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IGN Review of Fist of the North Star: Ken's Rage
Fist of the North Star: Ken's Rage is all about punching people. You just march through levels punching the hell out of everyone. That's it. If that sounds cool to you, have fun. If it doesn't, keep looking.
Of course, the punching thing is boiling Fist of the North Star: Ken's Rage down to its most basic component. Stacked on top of the punching is a story of punching. Based on a manga series, North Star lets you play as a bunch of characters, but the main dude is Kenshiro. After nuclear war scorched the Earth, pockets of humanity have risen up in Mad Max fashion and ride motorcycles across the wasteland starting crap. Kenshiro is out there searching for his fiancé and revenge...I think. If you're not a fan of the series, the story isn't really presented in any kind of understandable way in the game. You start at the end, get kicked back to the beginning where you were thirsty, and then things just keep going.
Still, there's one thing that's here and makes sense: punching. This game is a third-person brawler -- think God Hand meets Dynasty Warriors. You walk into different parts of the map, a bunch of bad guys are there, and you clean their clocks via light and heavy attacks, combos, and signature moves you have to earn by filling in meters. Kill everyone, and you can move to the next area and continue your way to the boss in question. When you get cooking as Kenshiro you'll be able to tap baddies with your flaming blue hand and cause them to explode in a gooey bloodbath or pull off a signature like the one that has you throw a flurry of punches that decimates the enemy. Kenshiro's enemy Shin has a signature that actually lets him poke someone to death, and that's just plain cool.
The fighting works, but it's far from amazing or even a baseline "good." The attacks are repetitive, the enemies all look the same, and you only really need to think about a strategy when a boss displays a new attack (they usually change it up as their health bar drops). Sometimes an enemy would move and I'd get caught in a combo that was hitting nothing, but even when I was connecting, the splashes of blood on the enemy's chest weren't impressive.
There are nice touches to combat like the fact that Kenshiro's clothes tear away as he takes damage and you deliver final blows to bosses via onscreen button prompts that equate to sick animations, but in the end it's just "meh." It's not bad, it's not great, it's not exciting -- it's just a way to march through foe after foe after foe.
As you're knocking these evildoers down and stomping out their spirits, you're earning karma points and skill points. These play into the unlockable abilities you can take into battle like more health and damage. On top of that, there are a bunch of signature moves to learn that you can then pick and choose from before you head out. So, even though I found the combat brain dead, there is a fair amount of stuff to unlock and customize if you're down for just brawling.
In the same vein, there are actually a few different stories to set out on if you're a fan of the source material. Legend Mode tells the story of the manga -- and, again, doesn't tell it all that well -- but Dream Mode lets you play as characters from the manga in a new story that tells the tale from the viewpoint of the folks opposing Kenshiro. That's neat if you know these characters backwards and forwards, but for me, it was just a bit of "capture this base" in between punching everything in the world to death. A second player -- a local second player -- can also pop in and join you for these missions. The screen gets split in half with a vertical slice and I thought the camera swung a bit too crazily for my tastes, but the game ran fine.
©2010-11-03, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Of course, the punching thing is boiling Fist of the North Star: Ken's Rage down to its most basic component. Stacked on top of the punching is a story of punching. Based on a manga series, North Star lets you play as a bunch of characters, but the main dude is Kenshiro. After nuclear war scorched the Earth, pockets of humanity have risen up in Mad Max fashion and ride motorcycles across the wasteland starting crap. Kenshiro is out there searching for his fiancé and revenge...I think. If you're not a fan of the series, the story isn't really presented in any kind of understandable way in the game. You start at the end, get kicked back to the beginning where you were thirsty, and then things just keep going.
Still, there's one thing that's here and makes sense: punching. This game is a third-person brawler -- think God Hand meets Dynasty Warriors. You walk into different parts of the map, a bunch of bad guys are there, and you clean their clocks via light and heavy attacks, combos, and signature moves you have to earn by filling in meters. Kill everyone, and you can move to the next area and continue your way to the boss in question. When you get cooking as Kenshiro you'll be able to tap baddies with your flaming blue hand and cause them to explode in a gooey bloodbath or pull off a signature like the one that has you throw a flurry of punches that decimates the enemy. Kenshiro's enemy Shin has a signature that actually lets him poke someone to death, and that's just plain cool.
The fighting works, but it's far from amazing or even a baseline "good." The attacks are repetitive, the enemies all look the same, and you only really need to think about a strategy when a boss displays a new attack (they usually change it up as their health bar drops). Sometimes an enemy would move and I'd get caught in a combo that was hitting nothing, but even when I was connecting, the splashes of blood on the enemy's chest weren't impressive.
There are nice touches to combat like the fact that Kenshiro's clothes tear away as he takes damage and you deliver final blows to bosses via onscreen button prompts that equate to sick animations, but in the end it's just "meh." It's not bad, it's not great, it's not exciting -- it's just a way to march through foe after foe after foe.
As you're knocking these evildoers down and stomping out their spirits, you're earning karma points and skill points. These play into the unlockable abilities you can take into battle like more health and damage. On top of that, there are a bunch of signature moves to learn that you can then pick and choose from before you head out. So, even though I found the combat brain dead, there is a fair amount of stuff to unlock and customize if you're down for just brawling.
In the same vein, there are actually a few different stories to set out on if you're a fan of the source material. Legend Mode tells the story of the manga -- and, again, doesn't tell it all that well -- but Dream Mode lets you play as characters from the manga in a new story that tells the tale from the viewpoint of the folks opposing Kenshiro. That's neat if you know these characters backwards and forwards, but for me, it was just a bit of "capture this base" in between punching everything in the world to death. A second player -- a local second player -- can also pop in and join you for these missions. The screen gets split in half with a vertical slice and I thought the camera swung a bit too crazily for my tastes, but the game ran fine.
©2010-11-03, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved