Fist of the North Star (versus fighting game)

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Hokuto no Ken
Developer(s)	Arc System Works
Publisher(s)	Sega, Sammy
Release date(s)	2005 (Arcade) March 2007 (Playstation 2)
Genre(s)	Versus fighting
Mode(s)	Up to 2 players simultaneously
Platform(s)	Arcade, Playstation 2
Input	8-way Joystick, 5 Buttons
Arcade cabinet	Upright
Arcade system(s)	Atomiswave

Fist of the North Star (北斗の拳, Hokuto no Ken) is a versus fighting game created by Arc System Works and is based on the manga and anime series with the same name. A PS2 release is scheduled for 2007 in Japan.

1 Gameplay
2 Characters
- 2.1 Playable characters
- 2.2 Non playable characters
3 Trivia
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] Gameplay

While in both terms of gameplay and visual style, the game is based on Guilty Gear, some aspects of the mechanics are slightly different.

[edit] Seven stars of the Hokuto

Every player has a seven stars gauge that, through various attacks, can be lowered and once empty, a final "death star" will light up and the enemy player can perform a special attack that finishes of the opponent similar to the Instant Kill-moves from Guilty Gear.

[edit] Boost

Unlike in Guilty Gear, where you could boost any number of times, Hokuto no Ken has a gauge that limits the number of boosts a player can perform, however, the boost is much more powerful than the one in Guilty Gear.

[edit] Aura

Used to perform special moves. There's a total of two gauge stocks; one that is blue and one that is gold. When the blue one fills up, the words "GOD FIST BLOW" appears next to it.

[edit] Characters

This game is based on the first half of the original manga (vol. 1-16) and uses the characters as they were depicted in the 1980's anime series. The voices of the characters are all performed by the original seiyuus from the anime, with the exception of Kenshiro and Rei, who are both played by new actors.

[edit] Playable characters

Kenshiro (cv. Kunihiro Kawamoto)
Shin (cv. Toshio Furukawa)
Raoh (cv. Kenji Utsumi)
Rei (cv. Isshin Chiba)
Jagi (cv. Kōji Totani)
Juda (aka Yuda) (cv. Bin Shimada)
Toki (cv. Takaya Hashi)
Thouther (aka Souther) (cv. Banjō Ginga)
Mamiya (cv. Toshiko Fujita)
Mr. Heart (Heart-sama) (cv. Shōzō Iizuka)

[edit] Non playable characters

Yuria (during the opening intro. Can also be seen in the background of the Southern Cross stage and whenever Shin wins)
Lin (cv. Miwa Kōzuki) and Bat (cv. Ayumi Tsunematsu) (whenever Kenshiro wins)
Zeed (can be seen in background in Lin's Village)
Shu (on the background of Thouther's stage)
Ougai (Thouther's sensei. Appears during a victory pose)
Diamond, Spade and Club (as part of Mr. Heart's finishing move)
Dagarl (cv. Yūsaku Yara) and Komaku (cv. Shigeru Chiba) (Juda's underlings. Appears during special moves)

[edit] Trivia

Raoh has blond hair in the game rather than black hair, like he does in the manga, even though every other character has the same hair colors they used in the anime.
Mr. Heart was never a major character in Fist of the North Star, and was merely one of Shin's henchmen he sent out to kill Kenshiro. It's most likely that he was chosen as a fighter because there were no other characters available to fill the standard "big fat guy" fighter-slot (other than Fudoh).