Bruce Lee

The fat guy was the nickname we, in the  Commodore 64 gang, gave to the opponent player in one of the strangest mixes of platform and beat 'em up in history.

At the time, it was 1984, Datasoft released "Bruce Lee" for Atari 8-bit and Commodore 64, and later for other platforms including the Zx Spectrum, which, contrary to its usual ignoble monochrome, flaunted exceptionally colorful screens on this occasion.

The ZX Spectrum version of Bruce Lee:
Compared to that machine’s usual color scheme,
this was a riot of colors

We often played in groups, as it was with friends that this sacred monster of gratuitous and hilarious violence showed its best side.

U.S. Gold was one of the most respectable publishers around at the time, and the cassette cover had a nice drawing that included a close-up of the famous martial arts champion, with his classic look that anticipated some chest-crushing action—just what was needed to attract hordes of 80s kids with their greasy little hands, eager to grab a copy of the game.

That black scribble could be a chimpanzee, and indeed its behavior is just that, but you're wrong: it’s the fearsome black-clad ninja.

The main theme of the soundtrack, written by John A. Fitzpatrick, while not particularly beautiful, was hypnotic enough to stick to your neurons and strengthen the audiovisual bond with the game. To this day, it's an 8-bit tune I enjoy listening to, precisely for the catharsis it can trigger.

The gameplay consists of twenty screens made of ladders and platforms, with some scene changes. In each screen, there are several Chinese lanterns suspended that need to be collected by jumping on them.

In the final screen, you'll find a giant wizard, who, besides having nothing to do with Bruce Lee or martial arts, also has the ambition of searching for the elixir of life. But clearly, this intrusion of the fantasy genre into his life must have pissed off our champion, so, on the advice of Chuck Norris, he decides to go break all his bones, just for the pleasure of hearing what noise they make.

To complicate things, there are two characters: one eternally controlled by the computer, and the other controllable by a second player, "the fat guy" mentioned above, or Yamo according to the game manual.

Yamo looks at the view, while we get ready to perform a sequence of flying kicks into the incisors against the poor Black Guy (TM)

The first is a black-clad ninja, which we nicknamed back in the day "the Little Black Man", equipped with a staff and possessing the intelligence of a goat on hallucinogens, while Yamo is a chubby green sumo wrestler who has the same moves as our protagonist, namely the punch when standing still and the flying kick while running.

There are three "environments" in the game

Personally, I never understood why he was green, but in a situation already bordering on the absurd, it almost went unnoticed, a bit like a Napoleon in an asylum.

Taken individually, these two opponents are harmless: the key is to time your approach perfectly to deliver a sequence of flying kicks straight to their incisors until their life is exhausted, which results in them blinking out of existence, just like the best David Copperfield teaches.

However, they can sometimes be annoying when paired together, and in rare cases, they can string together a series of punches, kicks, and staff strikes against us without giving us a chance to react, forcing us to start the screen over and lose one of our precious three lives.

Land mines that explode on impact and electric traps on the floor.
The friendly rigor mortis pose indicates that Bruce Lee has dropped dead,
but don’t worry, he has seven lives like a cat...

However, I remember that the height of playability and fun was when a second player took control of Yamo. At that point, he could become a dangerous opponent, but also a valuable collaborator as our green Sumo wrestler could happily beat up even the Black Guy. Needless to say, it often ended up with the poor ninja wannabe trapped in a circle of agony, with punches and kicks thrown by Bruce Lee and Yamo in concert... an apotheosis.

Yamo is about to deliver a terrifying flying kick to our Hero...

Our champion also has an unparalleled defensive move: by lying down, no one can hit him, neither with bare hands nor with sticks, something that would be useful in life if it weren't such a colossal nonsense, but that's what the developers thought.

Otherwise, the platforming part is a pleasant backdrop of easily reachable platforms and some additional difficulty elements represented by moving electric shocks on the floor or as barriers.

A purist of retrogaming would put me on the gallows:
Bruce Lee for Commodore 64 on a PSP.

In the final screen, facing the giant wizard will be a formality, as all you need to do is run towards him, avoiding the energy spheres he intermittently launches, and once you reach him, the game will end.

The Verdict

Those who played it back then and still hang out in the video game world most likely replayed it recently on their old Commodore 64 or on an emulator. It is one of those games that left a mark on its generation and certainly has something to tell today's generations as well. Give it a try.

Pros:

• A game about Bruce Lee! It must be played...
• The platforming is enjoyable, the ninja beatdowns are fun, Yamo is a friendly chubby character. All these ingredients combine into a blend that has something perfectly balanced.

Cons:

• A tad too easy to finish.

Score	Rating
Commodore 64 Game	92%
ZX Spectrum Game	90%