Karate Champ

Using two joysticks, players can execute 24 moves. Gameplay consists of a two dimensional fight between the first karateka wearing a white gi who is controlled by player one and the second karateka wearing a red gi who is controlled by either player two or the CPU, followed by various bonus rounds for the successful player. This pattern repeats itself in the next, more challenging round set against a new background, the first level being a dojo and all following levels taking place at the same tournament stadium.

Unlike most later fighting games, there is no health bar or hit point system. A hit successfully landed ends the round and earns the hitter either one point or half point (along with a numeric score for the top ten, but this has no effect on winning a match). The first to score two points is the winner. If the player loses a battle, the game ends.

Karate Champ was a commercial blockbuster, selling 10,000 arcade cabinets within two months of release and becoming Data East's best-selling arcade game of all time. In Japan, Game Machine listed Karate Champ on their August 1, 1984 issue as being the second-most-successful table arcade unit of the month, before becoming the top-grossing table arcade cabinet by August 15, 1984. Game Machine also listed Karate Champ — Player vs Player on their November 1, 1984 issue as being the sixth-most-successful table arcade unit of the month.

In North America, it was among the most successful arcade games in 1984, generating significant sales. In the United States, Karate Champ had shipped 30,000 arcade units by April 1985. It was the top-grossing arcade game during Summer 1985, and the fourth-top-grossing upright arcade cabinet on the monthly RePlay charts in November 1985, when each cabinet was selling for about $2,400 and earning an average coin drop revenue of $200 per week. It ended the year as the highest-grossing arcade game of 1985, and the year's highest-grossing game in route/street locations. In 1995, Flux magazine ranked the game 91st on their "Top 100 Video Games" list.

Karate Champ inspired numerous martial arts games. Its release was followed by a wave of karate and kung fu games attempting to capitalize on its success. It is credited with establishing and popularizing the one-on-one fighting game genre, for which IGN listed it as one of the top ten most influential games of all time. Many of the mainstays in the fighting game genre, such as the best-of-three format, specific control inputs to pull off special moves, and bonus rounds after a specific number of victories, were established by this game. The Player vs Player edition of Karate Champ was also the first fighting game to allow two players to fight each other.

Karate Champ influenced titles such as Konami's Yie Ar Kung-Fu (1985), Beam Software's The Way of the Exploding Fist (1985), and other fighting games. John Tobias cited Karate Champ as the primary inspiration for the gameplay of Mortal Kombat (1992).