Play Budokan: The Martial Spirit (dos) Online

Budokan: The Martial Spirit is a martial arts versus fighting game released for MS-DOS in 1989. Developed and published by Electronic Arts, the game presents its combat from a side view perspective. It allows players to engage in four distinct martial arts disciplines: unarmed karate, kendo with a wooden sword, combat using nunchaku, and fighting with a staff known as a bo.

Players control a martial artist who progresses by first practicing skills in solo training or sparring matches against instructors or another human player. The primary objective is to prepare for and compete in the world championship tournament held at the Budokan hall. Gameplay involves selecting one of the four fighting styles before each match, with each weapon having a limited number of uses throughout the tournament. This requires strategic planning across the entire competition. Players execute a variety of attacks, blocks, and movements, with the effectiveness of actions tied to two on screen attributes: stamina and ki.

During matches, active movements such as jumping or performing complex strikes deplete the player's ki, which represents the power behind blows, while successfully blocking attacks can restore it. Stamina governs the fighter's speed and responsiveness; as it decreases, movements become slower and more difficult to perform. A match concludes when either fighter's stamina is fully exhausted. The tournament consists of consecutive battles against increasingly skilled opponents, many of whom wield weapons not available to the player. Before each fight, a briefing screen provides information about the upcoming opponent to inform the player's strategic choice of weapon.