Review Fix Exclusive: Jay Bowman Talks ‘Kings of Kung Fu’

Review Fix chats with “Kings of Kung Fu” creator Jay Bowman about the development process and creative vision behind the upcoming game. A labor of love for Lee, a huge fan of Kung Fu films of the past 40 years, Lee details the things that make his game more than just fan service.

Review Fix: How did the idea for this game blossom?

Jay Bowman: I’ve always been a huge fan of martial arts films and fighting games. I’ve always wanted to see a fighting game that was directly inspired by martial arts cinema.

Review Fix: What Kung Fu movies had the biggest impact on you?

Bowman: Wow they’re so many but to name a few I’d say Enter the Dragon, Drunken Master 1, The Street Fighter, Mad Monkey Kung Fu. The Last Dragon. 36 Chambers.

Review Fix: What was the development process like for this game?

Bowman: It’s been interesting to say the least. Long hours, Blood sweat and tears I had three separate computers that experienced hard-drive failure during development.

Review Fix: What was the biggest hurdle during development?

Bowman: I’d say my living conditions being homeless and basically broke for most of the development time. I had three separate computers that experienced hard drive failure.

Review Fix: Who’s your favorite character and why?

Bowman: I try not to have any. If there are any that I am favoring at any particular time I usually try to improve the least favorite character to the point to where they become the favorite. So it’s a constant process of editing and revising characters.

Review Fix: I love the lighting and shadow effects- how much work went into the graphical engine?

Bowman: My process of production is fairly unorthodox.I basically have the entire game in my head. I work iteratively on different parts of the game at any particular time. At this current alpha stage of the game the final lighting style or graphical effects haven’t been finalized. Each stage captures a different mood and atmosphere.

Review Fix: What fighting games did you play as a kid? How did they influence this title?

Bowman: I grew up on fighting games and kung fu movies. My Father was a teenager during the golden era of martial arts films in the 70s. So as far as I could remember there was martial arts in our household.

Naturally when video games were introduced to us, fighting games were the main genre we gravitated towards.I had so many fighting games from the popular titles like Tekken, Street Fighter, Virtua Fighter, Dead or Alive and Mortal Kombat to obscure title like Shao Lin for the ps1, Kakuto Chogin for the original xbox, Tao Feng, Kensei for the ps1, Dynasty Warriors for the PSone and others like Cardinal Sin, Bio F.R.E.A.K.S., Eternal Champions, Destrega, Vs, the list goes on.  I’d say my favorite fighting series is the Tekken series. I love the control scheme and the combo system. Those were some elements you could see of direct influence in my game.

Review Fix: Any plans on releasing this on home consoles?

Bowman: Yes that would be a dream come true to actually have the game playable on consoles like the xbox one, ps4 etc. Hopefully I will have the opportunity to do a console port after I’m done with the pc and mac versions of the game.

Review Fix: Why should someone buy this game?

Bowman: Simply put this game is a kung fu film fans dream game. Everything from the characters styles the stages and sound effects have been crafted with care from some one who is a kung fu film and fighting game junkie lol.

Review Fix: How do you want this game to be remembered?

Bowman: The first fighting game that captured the essence of golden era martial arts cinema done by a indie developer.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 13821 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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