Exploding Fist

The game has various backgrounds that change as the player progresses through the levels: inside a dojo, an outdoor field with snowy mountains and volcanoes, a Buddha statue, or some pagodas.

The player takes part in a series of one-on-one karate matches, all overseen by a wise old expert who appears in the background. Once the player defeats an opponent they move up to the next stage and a more difficult adversary. Fights are not won using the energy-bar style found in modern fighting games; instead, the player needed to get two complete yin-yangs. Any move that connected with the opponent would end the round; a loosely timed or borderline kick or punch would obtain half a yin-yang icon, while a well-executed move would obtain a full icon. Two complete icons ended the bout and progressed to the next level.

Before creating The Way of the Exploding Fist, designer Gregg Barnett converted The Hobbit and Sherlock, two adventures from Beam Software, to the Commodore 64. It was one of the first games to borrow heavily from the Data East arcade game Karate Champ, which was released the previous year. The Commodore 64 version uses over 600 sprite images to animate the player's movements. Karate champion Jeoffrey Thompson was signed to promote the game but was not sufficiently well known to have the game named after him. A Nintendo Entertainment System version titled Exploding Fist was developed, but it was never released until Piko Interactive acquired the rights to the game and released it on the Evercade.

The game's soundtrack was written by Neil Brennan and it is based on the 1952 orchestral piece Dance of the Yao People. It has been praised for the excellent atmosphere it provided and was one reason behind the popularity of the game.

The Way of the Exploding Fist topped the UK software sales charts for two months, in September and October 1985, until it was replaced by Monty on the Run.

The Way of the Exploding Fist became the best-selling computer game of 1985 in the UK. It sold 150,000 copies for the ZX Spectrum by 1987, and a total of 500,000 copies across all platforms in Europe.