You can't spin around in a circle and cast a spell without hitting yet another entrant in the survivors genre. It's already hard for one to stand out, but Alawar's Karate Survivor combines best-in-class combat with a beautiful love letter to everything Jackie Chan stands for.
The most important mechanic is a timed auto attack. A little onscreen circle drains letting you know when it's going to fire off, so it's your job to be standing in front of a mook or two when it does. But that's only the beginning of the ways you can dish out damage.
You can equip up to six fighting moves, visually represented at the bottom of the screen as if they were a strip of film. Moves of the same color type can create combos, and one upgrade gives each move its own number. Stringing the combos together in the proper numerical sequence increases the damage. Generally, red moves hit harder, blue moves have more range, and yellow moves add an enemy debuff.
The stages themselves are tributes to Hong Kong cinema, including a rooftop, a supermarket, and a bar, all filled with countless weapons to bludgeon hopeless enemies with. Once fully leveled up, your character will be going full Rumble in the Bronx. You'll spin around flagpoles, slide across countertops, and even unlock the move Armchair, in which your character spins around in an office chair, viciously kicking everyone.
The initial runs aren't the most fun, even by the slow build standards of the survivor genre. But if you stick with it, you'll become the martial arts action movie god we've all seen in our favorite kung fu flicks.
Each level is an excellent puzzle, with a way out of every corner you may accidentally get backed into. Once you've memorized the enemy types, that way out is often right through an opponent's face. The hordes keep coming until you've lasted for a set period of time. Then you face a boss battle, of course earning significant character upgrades for a victory.
Karate Survivor is a must own for fans of kung fu flicks, survivor games, and any fan of both genres.