Chinese Hero - which was known as Super Chinese in Japan - would receive a Famicom port in 1986, one that kept quite a bit of the gameplay intact. It’s a bright and colorful game, especially in its original arcade form, which released in 1984 in both Japan and internationally. Instead, it’s set in a “nameless land” with a (surprise!) Chinese aesthetic full of kung fu and dragons and evil half-cat creatures, with your character moving through various castles in order to rescue a captured princess and 10 stolen treasures. Culture Brain’s Chinese Hero is one such beat ‘em up: it doesn’t take place in a dirty, crime-filled city, nor does it feature the kind of mohawked hooligans you’re used to beating up in a Double Dragon or Final Fight or Streets of Rage title. We’re pretty used to the kind of beat ‘em ups that games like Final Fight ended up inspiring, but there were plenty of entries in the genre in the years before that started to happen, too. Previous entries in this series can be found through this link. This column is “It’s new to me,” in which I’ll play a game I’ve never played before - of which there are still many despite my habits - and then write up my thoughts on the title, hopefully while doing existing fans justice.
