gotoku has more influence on any given aspect of Japanese culture these days than the Yakuza.

[@RabbitEarsCh]

@@JeremyParish I can't tell how much of this is a joke given the *floods* of people I would see at any even vaguely related Kpop thing I saw in Shinjuku last month. People are going absolutely hog wild for these boys and their bands.

[@njdevs1987]

Kung Fu Heroes needed a certain Kung Fu hippie, a rappin' surfer from gangster city. This game is the fool he's pitying

[@BenCol]

He sounds like one outrageous dude that's totally in my face!

[@TheSmart-CasualGamer]

But should I recycle? TO THE X-TREME?!

[@gargenfluckgosphenspiels4849]

When are they going to get to the fireworks factory?

[@yellerdog]

The wheezy "YUH!" voice sample was weirdly the highlight of Kung Fu Heroes. Fun for a level or two with the big bosses and weird incongruous "touch everything" secrets, but it went on endlessly. Sort of like Bomberman without explosions.

[@gmc9987]

Oh god that sequence at about 7:45 or so, where you're talking about how bad the physics are while the screen capture shows someone dying half a dozen times just trying to walk to the top of the screen...

[@gagadreams]

I've loved golf video games since Hot Shots Golf when I was a teenager so its not just for old men! To me it trains you to live life because it forces you to adjust to and overcome adversity! You can follow up a horrible shot with an amazing one just like in life you have to pick yourself up and try again! I love golf! ☺️

[@ShdwHg]

Ah, Pebble Beach! Not gonna lie, every time that golf course comes up, I'm immediately reminded of _Pebble Beach Golf Links_ for the Sega Saturn. Just imagine if _Bandai Golf: Challenge Pebble Beach_ had Craig "The Walrus" Stadler in it - it'd immediately be improved tenfold, obviously!

[@23Scadu]

9:52 I didn't know Jerma was a golfer

[@randy7894]

Despite the quality of kung fu heroes, there is a huge amount of charm to it in the sprite department. I played it alot on game boy back in the days. Good arcade action fun.

[@smikeye]

My brother and I loved Kung Fu Heroes as a co-op game, it and Bubble Bobble were regular weekend rentals.

[@rowtow13]

This is the first time in a while that a sportsball-type joke has been funny.

[@dialest]

I've spent a lot of time with Kung Fu Heroes, both as an adult and as an elementary school kid a couple years after its release. As a child, I found it diverting and actually quite a lot of fun with a second player, but it wasn't until adulthood that I actually understood the relatively complicated systems the game (and manual) make little to no effort to explain. If you're not warping and are checking blocks for hidden items, you'll always have the power-ups you need to defeat the enemies you encounter, and if you understand the relatively precise and not-at-all intuitive hit detection, the canny player can reliably succeed against the many different small enemies you are required to beat. (I will say, though, in all my years, I've never figured out a way to safely defeat any of the bosses, and I've never gotten through stage 7-4.) If you are willing to put in more effort than this game probably deserves, there actually is an interesting and entertaining game in here, and most (though not all) of what seems like cheap deaths is actually just a failure to understand the game's systems (which are unjustifiably hidden). Plus, the later games in this series (known in America as Ninja Boy or Bros.) are really funny and interesting (but still deeply flawed) games, and they all draw heavily on the playstyle shown here. I guess what I'm trying to say is that this game has a lot of problems (maybe it IS a problem), but tit isn't garbage.

[@JeremyParish]

I respect your informed and thoughtfully measured opinion here. However, I still intend to dunk on this game at every opportunity.

[@dialest]

@@JeremyParish Thanks! I respect what you have to say in this video as well. Despite all my experience with both games, I had never noticed the elements from Super Mario present in Kung Fu Heroes (aside, of course, from the eight-world-four-stage campaign that seemed almost compulsory at this point). I've learned a lot from your many Works series - especially the way you provide historical and artistic context for each title at the time of its release. Thank you for the rigor of your work!

