Best of the Best - Championship Karate Walkthrought

In Best of the Best: Championship Karate — most players just called it “Best of the Best,” and the SNES original absolutely earns that name — the tournament falls not to button mashing but to a plan. Start with fundamentals. Don’t mash “fight” on the main menu; hit the gym first. Two stops matter most: the move editor and the training room. In the editor, map your strikes to fit your hands: high/low punches, low/high kicks, step back and step in so you don’t fumble in the ring. The idea’s simple: put your bread-and-butter counter under the big thumb, finishers on neighboring buttons. Skip the exotica—build a solid kit: jab–cross–low kick–a high roundhouse. It’ll pay off from the first opponent.

Warm-up and stat build before you start

In the gym, each station buffs a stat. The punching bag builds hands, the heavy bag builds legs; speed and reflex go up on the speed bag, stamina on the stepper/jump rope, defense on the shield pad. The mini-games share one rule: keep rhythm and hit the green zone on the meter—misses just eat attempts. Early on, spread gains everywhere, but prioritize reflexes and stamina so your block fires on time and your lungs don’t fade by the end of round two. Don’t skip leg stretches if they’re a separate drill: a dependable head kick is gold against distance keepers.

After the warm-up, jump into sparring. It’s not a formality: a couple of rounds to groove that low–high combo and dial in your spacing. The coach actually matters here. He won’t really hurt you, but he teaches tempo and how to catch someone on the way in. Save your password as soon as you feel locked in—the password system helps a ton if you’re clearing the bracket over multiple sessions, fight by fight.

Early fights: work the body

Your first opponent loves to swing high with his legs. Don’t meet a high kick with a high kick—he’ll trade and out-damage you. Your plan: meet with a jab, sidestep into a low kick, jab again. Keep your body block up when entering mid-range, and keep changing levels: two to the body, one upstairs. Judges here value clean hits and variety, so don’t tunnel on one move. If he’s stuck in a high block, chop the legs and take a half-step back. Don’t chase a knockout in fight one; a steady round on points is safer and faster.

For the second opponent, nudge up hand power and reflexes. He likes to catch you as you step in. Make it your job to chew up his plant leg. Two low kicks back-to-back, pause, step away, and on his attempt to chase—stick a sharp straight to the body. If he drives you to the ropes, don’t turtle—sidestep and reset to center. The corner is your worst enemy in this game: it’s harder to maneuver and to catch your block timing.

Mid bracket: tempo, counters, and clean strings

From mid-bracket you’ll meet a pressure fighter who never lets you breathe. Before that bout, pump stamina and a bit of leg power—high kicks will start slicing through guard. The main thing is not to eat the entire chain. Catch the first and third hits on block, then answer on the second and fourth with something short: straight, sidestep, low kick. Overlong strings get blown up. The next archetype is the out-fighter: always hopping back and kicking from far out. The trick is simple—don’t chase in a straight line. Cut angles, step diagonally, herd him to the ropes, and only then flip the high kick. One high—then instantly drop to the body, or you’ll eat a counter.

By now it’s a good time to reopen the move editor. Swap any rarely used strike with the one that became your new staple so your thumb travels less. Extra motion on the pad equals a missed timing window. In the gym, top off defense: toward the finale, damage ramps up, and without insurance your guard starts to leak. If a rough fight left red health pips, swing by the med bay—treatment will cost a couple of training attempts, but it’ll save you from a random knockdown early next round.

Before the final: tidy build-up

The penultimate opponent is a counterpunch master. He tries to catch the second beat of your combo every time. The fix—break rhythm. One shot, half-step back, pause, one more, then a short one-two. Mix in body feints: step but don’t throw, let him fire into air, then punish. Judges love that as much as clean connections. Don’t forget to vary stance at range: sometimes just showing the wind-up baits a head-on lunge you can chop with a low kick. If you get knocked down, don’t panic—beat the count, turtle for a second, let the bar stabilize. You can still nick the round on points if you don’t go wild.

Before the decider—one last stat pass. Bring reflex and stamina to comfy numbers, keep leg power at the point where it cracks a high guard. In sparring, test one or two finishers you’ll use to close rounds: say, jab–step–high kick, or body–body–head. Rule of thumb: never toss three identical strikes in a row; the AI reads patterns and punishes them.

Championship bout: clean, cool-headed, by the book

The final opponent in Best of the Best: Championship Karate isn’t so much stronger as he is more disciplined. Patience wins here. Play for points in the first two rounds: three to four clean touches and a step-off every twenty seconds will bank the judges’ cards. The KO will grow on its own once he gets antsy and starts whiffing. If you’ve got him stuck on the ropes, don’t sandblast the block. Two hits, pause, one more, step aside. Watch your stamina bar and don’t go for the finish while you’re gassed—an instant counter will fly back and dump the whole distance.

After the fight, don’t skip the screen—write down the password. It keeps your bracket and your build. If you want a refresher on where this discipline comes from and why the game puts so much weight on technique, hit /history/. For control quirks and breakdowns of specific moves—/gameplay/. And yes, Best of the Best has roots in the old-school Panza Kick Boxing, hence the respect for the move editor and for training between bouts. Use that: careful tuning, a cohesive game plan, and ice in your veins—and the belt is yours.