It’s not every day that you come across a major unreleased game, but we’ve been rather blessed this week as the cancelled sequel to Kung-Fu Master has been revealed to the world. Titled Beyond Kung-Fu, the game features all-new visuals and new types of enemies, including dragons. You can see the game in action in the video below (footage begins at 1:26).
The game was originally intended for release in 1987 and made it as far as location testing, but was apparently cancelled because of a desire for a more Americanised game. This prompted the development of Vigilante. The Beyond Kung-Fu board shown was the final location test version, and was acquired from an ex-employee of Irem. Though the original PCB has been damaged and is in a rebooting loop, the ROMs were dumped beforehand and have been submitted to the MAME project, meaning that the game may become available to the wider gaming community before too long.
If you’re a fan of Kung-Fu Master or want to find out more about it, Retro Gamer issue 140 features our Ultimate Guide to the game. Pick up a copy of the magazine at imagineshop.co.uk, or get it digitally via greatdigitalmags.com.
[Many thanks to Arcade Heroes for passing on this news]