Episode 24: Fist of The North Star Ken's Rage
Disclaimer: While I own a copy of the following game, rights to the material involved are the property of Bronson & Tetsou Hara, Viz media, and Tecmo Koei games.
The Classic Critic sat in front of his desk once again with a serious look on his face.
"Hello I'm the Classic critic; I remember it so you're not required to." He said as was his usual introduction.
"You know one thing I like is anime, and another is video games however, when both are put together most of the time the combination doesn't mesh all that well regardless of which comes first and which medium you do it in." He said before giving a few examples.
"I mean remember that horrible Dragon Ball Z game that came out for the Xbox back in 2005?" He asked before moving on to some other ones, "Then there are the games that never get a release in the US or in Europe like 3 of the 5 Ranma ½ games on the Nintendo Superfamicon, Berserk: Millennium Falcon for the PS2, Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, and even a Full Metal Alchemist game that remember finding cut scenes from a while back that had major Armstrong in one of those man thong swimsuits." Airnaruto said before shuddering in repulsion.
"However the one I'm review today is one that has gotten a bit of bashing from the IGC or Internet Gamer Community, and that game is this." Airnaruto said as he held up the case. "This is Fist of the North Star: Ken's Rage or Houkuto Kousou as it's known in Japan." He said before explaining the source material itself without going into the plot.
"Now as far as the source material for those who don't know, Hokuto no Ken or Fist of the North Star was a manga series that was released in 1983 that would later spawn 2 anime series, 4 animated movies, an OVA series, and a terrible direct to video live action movie. Trust me the live action movie suck major amounts of ass." Airnaruto warned as each cover or poster for the films, series, or OVAs were shown.
"This game itself well the version I'm gonna play is yet again the Xbox 360 version." He said popping the disc into the system.
"The story of the game pretty much follows the major arcs of the manga, with our hero Kenshiro travelling across the post nuclear war torn world where the strong prey on the weak so he can rescue his beloved Yuria who was taken from him by his old rival Shin only to later find out she committed suicide and now along with the children Bat and Rin, Ken must rid the world of the tyranny and war that has plagued it for so long. He is the heir to the legacy of Hokuto Shin Ken a fighting style that destroys any enemy from the inside out by striking any of the body's 708 hidden vital points until they explode in fountains of blood." He said showing one example from the anime series real from episode 1.
Ken: (Screaming while attacking Zeed)
Announcer: The Hundred Crack Fist of the North Star
Zeed: You puny fist couldn't hurt a fly.
Kenshiro in Japanese: Omae WA mo Shinderiu
(Zeed's head blows up)
The camera then switched back to Airnaruto who held a sign up that read in Romaji Japanese:
Omae wa mo Shinderiu translation: You are already dead.
"Now as you progress you unlock the usual goodies, you know insentric skills, extrnesic skills, special moves, master moves, extra characters, a challenge mode, dream mode, and the gallery." Airnaruto said before moving on to the game play.
"The game play is just like every other current free-roaming third person beat-em up title in the market these days, you know you kick the crap out of enemies with combinations of light, heavy, and throw attacks, aerial attacks along with some very light environmental puzzle solving where as the controls when you're attacking with a heavy attack get sluggish and I mean really sluggish as in waiting for tortoise to put it's own anal waste behind it though the best thing about the combat are the special moves which require a certain cost of spirit which is the series of 8 yellow cubes below the health bar and just to activate them all you have to do is hit the directional pad either, up down, left, or right and it leaves enemies in pools of their own blood." Airnaruto said before showing some of the combat scenes capping it off with Kenshiro's Heavenly Destruction technique.
"Now here's one of the major flaws this game has. If you haven't guessed by now this yet another attempt by Tecmo/Koei to rehash the Dynasty Warriors franchise and one obvious fact that points this out is that the camera's not in a fixed position. Much like with Assassin's Creed if you get backed into a corner by an enemy, the camera will zoom in on you making it impossible to find your attackers, COME YOU PIECE OF SHIT!" Airnaruto said and then screamed.
"The enemies themselves except for the bosses are the same Mad Max biker punks knock offs, with several bigger looking thugs called commanders, which is stupid because again why have to fight all these stock enemies?" Airnaruto said again.
"Sure the visuals hold up and accurately depict the world of the manga but the environments are bland mostly run down villages, cliffs, and deserts that make you wish you were buried head deep in the sand while a camel took a lava dump all over you." Airnaruto mentioned.
