The Way of the Tiger is a series of six books written by Mark Smith and Jamie Thomson, published in the mid-'80s (in America, anyway) by Berkeley/Pacer, the same group that brought us Lone Wolf. In these books you take the role of a ninja warrior. You are not a Japanese ninja, though, as these are not historical gamebooks. Instead, the action is set on the fantasy world of Orb, which also was the setting for a couple of books in the Fighting Fantasy series. You are a ninja who worships Kwon, the god of unarmed combat (more on this later), and you use your various ninja powers to take on bad guys and save the world.
The game system in The Way of the Tiger is the most unique element of this series. Because martial arts is about skill and maneuver, rather than mindless bashing of things, in most fights you are given options for different kinds of maneuvers to use. There are different kicks, punches, and throws that you start the game with, and your character can learn more during his adventures. Your choice of attack will affect the ease of striking your foe and the amount of damage that you do. In addition, if an opponent strikes you during combat, you can usually attmept to block the strike. This takes focus away from your next attack, but if successful will keep you from taking any damage. Bottom line, there is actual strategy to the combats in this series, and knowing when to use which move will make a big difference in the sucess or failure of your missions. Outside of the fighting system, there are a number of skills that you can select, which operate in an identical manner to the Kai Disciplines in the Lone Wolf series. There are 10 skills, and as a new character you start out knowing 4 of them. Skills don't play a big role in the series, but the timely application of a skill can make things much easier for you.
One of the goofy things about this series is the world of Orb that it is set in, and the fact that you don't seem to have regular governments. Rather, everything is run by the hundreds of competing religious orders that exist. For example, your character serves the god of unarmed combat. There are also gods of fate, gods of justice, gods of death, gods of disease, and problably gods of mayonaisse and static cling if you looked hard enough. It is, in my opinion, quite strange. I am totally cool with using different fantasy deities in gamebooks and RPGs, but this book is way over the top. I don't like it, but that is just personal taste.
The Way of the Tiger book 1, 1985, Mark Smith and Jamie Thomson
Avenger! kicks off the series with a nice "end of the world" plot. You are a young ninja. You quickly learn that the man who killed your mentor is trying to seal your god, Kwon, in the fires of the abyss, by doing some mystic thing at a far off place. You track him down, traveling through many different towns and seas before finally taking him out. Fairly standard stuff. The writing is about average for gamebooks, not great, but not boring. One thing that benefits this book is that there is no one set path to get to the final battle. Rather, there are multiple paths. Some are short and relatively simple, while some are longer and more difficult, but you don't have to read the author's mind to get to the end.
This variety and the game's combat system are this book's strengths. The seemingly arbitrary nature of events is the book's weakness. There are many different people to talk to, and many different situations to find along the multiple paths to victory. I will say that this is not a series where it pays to always play the good guy, jumping to everyone's defence no matter what. Many of the inhabitants of Orb are not nice people, and letting them get offed makes things smoother for you. You may want to jump into lots of combats, because the fighting system is the best part of the book, but your 20 endurance points can disappear real fast with just a couple good hits from foes, so it pays to minimize combat. The arbitrary nature of some events is pretty maddening, though. Occasionally you will make a seemingly innocent choice and really have to pay for it. For example, on one of the main paths through the game you can explore an area and suddenly find yourself forced to fight in an arena duel. Why? I didn't want to do this. Why is it being forced upon me? Late in the book, there are many different "take the wrong path and die" sections, which I personally find quite maddening. Give me some clues, at least. Being forced to make uninformed decisions when death is on the line is super annoying.
All gamebooks suffer from that situation, though. Don't let that keep you away from this series. It has a unique angle to it that you may find attractive, especially if you have any interest in or knowledge of unarmed combat techniques. Another interesting element of this book as a series starter is that it doesn't end in a normal fashion. Rather, it ends on a cliff hanger, kind of like a weekly TV show that has to keep you in suspense until the next episode. That was an interesting way to do things. Lastly, I should mention that the art in this book, while not the best I've seen, is pretty good and does a good job of helping you get a feel for the world of Orb and its inhabitants. Overall, a decent starting book for the series, but not the best.