REVIEW: Fist of the North Star: Ken's Rage

Disclaimer: This review will make no mention of anyone being already dead. As one of my earliest memories of pure gangsta, and one of my favorite quotes to this day, Ken's "you're already dead" line is being done a disservice with its laugh-inducing overuse in every damn Ken's Rage article written since its inception.  

One of my fondest memories as a doe-eyed tween in the early 90's was being lent a VHS of Fist of the North Star from my much older friend and neighbor. The movie's exploding heads and bleak outlook was a huge departure from the cartoons I was used to watching, and I loved every minute of it. So forgive me if there is a special place in my heart for my first experience with anime, and what was a great influence in laying the Otaku But Gangsta groundwork. Twenty years removed, would Fist of the North Star: Ken's Rage have the same effect on me as its source material?

Overview
Ken's Rage chronicles the journey of titular character Kenshiro and his allies, as he attempts to right the wrongs of the post-apocalyptic dystopia, and become the sole heir to the assassin's martial art of Hokuto Shinken. The story follows that of the original manga's closely, expanding on the abridged movie that was brought over to the states. The gore inducing martial arts of close to 10 fighters is mixed with the throngs of enemy fodder found in the Dynasty Warriors series for a fitting marriage of action.

Gameplay
The meat of play time is split over two main channels; Legend Mode and Dream Mode. Legend Mode is the closest retelling of the hallowed and influential manga, faithfully recreating the ill-fated adventures of five primary characters, spanning both good and evil. The story is disappointingly illustrated through sparse cutscenes and scrolling text in between stages. You're tasked to advance from point A to point B, slaughtering low-level punks who seem to do little else but stand around, waiting for their head-exploding end. Every once in a while you'll encounter a ridiculously large fat guy or muscle man who tries a little harder to inflict damage on you and are generally trickier to pop like a ripe tomato, but in the end, they too are of little consequence. You have the option of exploring the surprisingly large maps to complete different missions throughout each stage, with each completion adding a power-up to your character, which allows you to have an easier go at the durable boss waiting for you at level's end. 

Dream Mode, on the other hand, has you assume some of the bosses you face off against in Legend Mode, giving you a side of the tale untold throughout Fist of the North Star's lore. I'm not sure whether or not these segments are canon, but they're interesting nonetheless. The gameplay here is more in the vein of typical Dynasty Warriors, as you lead a mindless army against your equally dense opponents, capturing spawn points along the way to advance the winning conditions. Local co-op is an option in Dream Mode, so a friend can help you dismember waves of foes who are seemingly also lobotomy patients. Both Dream and Legend stages take anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour to get through, depending on how thorough you want to play. There are branching storylines, however both stages and cutscenes are recycled, making multiple play-throughs seem less desirable, unless you really want to learn each character's details.

Different characters have different styles; Hokuto, Nanto, and Special. Hokuto Shinken is the heavy-handed, plodding, body-exploding invincible assassin's art. Nanto Suiken, which I found to be much more fun to play, is faster, flashier, and leaves your enemies diced into little chunks. The interesting component of Nanto is the brief power-up rewarded for well-strung combos and properly timed reversal attacks. The Special style is pretty much anything that isn't Hokuto or Nanto, such as Jagi's entertaining shotgun and rocket launcher style. The fighting system isn't perfect, mostly suffering from sluggishness and lack of rhythm (with the exception of maybe Rei, who I was able to string infinite combos with), but it's still modest fun. Though there are plenty of upgrades to be had, I feel as if there isn't enough variation in basic moves. To make up for that, each character can select any 4 of 8 over-the-top signature moves. For a game that advocates plowing through hundreds of bodies per level, the lack of a combo-counter is a bit of a head scratcher. 

Unfortunately, I experienced a close to game-breaking bug playing Ken's Legend Mode. After defeating Uighur, and successfully completing the quick-time button string required to finish a boss (failure to input the correct string returns a portion of the boss's life) everything halted as I attempted to forward through Uighur's slowly muttered last words. I was able to walk around the battlegrounds, nothing more; couldn't pause, access the menu to quit out, attack, nothing. I was forced to quit to the console dashboard and lose all progress on that stage. This happened twice. To avoid this bug the third time, I let Uighur's vocal track complete before clicking through. Just a word of warning.

Art Design
The primary character models do great justice to Fist of the North Star's style. The hulking bodies and distinct faces are close compliments to the art of the anime and manga. Most default enemies, aside from having no will to fight or live, look pretty similar, without even a color swap to make it seem like you're not killing the same 3 guys over and over. A more varied selection of stages would have been nice, as seeing the same brown and grey dilapidated structures became tiring. Some different textures wouldn't have hurt either, instead of the same dull concrete walls and steel pillars. It reaches a head-shaking level of silliness when a concrete building is set ablaze with a torch as if it were an alcohol soaked bed of straw.

Sound Design
The English voice acting is atrocious, though thankfully you're given the option to switch to the far superior Japanese voices. For a more authentic, and less painful experience, let the first thing you do be the language switch to Japanese. The sound effects of the world are tinny and one dimensional, adding little to no ambiance, and making the post-apocalypse of Ken's Rage feel like a sterile hospital hallway.

The music is pretty disappointing for the most part, consisting of fairly uninspired metal which I like to call 'stock rock'. Fist of the North Star's soundtrack is supposed to be one of classiness and beautiful lament. While that may not translate well to an action game, if you're going to use metal, at least go with something Ishiwatari-esque, as opposed to the generic stuff. The one track that I really enjoyed and felt true to the series, is the piano instrumental heard at the options screen, which my associate insisted sounded like the Two Girls One Cup song (just the song, nothing disgusting). He actually has a point, but screw it, I like the song anyway.

Conclusion
Ken's Rage is nothing spectacular or innovative, but it's a decent amount of fun. As possibly the first Fist of the North Star game to come stateside under the Fist of the North Star license, fans of the series shouldn't turn this one away. It's a great opportunity to see, hear, and play the awesome story that's criminally under-rated in the West, and known best for its close-to-meme status one-liner. There's over 20 hours of game to explore, unfortunately, a good chunk of the 20 hours are recycled segments.

Buy it if: You're a Fist of the North Star or Dynasty Warriors fan
Don't buy it if: You want a unique and polished game experience 
The Score: 6 outta 10 blasters!