[@absolutezeronow7928]

I guess that I didn't realize that The Living Years was from 1989. Kung Fu Heroes definitely appears to be a bad game, and the Mario sounds would just remind me that I could be playing a better game that actually respected me as a player. Bandai Golf is well, kinda just there, but I guess the Pebble Beach course in it had appeal to somebody but probably not many kids. And next episode is about a banger and a definite highlight of 1989.

[@daviddalrymple2284]

Much like Kung Fu Heroes, "The Living Years" really does seem like something that belongs much earlier in the 1980s.

[@FallicIdol]

I remember the Living Years being older but i guess not. My friend and I rented Kung Fu Heroes and had fun. It was two player. But we were young and dumb

[@Sixfortyfive]

Since you've pretty much become the expert on the whole gamut of 1980s golf sims, I'm looking forward to Segaiden 1991's video review of Battle Golfer Yui.

[@mcneleon]

Challenge: Pebble Beach was a childhood favorite of mine! I spent so much time playing it. ❤

[@roguerifter9724]

I always loved Kung Fu Heroes. Many an afternoon or night with Dad or various friends and cousins playing it and I soloed it a few times.

[@CptSamel]

"increasingly elaborate hats", eh? Sounds S tier to me

[@Unquestionable]

I adored Kung Fu Heroes as a child and playing it recently I still do. Yeah it's very rough but it's a ton of silly fun, especially with a friend.

[@BlueWeaselBreath]

The Kung Fu Heroes writeup is great-not a “grand high lama” but a “grand high llama”. 😂

[@SamuraiSam]

Some people actually like Kung Fu Heroes. A certain NES guidebook gives it 4/5 stars, and SNES drunk did a video saying that he enjoyed it.

[@JeremyParish]

Well, sure, everything is fun when you're drunk.

[@jonothanthrace1530]

At least the Kung Fu Brothers eventually made it into... better games later on.

[@stephenhorne6645]

My friend had KF Heroes. We tried to beat it. But it was brutally difficult. It also wasn’t any fun so we ultimately gave up playing this nightmare. Your review is spot on.

[@KazPinkerton]

"Bracingly hateful" is putting it gently.

[@Morgil27]

I had Kung Fu Heroes as a kid and I enjoyed it. I would play two player with my older sister all the time.

[@RonnieBarzel]

The slidable blocks in KFH actually remind me more of Pengo than Mario.

[@aznluvr7]

Little Ninja Brothers is awesome though. I'm playing through it with my kids now.

[@nekokonata]

In spite of its simplicity, i think kung fu heroes is somewhat charming, or it might just be the co-op effect/appeal. I like some of the more simple arcade experiences on the NES

[@unoclay]

man jeremy sounds like he woke up on the wrong side of kung fu heroes! i never played this until i was an adult--but i found it fun, admittedly without contexting it in the year it came out.

[@darktetsuya]

kung fu heroes I fondly remember from back in the day. it was definitely 'rough around the edges' but I found it fun enough. maybe someday we can get an update that fixes all the glaring problems?

[@steuph1976]

Not only did Nintendo approve Kung Fu Heroes, they even preserved it for new generations.

[@RichMcLaughlin]

This is bringing back some serious memories from renting this stinker. I can hear my mom telling me to mute the TV because of the atrocious sound effects.

[@gullpayne]

Excellent video 👍

[@jbuck2112]

Heads up that this is not in the 1989 playlist (along with WWF)

[@SPac316]

I enjoyed Kung-Fu heroes.

[@Choralone422]

I remember rending Kung Fu Heroes once way back when. I also remember playing it for less than 30 minutes before giving up in disgust. I probably would have rented it along with something like Mega Man 2 which I would have ended up playing the heck out of instead!

[@Bargadiel]

For whatever reason, Bandai Golf has the same hidden Mickey on the circuit board that Mickey Mousecapades does.

[@MattoMakesLetsPlays]

"A real American ninja." Jason Voorhees?

[@kuririnzrp]

I like that pretty much the only two games that almost break format in the entire Works pantheon are this game and the Game Boy sequel. It seems very hard not to rant on how bad they are after having to play them.

[@chamchamtrigger]

Kung Fu Heroes sounds like when people play video games on TV shows.