"The voice acting on the other trust me when I say this, it sounds much better in Japanese, the English voices are stiff, hammy, and don't bring a lot of emotion to their characters, I mean out of all of them only Rin, Mamiya, and Airi seem to be the most competent in English and that's only because they're voiced by Stephanie Sheh, Laura Bailey, and Dorothy Elias-Fahn respectively, Kaiji Tang as Kenshiro is okay I guess but he still can't hold a candle to the original voice of Kenshiro veteran seiyu Akira Kamiya from the anime series." Airnaruto said as he moved on to the final verdict of the game.
"So all in all it's not really the worst anime based game or that bad of a game in general it just needed something else to be more of a stand alone game not another Dynasty Warriors rehash." Airnaruto said. When is Tecmo/Koei going to stop slapping a new coat of paint on this franchise and lay it to rest?" Airnaruto asked before
He gave the game a verdict.
"The bottom line is this game is a rental only so it only gets a 3 out of 5 from me it captures the world of the manga well and the special moves that spill buckets of blood are badass and there's a lot stuff to unlock but the game gets dragged down by the fact that Ken's storyline takes 15 hours to finish, the English voice acting for the most part is extremely stiff, and the enemies are almost entirely stock." Airnaruto said before wrapping it up.
"Well folks there you have it my review of Fist of the North Star Ken's Rage but before I go I have a little treat to close us out as DarkPaladinmon aka the Digital Critic, Nukid aka The Nostalgia Kid, and Lunatic121 aka the Insane Critic are gonna close this episode out with our rendition of Crystal King's Ai wo Torimodose the Fist of the North Star opening." Airnaruto said before pulling out a microphone.
"You guys ready?" Airnaruto asked.
"I'm ready." Dark said pulling out an electric guitar.
"All systems are go over here." Nukid replied pulling out a Bass guitar.
"All set sensei." Lunatic said sitting behind a drum set.
Nukid and Dark soon start strumming their guitars while Lunatic was banging the drums before finally all four began to sing the opening line of the song.
(A/N: I'm using the Romaji lyrics so please don't get on my case about half the time if you try to dub the lyrics of song that's already well known and loved in Japanese into English it's bound to suck remember the English rendition of Sakura Kiss from Oraun High School Host Club?)
All 4: YOU wa SHOCK!
Air: ai de sora ga ochite kuru
All 4: YOU wa SHOCK!
Air: ore no mune ni ochite kuru
atsui kokoro kusari de tsunai demo
ima wa muda da yo
jama suru yatsu wa yubisaki hitotsu de DOWN sa
All 4: YOU wa SHOCK!
Air: ai de kodou hayaku naru
All 4: YOU wa SHOCK!
Air: ore no kodou hayaku naru
omae motome samayou kokoro ima
atsuku moete iru
subete tokashi muzan ni tobichiru hazu sa
Nukid: ore to no ai wo mamoru tame
omae wa tabidachi
Dark: ashita wo miushinatta
hohoemi wasureta kao nado mitaku wa nai sa
Both: ai wo torimodose
(instrumental)
All 4: YOU wa SHOCK!
Air: ai de yami wo kirisaite
All 4: YOU wa SHOCK
Air: ore no yami wo kirisaite
daremo futari no yasuragi kowasu koto
deki wa shinai sa
hikitsuke au kizuna wa hanarenai nido to
Nukid: ore to no ai wo mamoru tame
omae wa tabidachi
Dark: ashita wo miushinatta
hohoemi wasureta kao nado mitaku wa nai sa
Both: ai wo torimodose
All 4: YOU wa SHOCK!
The song ended as Airnaruto turned to the audience; "I'm the Classic Critic; I remember so you're not required to, Happy new year, and Happy Groundhog Day folks.
Ken's Rage final recap
Pros:
Retells the story from the major arcs of the manga accurately,
brings the bleak world of the series to life,
Loads of extras to unlock
Special moves kick ass and are just as blood bursting as the anime.
Japanese voice cast is above standard.
Cons:
Outside of the bosses all the enemies are stock
the backgrounds are repetitive
English Voice acting is stiff for the most part
Completing Kenshiro's Legend mode alone will take 15 hours just to finish.
All in all this is more or less a huge love letter to the Fist of the North Star fan base and at most I only recommend renting this game if you're getting tired of all the DBZ and Naruto video games you find in stores.
Final Rating: *** out of 5
A/N: Well folks that's it for this review be sure to stop by when I do my silver episode and my one year anniversary special read and review until then.