Kung Fu FAQ v1.0 by Joshua Harring (harring@student.umass.edu) on 9/28/99


Kung Fu is a 15 year old first-generation Nintendo game.  The plot is your 
typical Nintendo game: the girlfriend (Sylvia) of the hero (Thomas) has been 
kidnapped by a bad guy (Mr. X) and he must rescue her by fighting through a 
number of levels (5).  Bet you've never heard that before.  

Thomas uses his fighting techniques to defeat the enemies and bosses of each 
level.  These are:

Directional pad:  Makes Thomas move left or right, jump straight up, left or 
right, or crouch.

A Button: Punch.  Thomas can punch while standing, jumping, or crouching.  The 
jump punch has little practical use since it cannot hit standing enemies.  You 
gain more points by punching enemies because of its short range.

B Button: Kick. Thomas can kick while standing, jumping, or crouching.  The 
crouching kick is a foot sweep.  You gain fewer points from kicking enemies than 
you do by punching them, since the kick has a longer range.


Thomas has a life meter indicated by the bar beside the word "Player".  As 
Thomas gets hit, this bar goes down, and when it is empty, he loses a life 
(indicated by the number beside his head).  The only way to fill the life meter 
back up is to complete a level.  The life meter beside the word "Enemy" is the 
life meter of the boss of the level you're on.  Normal enemies do not have life 
meters.

The number beside the dragon's head indicates how many times you have completed 
the game in the current sitting.  I do not know what happens if you complete the 
game more than 9 times.

The time meter starts at 2000 units and counts down during the level.  If it 
reaches 0, Thomas loses a life.  The total time for completing a level is 
approximately 2 and a half minutes.

The squares correspond to the level, level 1 being the leftmost square, 2 the 
next one, and so on.  The flashing square indicates the level you're on, and a 
filled-in square indicates a level already completed.

When you complete a level, you receive bonus points depending on how much life 
is remaining in your meter, and how much time is left.  Both the life meter and 
the time are reset at the start of the next level.  

When Thomas reaches 50,000 points, he gets an extra life.

There are two types of games to select from: A and B.  The only difference is 
that the B game is slightly harder, with more enemies, and I believe more 
damaging attacks.


Level 1:

In this level you'll meet the most common type of enemy: the Grabber.  All he 
does is run towards you and attempt to grab you.  If he's successful, he drains 
your life until you shake him off.  Just punch or kick him once to kill him.  
The other, less common, enemy you meet is a Knife Thrower.  He stands still and 
throws a knife at one of two heights.  Duck under the high knife and jump over 
the low one.  You also need to hit him twice before he dies.  The knife is 
damaging so be careful.

The end boss is armed with a stick.  His attacks have a slightly longer range 
than yours do, but when he attacks, he does so three times in a row.  Stand out 
of his range until he finishes his third attack, then run in and kick him a 
couple times.  Back off again until he finishes attacking, then do it again.  
Once he's dead, walk to the left and you will reach the stairs to the next 
level.


Level 2:

In the first half of this level, there are three different enemies.  There is a 
jar that falls down to the ground, which causes it to break and release a snake.  
The snake slithers along the ground towards you.  Jump over the snake or hit the 
jar before it reaches the ground.  There's also a ball that falls to the ground 
and then turns into a dragon.  Either hit the ball as it's falling, or wait 
until it turns into the dragon, then punch the dragon.  If you can't hit it 
immediately, duck under its fire, then stand up and punch it.  The third enemy 
is an exploding ball which hovers in the air for a few seconds before it 
explodes, releasing shrapnel in three directions:  straight down, and 45 degrees 
to the left and right.  Either jump kick the ball, run from it, or stand where 
the shrapnel won't hit you.

The rest of the level consists of the enemies you met in Level 1, as well as a 
new enemy: the Midget.  You must crouch to hit these guys.  They run towards you 
like the Grabber, but occasionally will try to flip onto your head.  If they do 
this, jump straight up (no need to attack) to knock them out of the air.  But 
the flip causes so little damage that it's not a big deal if you don't react in 
time.

At the end of the level is the Boomerang Thrower.  He'll throw a boomerang at 
one of two heights, just like the knife thrower.  The boomerang will go the 
length of the screen before coming back, either at the same height or the 
alternate one.  He can also have two boomerangs out at the same time.  Get close 
and punch him a few times to kill him.  Then go up to Level 3.


Level 3:

This level consists of nothing but the three normal enemies you've met already.  
Fight your way through them all to the boss at the end.

The end boss is a big strongman.  A quick way to beat this guy is to jump kick 
him in the head first, then crouch punch until he dies.  Generally he will try 
to punch you after you jump kick him, so when you crouch you will duck under it, 
while still being able to hit him with punches.  After he dies, go up to Level 
4.


Level 4:

The first half of the level consists of insects coming out of holes.  
Continually move to the right during this section.  Jump kick the first insect, 
kick the second one, kick the third one (and then jump over the hole to avoid 
the next one), and then jump kick the last one.  Then you'll start meeting 
normal enemies until you come to the boss.

The boss is a magician.  He'll throw magic fireballs at two different angles:  
one goes straight horizontal the length of the screen before turning into an 
insect and coming back, and one goes down at a 45 degree angle before turning 
into a moving snake when it hits the floor.  He also can teleport.  You also 
can't hit him in the head, because it falls off and he grows a new one without 
causing any damage.  So you need to get close and hit him with crouch punches to 
damage him.  Kill him and then go up to Level 5.


Level 5:

Nothing but normal enemies here, but there are a lot of them.  At the end of the 
level is Mr. X.  He's the only enemy who can block your attacks.  But the easy 
way to kill him is to get close and continually foot sweep.  He'll hop over a 
lot of them, but he'll get hit a good amount of the time too.  When he dies, 
walk left and you'll find Sylvia.  Yay.  Then the game starts again, with the 
dragon counter incremented by one.


That's all there is to it.  It's not a very challenging or really very 
interesting game, but I can see how young kids would get addicted to the simple 
action.  I really don't want to sit and try to win the game 10 times in a row 
without going insane, so if anyone knows if anything exciting happens or if the 
counter just rolls back to 0, please email me.  You can also tell me if the same 
thing happens with the score counter reaches a million points, too.  

If you really want this game, you can probably find it at your local Funcoland, 
or you can order it from them.  I just checked their website and it costs $2.49 
+ tax, which I think is too much actually.

Please don't sell this FAQ for money (not that I can imagine that anyone would 
actually pay money for this) or reprint it unless it's in its entirety.  Doing 
so is a violation of copyright law.  You can post it on a website if you like; 
just make sure I'm credited with writing it.  I spent literally minutes of hard 
work on this.  ;)