[@anactualmotherbear]

Kung-Fu Heroes was a fun weekend rental. We kept playing it, hoping there might be an ending. When no end came, we weren't too disappointed and just moved on to other games.

[@ginormousaurus8394]

Kung-Fu Heroes does have an ending. After stage 8-4 there's a screen that shows the heroes, the rescued princess, and the words "Thank you!" surrounded by hearts. Then you can keep playing to earn more points but the stage designs repeat.

[@anactualmotherbear]

Oh, I knew later it had an ending, we just never reached it back then.@@ginormousaurus8394

[@Technosphile]

yay NES Works

[@goranisacson2502]

I don't have much to say about Pebble Beach, but Kung Fu Heroes fascinates me. I could SWEAF I played something like it but not ACTUALLY it on the NES but I can't remember what it was... or if I even liked it, back then.

[@JeremyParish]

The KFH games also showed up on Game Boy and Super NES, so that’s entirely possible

[@ginormousaurus8394]

Kung-Fu Heroes had a sequel on the NES titled Little Ninja Brothers that added RPG elements.

[@goranisacson2502]

​@@ginormousaurus8394Little Ninja Brothers may just be it. Now I just want to know what actual changes happened between the two games.

[@jbanks979]

I would have assumed this is the best attempt Micronics had ever made from 1986 (I was half right). I never played this long enough on switch ware to get to the Mario sounds

[@jennid8123]

I love the reference to the cassette vision soundtrack. Was that a more Galaxian game you shown than the actually Galaxian on the system ? Glad I missed kung fu heroes at video giant. Wasnt my thing back in the day and emulation has shown it isnt now.

[@jennid8123]

Also, it was a pleasure to meet u at PRGE. You were the last youtuber i saw. i was still shy, but i had to try to pick ur brain and give u respect.

[@JeremyParish]

That was a Super Cassette Vision game that bites heavily off of Space Invaders/Galaxian, yeah.

[@evenmorebetter]

When I was a kid, I think I got Kung Fu Heroes from either a pawn shop or a Funcoland for probably less than $5, and found it something reasonably fun and mindless to zone out with while listening to a CD or two through the PS1 (I'd do the same with NES Rampage). This is the proper price point and purpose for this game, I think. Like Castlequest, it sure feels a lot more 1986 than 1989 though. 1989! Mario 3 was out on the Famicom in Japan already!

[@ginormousaurus8394]

In Japan Kung-Fu Heroes was released around the same time as the janky Famicom port of Ghosts 'n Goblins. In North America Kung Fu-Heroes was released around the same time as the NES version of Ninja Gaiden. A few years made a big difference in what people expected from an NES game in terms of gameplay and presentation.

[@JeremyParish]

That's a great way of putting it into perspective!

[@2dskillz]

Kung Fu Heroes helped start the idea of games can be bad. So often at a young age when a game was bad I thought the problem was my ability to play or understand it.

[@MrERLoner]

This is one of those ges i saw adverts for everywhere like chester field or klax or raid on bungeling bay or heiankyo alien that i saw but no one ever seemed to.have. guess i did not miss.much

[@GameplayandTalk]

I can have masochistic tendencies, so I think I'll have to try Kung Fu Heroes. Never bothered with it because the theme doesn't do much for me, but I do like a challenge, even if unfair.

[@BetterThanDoomWithAZ]

Keep in mind that I'm slightly too young to have played the game upon release, plus I'm a filthy cheater that has no qualms using the Switch's rewind feature, but I guess I'm just not on the same page as everybody on this one. Nothing about Kung Fu Heroes particularly stands out as irredeemable compared to other NES titles to me, and I did enjoy my time with it. Still, there are unquestionably elements of poor game design within, such as no telegraphing before a lightning attack or the ability to progress through levels but then hit a game-ending roadblock if you lack a rare item. In spite of this, it's one of the few NES games in the Switch Online collection that I feel I can pick up and play. I enjoyed hearing your thoughts and it was good to learn about the "borrowed" elements.

