The pinnacle of game preservation in a fantastic package
If you put the original Prince of Persia in front of anybody that’s played games, they’d likely recognize it or realize it’s where one of the more modern versions of the game grew from. At one time, it was one of the bigger franchises in gaming. It spawned several imitators and became synonymous with the genre concept of puzzle platforming. Karateka, however, has been lost in the shuffle. Lost to time. A game that never had much of a console existence, especially in the West. It was a computer game through and through. And a hit. So it’s somewhat sad to see that it simply doesn’t hold the pedigree that Jordan Mechner’s Prince of Persia holds, despite doing more for games that any of us truly realize.
That’s where The Making of Karateka comes in. Digital Eclipse are masters of presenting older titles in the most complete and remarkable way possible. I previously said that the Atari 50 Collection from last year was going to be the benchmark I’d look at all future compliations in comparisons. Not only did Digital Eclipse, well, ECLIPSE the Atari release, they ended up making one of the best “compilations” of all time and what I think will end up being one of my favorite releases of the entire year. Making of presents to us Mechner’s entire early career through journals, videos, industry interviews, production art, and various beta versions of the original game as well as several of the early attempts at games Jordan created to break into the industry. It’s truly a glowing example of game preservation and a history lesson that should be taken by all with even a passing interest in game design or gaming history.
This review is based on a Steam code sent to SideQuesting by the publisher. It first appeared on the August 29th episode of The SideQuest.
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