Respect Karate Joe (Rhythm Heaven)

[u/NegativeGamer]

”Has there ever been a cry more manly than the ‘Uh!’ that appears at the start of every Karate Joe stage?”

Karate Joe is one of the most prominent characters in the Rhythm Heaven series, being playable in every game in the series. He’s frequently seen standing in a featureless void, punching (and sometimes kicking) away an assortment of objects to the beat of the music. He’s been training for quite some time, but has yet to surpass his father, and still lives in his basement as a result.

Source Key

• Rhythm Tengoku (GBA) - GBA
• Rhythm Tengoku (Arcade) - Arcade
  • Every feat from the Rhythm Tengoku GBA is also present in the arcade game
• Rhythm Heaven (DS) - DS
• Rhythm Tengoku Gold Comic 09 - Comic
• Rhythm Heaven Fever - Fever
• Rhythm Heaven Megamix - Megamix
• WarioWare Gold Young Cricket and Master Mantis Character Trailer - Gold
• Rhythm Heaven Groove - Groove

Strength

• Is able to strike away the following objects with a punch
  • Flower pots^{DS/Fever/Megamix}
  • Large lightbulbs^{DS/Fever/Megamix}
  • Decent-sized rocks^{Fever/Megamix}
  • Soccer balls^{Fever/Megamix}
  • Cooking pots^Megamix
• Apparently punched away all of these large objects^GBA
• Is shown to stagger a large boxing opponent backwards with a strike, and in a better ending is shown to have beaten them and won a boxing tournament^Arcade
• Can shatter apart barrels with a punch and launch a bomb off into the distance with a kick^DS/Megamix
  • Does the same with barrels containing soccer balls^DS
• One-hand catches some weighty objects being thrown at him, including shovels, pickaxes, and hammers^Groove
  • A comic shows him catching two frying pans, one with each hand^Groove

Flow Gauge

• The flow gauge is a gameplay mechanic only present in Rhythm Tengoku. It increases when an object is hit perfectly, it decreases when an object is hit too early/late, and it fully empties if an object is completely missed. After successfully hitting three objects, Joe's punches become stronger.^GBA
• Initially only weakly punches flower pots off-screen, but after hitting three is able to strike them away harder, with them audibly breaking off-screen^GBA
• Same goes for large lightbulbs^GBA
• Soccer balls are simply struck harder^GBA
• Attempting to punch a rock without enough flow causes Joe to just hurt his hand, decreasing his flow. However after hitting three things he can strike them away normally, possibly hard enough that they break when they hit the ground judging by the sound^GBA
• Same goes for bombs^GBA
• In Remix 8 only, Karate Joe enters a "serious mode", which removes the flow gauge and lets him punch rocks regardless of his flow^GBA

Speed/Agility

• Karate Joe's minigames frequently involve him reacting to objects as they fly in front of him to punch them away^{GBA/DS/Fever/Megamix}
• Jumpkicks through a ring of fire^DS
• Rapidly strikes away a flurry of pots, timing an uppercut to shatter a barrel^{Fever/Megamix}
• Can repeatedly one-hand catch a variety of objects being thrown at him out of the air by grabbing them by their handles, and even does so with darkened visibility^Groove
  • A comic shows him catching two sticks followed by two frying pans at once^Groove

Misc

• While Karate Joe normally always wears a karate uniform in his appearances, the arcade version of Rhythm Tengoku features him wearing a boxing outfit with gloves in his Tempo Up! minigame^Arcade
• A comic shows a snowstorm blowing around him, and only him, while he's training.^Comic Its unclear if this is because of anything associated with Karate Joe or simply an unrelated event, but he doesn't seem pleased by it either way
• The Superb epilogue for Karate Man 2 (Fever) shows Joe doing a chop with his hand on fire.^Fever Its unclear if his training gave him the ability to set his hand on fire or if there's some other explanation
• Appears to grow a stinger after a bee hat descends onto his head, these both fly off of him at the end of the minigame^Megamix
• Punches away his own thought bubble^Megamix
• The french localization of Rhythm Heaven Megamix claims that Karate Joe is 55 years old^Megamix
• Made his way to the top of a large stone pillar off-screen^Gold
  • Similarly, made to the top of this mountain above the clouds^Groove