Touch of Death

Touch of Death

Game Information Platforms: Arcade Players: 1 First appearance: "Moaning Lisa"

Touch of Death is a video arcade game, seen at the Noiseland Video Arcade and at the Zip Zap and 'Za Pizza Arcade.

Description

Touch of Death is a fighting game. Evidently, it is a more mature game as the game cabinet has the word "death" written in red characters that resemble blood spatter and underneath the title is an attacking ninja.

Gameplay

Typical for arcade fighting games, in Touch of Death the player uses the controls to perform various moves on his/her opponent. Successful hits inflict damage. When the opponent has taken a fatal amount of damage, the player can perform a finishing move (the titular "Touch of Death") which kills the opponent and causes the opponent's ghost to rise up out of his body.

History

When Bart signed up for karate lessons at Akira Kurosawa's dojo, he found Akira's teaching style to be boring and used the money for the lessons to play Touch of Death instead. He later bragged that "Touch of Death" was a move he had learned during his lessons, and threatened to use it on Lisa. The deception backfired (and Bart was caught out) when Dolph, Jimbo and Kearney stole Lisa's saxophone and played keep-away with it. Lisa then sicced Bart on the bullies, warning them that he knew karate. Not really having any karate skills, Bart was at a loss and ended up being hung from a basketball hoop by his underwear.

Touch of Death has also been seen at various places and occasions around Springfield, such as at Wall E. Weasel's during Bart's birthday party.

Behind the Laughter

• Touch of Death is a parody of arcade fighting games in general, most likely of the Street Fighter series.
• Although the game's premise and gameplay bear a strong resemblance to the Mortal Kombat series, it cannot specifically be a parody of that franchise, as Touch of Death first appeared on The Simpsons in 1990 and the first Mortal Kombat game didn't come out until 1992.
  • Later in "When Flanders Failed", to cover for skipping karate class, Bart bragged about learning to rip out a man's heart, which became the fatality for the character Kano when Mortal Kombat was released.

Appearances

• Episode – "Moaning Lisa"
• Episode – "When Flanders Failed"
• Episode – "Radio Bart"
• Episode – "Boy-Scoutz 'n the Hood"
• Episode – "Flaming Moe"
• Video game – The Simpsons Game