It is very similar to the original in the sense that they use the same hardware, improved speech, some new sprites and title screen, and the gameplay mechanics are basically the same.

The locations of the game are: A harbor, a garden with a view of Mount Fuji, a bamboo forest, on a tree trunk over a chasm, on the stern of a Japanese registered ship, on the side of a road or runway, Holland with windmills, a big city, a North American desert with Indian tipis, a Japanese garden, a dojo, and finally a forest path at night.

Player edition of the arcade game, this version was later released in Japan for the Disk System on July 22, 1988, but never made it to the cartridge-based Family Computer.

An emulation of the arcade version was released by Hamster for the PlayStation 2 as part of its Oretachi Geasen Zoku Sono lineup.

The emulated version from Hamster was re-released in 2015 for the PlayStation 4 on the Arcade Archives compilation which, unlike Oretachi Geasen Zoku Sono, was officially distributed outside of Japan.

[8] The game was also released for the iPad under the title Karate Champ XL, again developed by Revolutionary Concepts.

[10] The NES version was released both as a standalone mini arcade cabinet and in a handheld device that includes 300 built-in games.

The NES version returned as part of the "Data East Collection 1" set for the Evercade handheld console.

[13] Except for the removal of the Nintendo license on the game's titlescreen, the re-release is identical to the 1986 original with all soundtracks and digital voice intact as well as the two-player mode.

The magazine concluded that "the learning curve is steep, but ... when the joysticks are in the hands of two practiced gamers, it is one of the most exciting games to hit the computer screen in a long time".

[34] Karate Champ influenced titles such as Konami's Yie Ar Kung-Fu (1985), Beam Software's The Way of the Exploding Fist (1985), and other fighting games.

[37] In 1985, Data East began taking legal action against counterfeit arcade manufacturers, both in Japan and internationally.

[21] Data East later brought suit against Epyx alleging copyright infringement for its 1986 game World Karate Championship.

The case, Data East USA, Inc. v. Epyx, Inc., went to the Ninth Circuit Court, where it was held that the typical purchaser of the games would not find them substantially similar.