Fist of the North Star: Ken’s Rage 2

Fist of the North star is a classic series of manga and anime dating back to 1983 that comprised some 245 chapters adapted into 152 anime, four feature films and a three-part OVA. The series has seen a lot of video games, mainly side-scrolling brawlers and fighting games but here in the UK two of those games: Last Battle for Mega Drive and Black Belt for Master System lost the Fist of the North Star name and the PS2 fighting game wasn’t released outside Japan.

Kenshiro and his exploits are still thought of very fondly and re-visiting the manga still offers fans loads of entertainment value so, much like the new JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure games by CyberConnect2 tied in with its anniversary, Koei have (re)released Ken’s rage 2 for its 30th anniversary. Much like other manga favourites such as Gundam and One Piece, Koei have opted to apply the Dynasty Warriors treatment to Kenshiro’s for his second journey. Well, I say second….

On a very technical level this is the second Fist of the North Star: Ken’s Rage game. It says so right in the title. However, fans who rightfully expect things synonymous with a sequel such as new cut-scenes, new scenarios, new moves, new fights and new story, will be sorely disappointed. A few changes aside it’s remarkably similar to the first. So much so it’s kind of embarrassing. And this is coming from a big fan of Dynasty Warriors. The thing is, we have nothing against the repetitious gameplay: it offers a delightfully cathartic experience and, together with pretty characters and outrageous dialogue, it provides an enjoyable romp. They are fun – big dumb colourful fun and they offer respite from humdrum shooters and over-serious games that have become de-rigur.

The problem here is it’s so flagrantly similar there’s no real point for its existence. Online co-op has been added as has Dream mode which at-least offers some different scenarios. Annoyingly, the lesser known story arcs of the manga could provide fantastic material for the developers to run with and give fans to have something fresh to enjoy but the stories are told with static images in such a rudimentary fashion that they feel phoned in.

Despite having largely meaningless additions and boasting more stages it actually has less in the way of variety. The levels lack the variety of the first game and often look kind of bland. As do the enemies who, instead of getting more details and distinguishable features actually look worse. The new playable characters add at least something new but they were unlockable in the first game. Removing a challenge and reward isn’t exactly a selling point. The graphics overall are brash and just feel somewhat jittery and unfinished.

Punching your way through hoards of enemies and building up your gauge to perform your signature move comprises the bulk of the game. Basically you build up your meter by punching crap out of scores of peons and then keep your special move for the more challenging leaders. Sadly the challenge is little more than arbitrary. Other challenges are equally passive and obvious such as Defeat X Amount of Enemies, which isn’t challenging so much as it is repetitive. There’s really nothing to get your teeth in to.

The game is just riddled with missed opportunities, lack of depth and variation and overall suffers from lack of imagination and attention to detail. The manga would offer any developer so much in the way of subject-matter: interesting boss fights, extreme characters and post-apocalyptic aesthetics. The feeling of dynamics in the manga is what kept me reading but Koei couldn’t script stages in order to capitalise on that. Boss fights are so simplistic they rob the stage of any drama and the fights that should punctuate a scenario fall flat in a series of mindlessly pressing Square and dodging. Asura’s Wrath is a better example of how a game could handle Fist of the North Star.

Brawlers are known for being simplistic and somewhat repetitive but the successful ones always somehow manage to do it well. If you’re going to do mindless violence you have to remove any kind of frustration. When performing your combos to unleash your special moves the enemy can block you mid combo which is a constant source of frustration. This instantly kills the catharsis and visceral satisfaction of combat and kills the rhythm of the fight stone-dead. Being simple isn’t intrinsically a bad thing so long as the game does it well but sadly, even the simple combat done so well in Warriors Orochi (same developers) and Capcom’s Sengoku Basara is totally absent here and any other part of the game, like Online Co-op mode, cannot make up this this ultimately unrewarding slog.

To create a good brawler the game needs to burst with energy. It needs to be challenging and cathartic, have a sense of humour, be gorgeous looking and in this case do the original subject matter justice. Ken’s Rage 2 sadly fails to deliver on nearly every front and with much better brawlers like Warriors Orochi, Sengoku Basara or the new Platinum Games title Anarchy Reigns there just isn’t room for this kind of game and I think the Fist of the North Star license would be much better with Platinum Games or at least a developer with fresh ideas.