HVC-KF "Kung Fu" Spartan X cart

[FrankWDoom]

Picked this up locally. What's the story on these? What is a realistic value on this? Will probably keep but I'm open to a deal if someone is looking for it.
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[P]

There is a thread about it somewhere on the forum, but I forgot the story about it.
I guess it COULD be the Hong Kong version of the game? Nintendo released a few 60-pin games in Hong Kong with English titles. And I mean the arcade version was already called Spartan X in Japan and Kung-fu Master internationally when the Famicom version were released, so it's strange if they would use a truncated variant of the international name in Japan.

[Flying_Phoenix]

haven't seen a single copy of this "in the wild" in hong kong in 12 years. just in a shop once, but it was imported from japan apparently. so i don't think this has anything to do with hong kong. i *think* it was sold in japan but i don't know the story behind it. i believe it has something to do with jackie chan and one of his movies.

fcgamer has several copies of it found in taiwan (which imported lots of japanese fc games), maybe he knows the story.

[P]

"Spartan X" is the name of the Jackie Chan movie "Wheels on Meals" in Japan. The game has nothing to do with that movie except for the name though.
The game is supposedly based on the Bruce Lee movie "Game of Death" but they changed it to the Jackie Chan movie for some reason, although the game still clearly depicts climbing a pagoda (Devil's Temple in the game) as in the Bruce Lee movie. They also changed the name of the main character and the girl to Thomas and Sylvia respectively. Thomas is Jackie's role in Wheels on Meals and just one of 3 male main characters, and Sylvia is a Spanish girl (the "Sylvia" in the game is clearly Chinese) as the movie takes place in Spain with no pagoda in sight. There is no Mr X in Wheels on Meals, the main villain is some Spanish man whose name I forgot.

In the Famicom/NES version Thomas is made to look like Jackie Chan a lot more than in the arcade version, especially on the boxart.

I guess another reason why they initially called it Kung-Fu in Japan could be for licensing reasons. Maybe it wasn't clear if they could call it Spartan X until some time after the initial release so they played it safe. Despite Jackie's cartoon face being on the box.

Fun fact: Spartan X is the game that pretty much established the scrolling fighting genre by mixing scrolling shooting with martial art movie-inspired fighting. It is also an early game to use a life meter (including one for the boss) and the whole end-of-level boss formula (though not the first). The Famicom port was made by the same team that made SMB, and Miyamoto said the game had a big impact on SMB.
Spartan X was made by Takashi Nishiyama who left Irem for Capcom before the game was released and eventually made Street Fighter, inspired by games like Yie Ar Kung-Fu. He also joined SNK and made Garou Densetsu (Fatal Fury) and King of Fighters. He is truly the inventor of the fighting game genre.

[fcgamer]

I found several of these as part of the so-called Changhua Storehouse find...no idea how that guy was related to the industry, but he certainly was involved.

About the "Hong Kong" licensed Famicom releases, as with basically everything Famicom, later research proved that they were licensed Taiwanense carts, had nothing at all to do with Hong Kong.

[P]

Oh I see, Taiwan also got a 60-pin Famicom, and they even use NTSC as their TV standard. Do you know if this Kungfu is a Taiwanese release or a Japanese release? It does says Family Computer in katakana...

[L___E___T]

haven't seen a single copy of this "in the wild" in hong kong in 12 years. just in a shop once, but it was imported from japan apparently. so i don't think this has anything to do with hong kong. i *think* it was sold in japan but i don't know the story behind it. i believe it has something to do with jackie chan and one of his movies.

fcgamer has several copies of it found in taiwan (which imported lots of japanese fc games), maybe he knows the story.

It's Jackie's Shop right?

[fcgamer]

Oh I see, Taiwan also got a 60-pin Famicom, and they even use NTSC as their TV standard. Do you know if this Kungfu is a Taiwanese release or a Japanese release? It does says Family Computer in katakana...

I wouldn't see why it wouldn't have been a Japanese release, honestly.

[P]

Because the Japanese name of the game was officially Spartan X for all versions of the game including the arcade and Game Boy releases.

But since the Famicom Kung-fu release was released after the Famicom Spartan X release, I guess it might had been renamed because the movie license had expired or something.