Is the Karate Kid gaining on his spiritual predecessor? The 1984 movie The Karate Kid was essentially a junior-level version of the underdog sports drama Rocky, even sharing director John G. Avildsen and composer Bill Conti, with a New Jersey teenager swapped in for a Philly-bred soulful bruiser. And like Rocky, The Karate Kid quickly spawned a number of follow-ups: Two direct sequels about Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) and his wise mentor Mr. Myagi (Pat Morita); a later spinoff pairing Myagi with a female karate student (Hilary Swank, in her first big leading role!); and a 2010 remake shifting focus from karate to kung fu, with Jaden Smith as a younger scrappy underdog tutored by Mr. Han (Jackie Chan) in Beijing. The new crossover sequel Karate Kid: Legends, which includes both Macchio and Chan training the more experienced teenage fighter Li Fong (Ben Wang), makes it six movies in total, matching the Rocky series.

Rocky also spawned three-and-counting Creed moves, which appears to give Philly the edge for now. Then again, Karate Kid also has a six-season TV show spinoff called Cobra Kai, following the original movie’s bad guy in middle age, and eventually folding in Macchio’s Daniel. The point is, there are now hours upon hours of Karate Kontent for your viewing pleasure, and maybe you (or younger viewers you may know) need some help figuring out which version of an underdog kid learning martial arts and (spoiler?) overcoming the odds is the best.

For this edition of Version Control, we will eliminate the Macchio sequels (which are self-evidently not as good as the original 1984 film) as well as the TV series, which is pretty clearly a supplemental text that depends on a love for the first film. That leaves four movies from the past 41 years to examine and figure which Karate Kid is the truest champion.

1. The Karate Kid was released during the summer that inspired the PG-13 rating from the MPAA, which debuted later that year. Doubtless it would get a PG-13 today, not because it pushes boundaries like fellow summer ’84 titles Gremlins and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, but because that’s more or less become the default rating for almost anything that isn’t a children’s animated film. But on the eve of PG’s eventual destruction, The Karate Kid became almost a platonic ideal of the PG movie that both kids and adults can enjoy in equal measure. Watching it today, the story of New Jersey transplant Daniel (Macchio) and his growing bond with karate master Mr. Myagi (Morita) is especially notable for how clearly yet casually it respects its young audience, and its characters. Daniel and Myagi are both so well-drawn, and so endearingly performed by Macchio and Morita (whose Oscar nomination was richly deserved), that it’s no wonder at all how a movie that cribs substantially from Rocky was able to nonetheless surprise people with its feel-good bona fides. This is one ’80s classic that genuinely holds up, and gives the neglected PG rating a good name.

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3. This flop sequel/reboot, released a decade after the original movie, deserves credit for mixing up the series formula, with Hilary Swank as a troubled teenage girl who Myagi trains to further refine her karate skills. It’s neat to see the athleticism and grit of Swank’s Oscar-winning turn from Million Dollar Baby a decade earlier, and the movie avoids the training-for-a-big-tournament structure of so many other Karate Kid movies. It’s also kind of low-rent and cheesy, with a band of would-be military-style fraternity members serving as an evil gang. Like Rocky V, which also ends with a street fight rather than an officially sanctioned sports match, The Next Karate Kid is somewhat underappreciated while still not being all that good.

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4. This remake of the original film, originally divorced from earlier continuity, was such a smash in 2010 that it’s a wonder no further sequels were produced until now. Then-rising star Jaden Smith (son of Will and Jada Pinkett Smith) plays a 12-year-old kid who moves from Detroit to Beijing, where he learns kung fu from Mr. Han (Jackie Chan) in order to better defend himself from bullies and eventually enter, yes, a big tournament. The Beijing location shooting gives the movie some automatic interest, and it’s fun to see an older Jackie Chan play a part with some dramatic meat, even if the movie goes overboard with his angst. After The Next Karate Kid, this is ample proof that the old formula still works. Unfortunately, it also suffers from inexplicable blockbuster bloat, running a punishing 140 minutes. That’s only about 15 minutes longer than the original, but it feels much more belabored – especially as it becomes increasingly clear that the aim here is less to tell a grounded yet entertaining coming-of-age sports story, and more to launch Jaden Smith as a multi-hyphenate brand like his dad. (It worked, but then After Earth and Smith’s seeming lack of interest in movie stardom seemed to stall further ascendance.) It’s a small detail, but throwing the movie to its end credits with a new mix of Justin Bieber’s “Never Say Never” with Smith contributing a verse makes the whole thing feel more like a marketing maneuver than its more charming source material.

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5. This legacy sequel might seem as if it depends too heavily on previous movies to stand on its own. Yet it actually features mostly new characters, with Chan and Macchio in supporting roles. (Macchio doesn’t even turn up until halfway through; fans may be confused that Joshua Jackson is the resident middle-aged guy before then, playing a Rocky-esque boxer.) Obviously it will have additional resonance for fans of the 1984 and 2010 films, yet it might also play better overall to kids less specifically attached to those movies, who will just focus on the highly likable Ben Wang as Li Fong, a kid trained by Mr. Han back in Beijing before his mom’s new job transplants him to New York. She forbids him from fighting because of a family tragedy, but when he befriends Mia (Sadie Stanley) and her father Victor (Joshua Jackson), he winds up in an unexpected trainer role – at least for a little while, until the movie reverts back to the big-tournament formula of all the Karate Kid movies. Wang and Stanley are cute together, Jackson has surprising gravitas, and it’s fun to see Chan and Macchio team up, however briefly. This is a brisk next chapter, sincere and even corny in all the right places. But it lacks the grounding of the original. (It’s hard to really master a sense of place when your New York-set movie is shot in Canada.)

It may be obvious to point out that the original is still the best, but not every beloved ’80s movie is as rock-solid as this one.

Jesse Hassenger (@rockmarooned) is a writer living in Brooklyn podcasting at www.sportsalcohol.com. He’s a regular contributor to The A.V. Club, Polygon, and The Week, among others.