Jordan Mechner & Team Remaking Karateka

“For the past year, I’ve been working with a small team to develop a new, updated remake of Karateka — the game that began my career 27 years ago,” announced Jordan Mechner (Prince of Persia, The Last Express) on his blog yesterday.

Karateka was Mechner’s first released game for the Apple II in 1984. In it, players moved on a 2D plane fighting minions to save one’s girlfriend. It was distinguished by its animation and character at the time.

“I’ve been busy writing movies, TV, graphic novels, and other non-game projects,” notes Mechner, pointing out that remaking Karateka marks his first game since 2003’s Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time.

On how Karateka will be remade, Mechner says, “The new Karateka is much more than a port.” He added, “It’s closer than the [Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time] was to the original, side-scrolling Prince of Persia. But it’s a more radical reinvention than, say, [Prince of Persia Classic].”

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time saw the Prince of Persia series move to 3D and, notably, allowed the player to rewind time in a limited fashion. Prince of Persia Classic was, in essence, the original game with an updated look.

Mechner is developing the game independently and mentions he has been encouraged by the embrace of games like Braid and Limbo, saying they are “games that stand out because of their design integrity and strong artistic choices, although they were made on modest budgets and don’t represent technological breakthroughs.”

The new version of Karateka will be out this year for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 through their respective download services.