Aka: | Karnov's Revenge |
Console: | Neo Geo |
TV Standard: | Region Not Set |
Developer(s): | Data East Corp. |
Publisher(s): | Data East Corporation |
Release Date: | 1994-04-28 |
Players: | 2 |
Co-op: | No |
ESRB: | Not Rated |
Type: | Fighting |
Karnov's Revenge is a 1994 fighting game developed by Data East, released for the Neo Geo. It's the second game in the Fighter's History series. The game was later ported to the Neo Geo, Neo Geo CD and Sega Saturn home consoles.
While the previous game was similar to Street Fighter's 6-button setup, the gameplay system of Karnov's Revenge is akin to SNK's fighting games such as Fatal Fury. Due to change of hardware to SNK's MVS platform, the control configuration was reduced from six attack buttons to just four (only light and heavy attacks are available this time).
A new gameplay feature is introduced in the form of "one-two attacks". When the player presses a heavy attack button while performing a light attack or blocking, the interval between light attacks is reduced, making combos easier to perform. While this feature is not mentioned on the instruction card, the final page of the home Neo Geo version's manual mentions it, describing as the "one-two attack" system.
All eleven fighters from the previous game return (including the bosses Clown and Karnov, who are now playable) and are joined by two new characters: Yungmie, a female taekwondo exponent from Korea, and Zazie, a karate practitioner from Kenya, for a total of 13 characters. Karnov is the only returning character who was given entirely new sprites. Most of the returning characters were given new special techniques (with a few exceptions), including hidden techniques which are not listed on the instruction card (the manual for the home version hints at their inclusion). The Ox that appeared in the bonus rounds in Karate Champ appears in this game as a secret boss if the player completes the game on the Normal setting or above without losing a round. The Ox is an unplayable character.
The game was originally released in Japanese arcades on March 7, 1994. The game was released for the Neo Geo home console on April 28, 1994. In addition to the ports for the Neo Geo home consoles, Karnov's Revenge was released for the Sega Saturn exclusively in Japan on July 4, 1997. The Saturn version allows players to assign all four basic attacks into a single button (C and Z by default), which is required for certain characters in order to perform certain special moves. A Virtual Console reissue of the Neo Geo version was released for the Wii in Japan on June 8, 2010 and in North America on December 27, 2010. It was also added to Zeebo on April 23, 2010. In 2017, Hamster Corporation released the game on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows, and Nintendo Switch under its Arcade Archives series.