[@RabbitEarsCh]

Even in its original release window of 1986 on Famicom, Kung Fu Heroes is really pushing it. It missed the boat that carried garbage like Ikki or Spelunker to huge success, and it feels like they should've learned their lesson before bringing it to NES even later! Genuinely surprised it was let fly by Nintendo of America. They've rejected games for a whole lot less than "copying the sound effects and mechanics of your pack-in title".

[@joshthefunkdoc]

Kung Fu Heroes is my irrational soft spot of the NES library. Think it's the soundtrack (that main level theme being a barely-disguised reworking of Wipe Out...) and the way its simple repetitive gameplay puts me into a Zen state that has me not minding how overly long it is. For those familiar with arcade gaming legend LordBBH, it's similar to his own feelings on The Super Spy (another widely maligned title).

[@infraredux]

Is the golfer's name actually properly Lee Treviño ( 10:31 ) and not Lee Trevino? It's the first time I've heard it that way, although a quick trip to Wikipedia tells me that he's of Mexican ancestry, so I guess it's not out of the realm of possibility.

[@JeremyParish]

His nickname was "Super Mex" so I've always just assumed the tilde was implied.

[@greg6500]

Is that some kind of LD player?!

[@ralang999]

I'll never forget Culture Brain's big multi page advertising inserts in game magazines. Totally obnoxious

[@Mer.Saloon]

The video is not available on the NES Works 1989 playlist

[@JeremyParish]

Lucky break for playlist viewers

[@jamesmoss3424]

Kung-fu Heroes got problems.

[@Riz2336]

I got king fu heroes at a video rental store that went out of business down the street from my house as a kid. I should’ve picked a better game haha

[@The_Wandering_Nerd]

Wow, Mr. Parish, why don't you tell us how you really feel about Kung Fu Heroes? :D

[@David-ln8qh]

I actually like seeing Kung Fu Heroes as a good reminder of what "video games" very often were around that time. Not the jewels filtered out over the years but those work-horse sorta games that made good stuff seem good. Kung Fu Heroes isn't made by dummies but it reminds me what makes better games better.

[@ValkyrieTiara]

I owned Kung-Fu Heroes as a kid. My tiny child brain being unable to fully process the idea of a bad video game I put many more hours into it than I knew somewhere in the recesses of my mind, even then, that it truly deserved. .....yeah. *sigh*

[@whipstitchzombie]

hey just so you know i just did a binge on all the nes works and this one isn't in the 1989 playlist? which really made things confusing when later you kept dogging on kung fu heroes and i thought, damn, he hated the game so much he never made a video on it

[@snuggie12]

As a young kid who barely understood most games, kung-fu heroes was no different than any other game. Also, being in the US, games could get added at any time and I'm just as likely to think that my local rental store got an 85 game in 89. So yeah, when you're like 5 or 6 and your parents know jack shit about video games kung-fu heroes represents awesome nostalgia; even if you should be ashamed of it. Also, check your pretensions at the door; it's on nintendo switch online after all and only the best make it on that list. lol

[@JeremyParish]

You make a strong case, but here is my counter-argument: Kung-Fu Heroes is poop and is bad

[@ikonoklast7]

It sounds to me like they ripped off the karate battle cries from Irem/Nintendo's "Kung Fu" too

[@julescab]

I should have watched this vid before, I bougth Kung Fu Heroes like 2 weeks ago in a lot. I was lazy to watch the gameplay and paid 10 bucks for it. I ultra regret it.

[@jsebastian9547]

Kung fu heroes might be shitty.... but its sequel is amazing.

[@lilwyvern4]

He hates this game so much, he refuses to put it in the NES Works 89 playlist.

[@smerk429]

Thief dr dre version ?

[@gaylordfocker7990]

Sounds like it uses sound effects from NES Kung Fu too.

[@namebrandmason]

It's both easy and incredibly difficult to see how Culture Brain followed up Kung Fu Heroes with the underrated Little Ninja Brothers. Easy because they pretty much used the entire first game for the random encounters in the sequel. Difficult because Kung Fu Heroes is such a lazy game.