Taekwondo (/ˈtɛˈkwɒnˈdoʊ/) is a Korean martial art. Taekwondo was developed during the 1940s and 1950s by various Korean martial artists combining and incorporating the elements of Karate and Chinese Martial Arts along with combining the indigenous and traditional-based Korean martial arts styles of Taekkyeon, Subak, and Gwonbeop.

The oldest governing body for taekwondo is the Korea Taekwondo Association (KTA), formed in 1976 by a collaborative effort by representatives from the nine original kwans, or martial arts schools, in Korea. The main international organizational bodies for taekwondo today are the International Taekwon-Do Federation (ITF), founded by General Choi Hong Hi in 1966, and the World Taekwondo Federation (WTF), founded in 1973 by the KTA. Gyeorugi ([kjʌɾuɡi]), a type of full-contact sparring, has been an Olympic event since 1992. The body known for taekwondo in the Olympics is the World Taekwondo Federation.

History

Beginning in 1947, shortly after the end of the occupation of Korea by Imperial Japan, new martial arts schools called kwans were opened in Seoul. These schools were established by Korean martial artists who had studied primarily in Japan during the Japanese rule. The umbrella term traditional taekwondo typically refers to the martial arts practiced by the kwans during the 1940s and 1950s, though in reality the term "taekwondo" had not yet been coined at that time, and indeed each kwan was practicing their own unique style of martial art. During this timeframe taekwondo was also adopted for use by the South Korean military, which only served to increase its popularity among civilian martial arts schools.

Taekwon-Do (テコンドー) (Hangul: 태권도; Hanja: 跆拳道) is a 2D Taekwondo fighting video game that attempts to capture a realistic tone of Taekwondo tournament fighting. It was developed by Human Club and published by Human Entertainment, which was released exclusively in Japan and South Korea in 1994.

Gameplay

Taekwon-Do is based on real Taekwondo, using real attacks/techniques and tournament rules. All in all there are 19 different characters who all have their own stats and special moves, and players can also make their own customized fighter/character with unique abilities, etc. The fighting control is very simple with the standardized attack buttons and direction button attack button combinations. There are four different game modes: tournament, versus, tag battle by turns and practice. Before start the game, the player can choose from two languages: Japanese or Korean.

There is no movement list, and no specials or hidden moves for all the vast majority of casts. Unlike most fighting games, the player does not need to memorize the special/super move sets every time when different characters are chosen from time to time. The varieties of attacks for all characters in Taekwon-Do only lies in the four buttons of X, Y, B, and A, with a different start up. If the player pushes the directional buttons, each character will have eight different moves that the player can combine throughout the fight. The match itself can either end in five rounds like a common taekwondo competition (at the time the game was released), or if the opponent is knocked out cold before the 5th round.