Karate Man Kicks!

"Who knew karate training could be so brutal? A punch will take care of most things, but those bombs call for a solid kick!"

- Karate Man Description (Rhythm Heaven)

"Who knew karate training was so brutal? A punch will take care of most things, but those bombs call for a solid kick!"

- Karate Man Kicks! Description (Rhythm Heaven Megamix)

Karate Man Kicks! (カラテ家キック), known in Rhythm Heaven as Karate Man (カラテ家), is the 29th minigame in Rhythm Heaven and the 96th minigame in Rhythm Heaven Megamix. In this game, the main character you're controlling is Karate Joe who is punching objects flying to him and learning a new kicking technique.

Gameplay
The main goal of this game is to help Karate Joe punch flying objects thrown to him. Punches are performed by tapping the screen, and must be timed correctly to the rhythm of the music. Upon hearing "Hit 3!", the player must hit three consecutive pots. On occasion, a light bulb will be thrown indicating that a barrel containing a bomb will be thrown next. After punching the barrel open, the bomb must then be kicked away by flicking at the same time. In Rhythm Heaven Megamix, a few changes were made to match the Karate Man game in Rhythm Heaven Fever. The first and most obvious change is the orientation of the game, as Karate Joe faces left in Rhythm Heaven, and he faces right in all other versions. The "Hit 3!" cue now has a visual indicator in addition to the voice clip, the last pot in the set was changed to a rock. The light bulb now glows yellow (as the combos are also in the same game, whose light bulbs now glow blue). The bombs also now explode instead of disappearing.

Rhythm Heaven

 * Tap: Punch, continue to enter Hold
 * Hold Stylus: Crouch
 * Flick: Kick

Button Mode

 * A: Punch, continue to enter Hold
 * Hold A: Crouch
 * Release A: Kick

Simple Tap Mode

 * Tap:Punch, and continue to enter Hold
 * Hold Stylus: Crouch
 * Release Stylus: Kick

Timing Notes

 * Hit: The player punches the object, sending it flying to the right and off the screen. For a barrel, the player punches it and kicks the bomb in it far away into the background, with Karate Joe smiling afterwards.
 * Barely: The player grazes the object, and it falls to the ground. If the barrel is broken, the bomb is only kicked a bit into the background. Karate Joe looks a bit embarrassed. A barely counts as a miss.
 * Miss: The player lets the object fly right by Karate Joe. For a barrel, it either flies right by Joe, or if punched, the bomb is not kicked and falls to the ground. Karate Joe looks surprised.

Header

 * "The Master speaks..."

Try Again

 * "Focus on learning the basics first."
 * "You really messed up the ending."

OK

 * "Hm..."
 * "I don't know..."
 * "Good enough..."
 * "I guess that was all right."

Superb

 * "You kept up with the rhythm well."
 * "You nailed the first one!"
 * "Nice timing on the kicks!"

Header

 * "The Master's Commentary"

Try Again

 * "You cannot progress without better fundamentals."
 * "Your triple punches were thrice cursed."
 * "You kick like a slug."

OK

 * "Eh. Passable."

Superb

 * "Your fundamentals are excellent."
 * "Your triple punches were triply passable."
 * "You kick like a cricket!"

Skill Star
When the song says "Oh yeah!", you have to kick the bomb in right time to collect the star.

Trivia

 * This is the second time a Karate Man game variation has appeared in the Rhythm Heaven series, with the first being in Rhythm Tengoku.
 * Karate Man is the last "regular" game in Rhythm Heaven before the credits, in direct contrast to Rhythm Tengoku having it as the first game. This formula would later be borrowed for Karate Man's appearance in Rhythm Heaven Fever.
 * Missing the last pot, even if play has been perfect up to that point, will result in a Try Again rating result "You really messed up the ending.". A Barely will not cause failure, however.
 * Missing the first barrel is a guaranteed OK or Try Again.
 * This is the first time in the Karate Man series that the light bulbs glow.
 * Totally, this is one of the games to have different phrases in the epilogue screens and the own screens, except the OK Epilogue, which is the same as the original.
 * Unlike in Rhythm Heaven, the "Punch, Kick!" cue presents its English dub in the German, Spanish, French and Italian versions of Rhythm Heaven Megamix. This is most likely because the other audio cues in the game are borrowed from Karate Man Combos!, which doesn't have an European dub.
 * This is the only Karate Man game that features Karate Joe facing to the left of the screen instead of the right. Strangely, this is not copied in Megamix and it is built just like the other games.
 * The original crouching sprite went unused in Megamix, but it can still be seen if any other Karate Man texture (except Karate Man Senior) was in use.