Players take control of Wanpyou, who has just mastered the secret of Chin-style Shaolin martial arts. He then encounters the triad Yamucha Gang, also responsible for the assassination of his master Raochuu, and is trapped within their Jaken Temple. He attempts to escape and enact revenge with his new-found skills.
Gameplay
The goal of each "step" is to knock out every enemy with your various kicks, without being knocked out yourself. If an enemy touches you four times, you lose a life ; to warn you, the player character will flash and the music will speed up if you have one hit left. A step is actually divided into two parts; clearing each part rewards you with a bonus based on the number of hits you've taken. You can move left or right, or jump between levels of the current step by pressing up or down. Button 1 performs kicks, while button 2 performs a shorter kind of jump Further, pressing the kick button during either kind of jump will deliver a flying kick, which awards more points for an enemy defeated by it. You can also gain more points by knocking out multiple enemies with a single kick. Defeating a "green" enemy with a flying kick will cause it to throw out one of three colored spheres, and collecting these grants you a temporary powerup: purple, which summons an iron ball that can be kicked around at enemies ; yellow, which replaces your standard kicks with a pair of fireballs that shoot left and right; and green, which summons a small object that orbits around you and hurts anything it touches, serving as a barrier. Aside from these, a food item may scroll in at certain times; attacking it awards a bonus. The second part of a step features the step boss, who takes five hits to beat, and may have some other special ability. The game has a total of five unique steps, after which they repeat with enemies continuing to get more aggressive, and the added element of a bird that drops rocks over your current location. However, it is believed that the game ceases to get more difficult starting from step 11.
Reception
In Japan, Game Machine listed Shao-lin's Road on their June 15, 1985 issue as being the twenty-second most-successful table arcade unit of the year.
Records
On 2011 Greg Laue holds the current world record in the Arcade platform of 46,276,700 on Twin Galaxies in 36 hours. Adrian Rodriguez holds the official world record of 13,007,800 in the MAME platform on Twin Galaxies on 2018.
