In the story of All Star Karate, you and your friends are having fun when you stumble across a man being attacked by what seems to be ninjas. You end up scaring off the attackers from the old man. But the old man is not what you think. He tells you he is a master of martial arts called karate and is willing to teach since you helped him. So be prepared for some fit training by the master himself. You will begin to investigate the mysterious ninjas and start to earn your martial arts belts along the way to a black belt in All Star Karate.

In this game, you will be trained to learn the art of karate. You’ll learn moves like the roundhouse kick and combos that are called a “Kata.” There is a time limit for punches and kicks, and if you don’t kick or punch in time, you will lose points. The on-screen prompts let you know what moves you need to do, but be careful: You are being timed on your punches and kicks. You can then create your own Kata by completing punches and kicks in sequenced timing.

While you are in training, you’ll fight some opponents to prove your skills in combat and up your belt rank throughout the game. It get’s your cardio pumping at times when you have many obstacles. If you have a little kid or kids that are hyped up on energy, All Star Karate is what you need to give their energy an outlet.

It was very inviting to see my boys look at the front cover of the All Star Karate with a grin on their faces. The characters are put together well and look the part they are playing. Each item and level in the game was in very good detail for the most part. Parts of the background looked like you where in a Chinese dojo while other parts of the scenery are what you would more likely see in a karate flick. The punching and kicking effects were awesome when the guy says “Hiieeeyaaaww.” Overall, the graphics in this game were cartoonish but nice for a kids’ Wii game.

The audio was a little too cut up while they were talking. The music in the background was average and doesn’t change all that much, but it fits the game nicely. When you are doing kicks and punches in the game, it had a swooshing sound to it like in a martial arts movie. The voices of the characters sounded realistic and had a very good quality, but they seemed choppy; it could have been a lot smoother. Overall, the sounds and the effects in the game were nice for this genre.

The mechanics were off by a long shot. When you are trying to flail your arms around to punch and kick, it didn’t want to punch or kick when you needed it to. My three sons thought at first that this was a really good game, but after awhile, they got bored because it was too hard to figure out. I think the game was too rushed and could have used better sensor movements for the controller. The movements were too hard to pull off because the calibration for the sensor was slow to react. Also, it was hard to learn what you had to do for the amount of time for each punch and kick.

Overall, All Star Karate has a lot of cool interplay parts. However, it seemed at times that you where just flailing your arms everywhere to get a move in before the time went for that move. But, you never set still in this action-packed game. There is something to do in every level, and it gets harder and harder by each martial art level. So if you have kids that are hyperactive, this game is something you might want to try out to tire your little one. Mainly this game is like having PE in your house. Now I can’t say that you and your kids will be playing All Star Karate months down the road, but if you like fighting games, then you need to try this one.