Fist Of The North Star: Ken's Rage Review: Headache's A Plenty

It's very rare for me to try and play a video game with anime source material without being an actual fan of the anime. I never really heard of Fist Of The North Star before, so when I played Fist of the North Star: Ken's Rage I had the unique opportunity to rate the game for what it is without any fanboyism.

This is gonna hurt.

The give-or-take:

You don't have to play just as the protagonist: Just about all the major characters are able to be played, including the protagonist's enemy bosses. While the game is pretty much the same from character to character with very slight differences in terms of battle, this is probably going to be more appreciated by the hardcore fans than anything. Otherwise, new players to the franchise will just see it as the same gameplay with a different model. Do keep in mind that you're not playing the same missions just as a different character, you are in fact fighting different bosses from the point of view of the character you're playing to add into story.

Fans will appreciate almost anything: I'll say this now, hardcore fans will pick this up regardless of what I say. While the story is hard for anyone unaccustomed to the series to follow (main plot I got from it is the world was destroyed by nukes and now everything's all "Mad Max" minus the anti-semite protagonist), hardcore fans will probably be satisfied to know that some major battles of the series are included here. Other than the hardcore, though, I can't see how many newcomers to the series (like I am) are going to be able to follow this or understand who your enemies really are when you're fighting them. One of Ken's first bosses is supposed to be a man who kidnapped his fiance and left Ken for dead. I'd like to say this would maybe stir more emotion in me to enjoy the fight I had with him, but I doubt it.

Cons:

And I thought Spider-Man 2099 was bad: It should be almost expected now adays that when you play video games based on anime, the American Voice Acting will be bad, so it's excusable for this game, right? Oh God no. NO no no. The voice actors either sound like their heads been run over by a bus and they're severally mentally challenged or their voices are so annoying, high-pitched and incredibly fake that I literally felt streaks of fear at times just listening to them. The voice's you hear are so random from the character's they're for, you have to wonder what the developers were thinking when they translated it for the American audience. In all honesty, the VA who did the protagonist's (Ken's) voice was so Keanu Reeve's-like, I was anticipating for him to say "I know Kung Fu."

It's the same game with MORE flaws: It's starting to feel like making Dynasty Warriors games' is all Koei is capable of doing. Don't let anyone make you believe otherwise, this is another Dynasty Warriors game and compared to my PS2 days of playing prior versions, this game feels extremely watered down. I'm not being harsh, I'm being honest as THAT'S ALL THIS GAME IS. I wish I could tell you that it improves on the formula, but I can't and I won't. Your enemies will continue to back away from you while you're attacking so unless you're literally touching them already, you could easily miss your targets. In addition, controls are laggy so when you're trying to attack in different directions, you have to actually pause from attacking and turn in the direction of your enemy which leaves you open to attack from boss characters or hoping grunts don't back up quicker than your delayed combo attack commands hit them. While enemy grunts will attack you, instead of it as feeling like you're being challenged, you're left with annoyance that the controls aren't responsive enough to your commands. In short, you know this is Dynasty Warriors lite and you shouldn't be surprised at all if you actually pick this up after reading this.

Sore thumb's: Button mashing isn't uncommon in gaming today, but Fist Of The North Star really pushes it. The gameplay combat is very bland with light, heavy and special attacks controlled by 3 separate buttons. However, combat requires a lot of combos to try and damage enemies (especially bosses) and you'll quickly start feeling some ache's in your thumb. I tend to wonder if maybe Koei thought this would be a good idea to try and make you feel like you're actually performing Ken's signature move, a 100 fist attack. I also tend to wonder why they would ever think that would be a good idea.

At this point in the review, I've either convinced a lot of gamers oblivious to the series this game isn't great or I've offended hardcore fans. To each of you I say "I'm not gonna sugarcoat it." Don't get me wrong, there ARE decent anime video games out there, granted not all of them are good and not all anime games of anime I like are good either (I can openly admit it. You think this would be different if it were Dynasty Warriors Gundam?), but you have to judge a video game based on the game itself, not the material its based on. As such, I really can't recommend this game to anyone other than the most hardcore fans. Don't even rent it, you're not missing anything. In fact, I felt like I missed more playing this than doing anything else.

Recommended buy price: $8
Score rating: 1/5