''Big Trouble in Little China'' is a

side-scrolling A side-scrolling video game (alternatively side-scroller) is a video game viewed from a side-view camera angle where the screen follows the player as they move left or right. The jump from single-screen or flip-screen graphics to scrolling grap ...

beat 'em up A beat 'em up (also known as brawler and, in some markets, beat 'em all) is a video game genre featuring hand-to-hand combat against a large number of opponents. Traditional beat 'em ups take place in Side-scrolling video game, scrolling, 2D c ...

Mev Dinc Mevlüt Dinç (born May 1957), better known as Mev Dinc, is a Turkish-British video game designer. Born and raised in Turkey, he moved to England in 1979 while finishing his studies, intending to pursue a master's degree there. Unable to pay th ...

and published by

Electric Dreams Software Electric Dreams Software was a UK-based video game publisher established in 1985 by Activision and run by Rod Cousens and Paul Cooper formerly of Quicksilva . The company published video games for the ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC and th ...

in 1986 for the

Amstrad CPC The Amstrad CPC (short for "Colour Personal Computer") is a series of 8-bit home computers produced by Amstrad between 1984 and 1990. It was designed to compete in the mid-1980s home computer market dominated by the Commodore 64 and the ZX Spec ...

Commodore 64 The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit computing, 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International (first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show, January 7–10, 1982, in Las Vegas). It has been listed in ...

, and

ZX Spectrum The ZX Spectrum () is an 8-bit computing, 8-bit home computer developed and marketed by Sinclair Research. One of the most influential computers ever made and one of the all-time bestselling British computers, over five million units were sold. ...

. It is a tie-in licence for the film of the same name.

Gameplay

The player controls one of the three main protagonists and may switch between them during play. The characters progresses from right to left – an unusual orientation in this genre of game – fighting oncoming enemies. Initially, the three characters fight unarmed, but each has a weapon of choice that can be collected. Jack Burton can use a gun with limited ammunition, and Wang Chi can wield swords which eventually break. The third character, Egg Shen, initially fires weak magic bolts which improve with range and strength when he finds a magic potion.

Reception

''Big Trouble in Little China'' received diverse critical reception. ''

Your Sinclair ''Your Sinclair'', originally ''Your Spectrum'' or ''YS'', is a discontinued British computer magazine for the Sinclair range of computers, mainly the ZX Spectrum. It was commercially published between 1984 and 1993. History The magazine was la ...

'' awarded 8 out of 10, highlighting smooth scrolling and good sprite animation, only criticising the unbalanced difficulty with some enemies. In a later retrospective on tie-in licences, ''Your Sinclair'' found the animation to be poor, with little variety in enemy types, and amended their score to 52%. Conversely, ''

Sinclair User The ''Sinclair User'' was a magazine dedicated to the Sinclair Research range of home computers, most specifically the ZX Spectrum (while also occasionally covering arcade games). Initially published by ECC Publications, and later EMAP, it was pub ...

'' gave only 1 star out of 5, describing the characters as poorly depicted, with no atmosphere or sound effects.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Big Trouble In Little China (Video Game) 1986 video games Amstrad CPC games Beat 'em ups Commodore 64 games Electric Dreams Software games Single-player video games Video games based on films Video games developed in the United Kingdom Video games set in San Francisco ZX Spectrum games