Karateka
Skip · Action · 2012
Steam Deck UnsupportedThe verdict
SKIP IT.
It scores 24, under the fair line, at $3.99.
- Length
- 0.7h 4.7h to 100%
- Value
- $5.70/hr
- Reviews
- 71% of 396 positive
Watch this gameOne alert at a price you pick.
Buy now or wait
Next discount: likely in the Winter Sale, Dec 17 to Jan 4. Calls like this were right 83% of the time in a backtest over 70 weeks.
Discounted in each of its last 8 seasonal sales. Last cut ended 11 days ago.
- Next sale
- Winter Sale, Dec 17 to Jan 4
Sources: IsThereAnyDeal, Valve.
What drives the score
How to read this
Grades run S to D, read from the buyer's side. ▲ marks a lift, ▼ a drag or a dock, ? an input we do not have, • a fact this genre's score does not use. How the grades work
About the game
From PRINCE OF PERSIA creator Jordan Mechner, the original side-scrolling karate classic comes to Steam with art by Jeff Matsuda (The Batman) and music by Grammy-winning composer Christopher Tin (CIVILIZATION IV).
Minimum specs
Minimum on the Steam store: 1004 MB of memory, ATI X1800 or better, 1004 MB of storage. Windows only.
The value story
54 discounts in the 14 years on record, a median of 70 percent off across all of them, roughly 7 weeks apart. Today it is at full price, and its last discount ended 11 days ago.
It is cheaper than 68 percent of its genre, and less well reviewed than 64 percent. Among the games that feel like it, Double Dragon: Neon ($9.99, scores 44) beats it on value, while it beats Double Dragon Trilogy ($5.99, scores 0).
More about Karateka
Inside the two-hour refund window, 71 percent of the 127 reviews written there were positive, against 71 percent overall, and those are 63 percent of everything written about it.
0.7 hours to finish it, 5 to exhaust it. The completionist tail is 6.7 times the campaign.
The drop-off
83% start to 3% rarestNo achievement in this game marks the ending, so there is no finish rate. The curve runs from the most-unlocked achievement to the rarest, and its shape is where players stop. Steam global achievements
What players say
TL;DR: Good, short, rhythm-action game worth the price to pay considering the replay value. Innovative use of sound cues. Easy to play, difficult to master. Fully compatible with controllers; Don't know why the devs never added that. While this remake of Karateka is not all too close to the original 8-bit game, it holds up well as a spiritual successor and simultaneously manages to be quite fun and entertaining. The...
2 more reviews, 1 not recommended
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TL;DR: A mixed bag. Just wait for sale if you really want this game. Summary: Previously played on Xbox Live Arcade. I didn't known a PC port of this game exist, until someone on Reddit mentioned it as a hidden-gem (not really a hidden gem, but you get the idea). Story: You play as three characters, that switch up, when one of them died. The Hero, the Monk and the Brute. Your goal is to save Princess Mariko from the...
Steam reviews, mixed to its ratio and rotated daily. Opinions are theirs.
No data upstream: critic score (Metacritic).
Cite this score
Karateka scores 24/100 on the BANG Score (a skip) as of Oct 19, 2026. The BANG Score rates what a game is worth for the money. Via Steam BANGERS. https://steambangers.com/game/217270/karatekaReviews set the ceiling, and price against real length moves the BANG Score inside it. How it works, and where it is weak → Steam reviews as of Sep 29, price as of Oct 18. A number here look wrong? Tell me and I will check the inputs.