From HandWiki - Reading time: 5 min
| Best of the Best: Championship Karate | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Futura Loriciel (Game Boy, Genesis, NES) |
| Publisher(s) |
|
| Designer(s) | Pascal Jarry |
| Programmer(s) | Pascal Jarry |
| Artist(s) | Marco De Flores Christophe Perrotin Isabelle Maury |
| Composer(s) | Michel Winogradoff |
| Platform(s) | Amiga, Amstrad CPC, MS-DOS, NES, Super NES, Game Boy, Mega Drive/Genesis |
| Release | 1992 1993 (SNES, Genesis) |
| Genre(s) | Fighting |
| Mode(s) | Single-player, multiplayer |
Best of the Best: Championship Karate[lower-alpha 1] is a 1992 kick boxing game that features black belt kick boxing masters. The object is to win the kick boxing championship by defeating an array of kick boxing masters in a series of fighting matches. The Sega Genesis version is one of the few games to offer support for the Sega Activator motion controller.
Best of the Best is an updated version of Panza Kick Boxing which was released in 1990 in Europe for various computers as well as the TurboGrafx-16.
Martial artist/actor Ron Yuan stated in a 1994 interview that "I know a lot of pure gamers will disagree, but the best SNES fighting game from a purely technical martial arts point of view is Best of the Best. It didn't get much notoriety, but my friends and I know martial arts, and they go nuts whenever we play."[1]
Juris Graney of The Australian Commodore & Amiga Review compared Best of the Best to its predecessor: "Best of the Best Championship Karate is almost a reproduction of my old favourite, Panza Kick Boxing. In fact, it's the sequel, subtitled Panza Gold Edition. Everything is the same – the crowd, the referee, the moves and everything else. The only difference is an advanced stage at the end."[2]
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MobyGames was founded on March 1, 1999, by Jim Leonard and Brian Hirt, and joined by David Berk 18 months later, the three of which had been friends since high school.[6][7] Leonard had the idea of sharing information about computer games with a larger audience. The database began with information about games for IBM PC compatibles, relying on the founders' personal collections. Eventually, the site was opened up to allow general users to contribute information.[5] In a 2003 interview, Berk emphasized MobyGames' dedication to taking video games more seriously than broader society and to preserving games for their important cultural influence.[5]
In mid-2010, MobyGames was purchased by GameFly for an undisclosed amount.[8] This was announced to the community post factum , and the site's interface was given an unpopular redesign.[7] A few major contributors left, refusing to do volunteer work for a commercial website.{{Citation needed|date=June 2025} On December 18, 2013, MobyGames was acquired by Jeremiah Freyholtz, owner of Blue Flame Labs (a San Francisco-based game and web development company) and VGBoxArt (a site for fan-made video game box art).[9] Blue Flame Labs reverted MobyGames' interface to its pre-overhaul look and feel,[10] and for the next eight years, the site was run by Freyholtz and Independent Games Festival organizer Simon Carless.[7]
On November 24, 2021, Atari SA announced a potential deal with Blue Flame Labs to purchase MobyGames for $1.5 million.[11] The purchase was completed on 8 March 2022, with Freyholtz remaining as general manager.[12][13][14] Over the next year, the financial boost given by Atari led to a rework of the site being built from scratch with a new backend codebase, as well as updates improving the mobile and desktop user interface.[1] This was accomplished by investing in full-time development of the site instead of its previously part-time development.[15]
In 2024, MobyGames began offering a paid "Pro" membership option for the site to generate additional revenue.[16] Previously, the site had generated income exclusively through banner ads and (from March 2014 onward) a small number of patrons via the Patreon website.[17]
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