Hokuto no ken: Ankoku no hokuto

Disappointing debut on the Saturn and PSX. Original writer Buronson and the original cast returned, but unfortunately the game isn't very good. First of all, instead of a making normal "Street Fighter" type fighting game, it's a bizarre mess of meters and text. The animated sequences are decent, but the storyline is just a ripoff of previous Hokuto stories. The characters Ken meets are complete copies; they even look exactly the same as previous characters!

FIGHTING MODE:

For a cinematic fighter this game could have been much better. First off the meat of this game is the one on one cinematic fighting mode. The problem with the fighting mode is the severe lack of variety of attacks. You get to choose from all ten major fighters from the story mode. However Kenshiro has the largest number of attacks (over 20). All the others have maybe 10 or less and when you consider that most of the 10 attacks are too weak and thus too risky to use, that limits you to doing the same 2 or 3 powerful attacks over and over again. C'mon they could have taken the time to give every fighter at least 20 attacks. Heck even Kenshiro should have more than 20 because he used more techniques than that on the TV series.

STORY MODE:

The lengthy Story mode is similar to the fighting mode except you get a story built around the cinematic fighting. It's all in Japanese dialog but if you know the overall story from 80's anime TV series that helps make it more bearable. You'll be spending a lot more time in the fighting mode because once you finish the story mode, you won't want to play it again any time soon (It's very long especially if you don't understand Japanese). The acting is just as good as the Hokuto No Ken anime movie. Kenshiro is voiced by Akira Kamiya and Raoh by Kenji Utsumi. Subtitles would have been nice but this game was obviously not intended to be released anywhere outside of Japan.

OTHER COMMENTS:

The story in this game is based on the Manga but takes liberties with the plot and character names. Jaggi is Jado and Raoh/Ken-Oh is Raoh/Zeno but you'll recognize the characters. Most of the fighting styles are in it.

While I like the game because it's Hokuto no Ken, I can't recommend this game for anyone except die hard fans only. I didn't buy the game. I traded for it and I still play it now and then. Casual Hokuto No Ken (Fist of the North Star) fans may want to avoid it.