Play The Karate Kid Online

The Karate Kid on the NES came out in 1987 from publisher LJN, a familiar name from that era of licensed games. It was one of those many movie tie-ins that tried to capture the spirit of the films, often with mixed results, and it fit right in with the platform's library of straightforward action titles.

You control Daniel LaRusso, moving screen by screen through side-scrolling levels, punching and kicking endless waves of generic thugs. The main goal is to train and fight your way to victory in a tournament, which involves a surprising amount of platform jumping over pits. Between fights, you play a frustrating minigame to catch flies with chopsticks to build your strength. The pacing is slow, the enemy patterns are repetitive, and the difficulty spikes harshly, especially during boss encounters. It feels like a repetitive grind with little payoff for the effort required.