Fighting Mania

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Fighting Mania is an arcade game from Konami in the "Mania" series of arcade games by Konami, and features characters from the anime, Fist of the North Star (or Hokuto no Ken). The "Mania" series of games from Konami mostly feature the word "Mania" in their title or subtitle, but not always, and they also tend to be more interactive than a simple joystick and buttons. Notable titles are Beatmania and Dance Dance Revolution.

Soon after the sweeping popularity of Dance Dance Revolution, Konami released Fighting Mania in 2000. Like Dance Dance Revolution (DDR), Fighting Mania: Fist of the North Star requires exact timing and rhythm to complete the game. The significant difference is that Fighting Mania uses the hands, where DDR uses the feet. Fighting Mania never enjoyed as much popularity as DDR and quickly fell out of arcades. It is now a rare find and considered a collector's item.

Contents 1 Play Control 2 Characters 3 Scoring 4 External links

[edit] Play Control

The arcade cabinet stands about 6'2" tall, 34" wide (when facing the machine), and about 4' deep. The monitor is recessed into the cabinet a fair distance, and in the front of the cabinet are six orange, sturdy punching pads with red LED lights embedded near their hinges. The pads are at rest along the inside walls of the recession of the cabinet, lining the monitor. There are also two black plastic "special gloves" that rest in pockets on the front of the machine, which are normally tied with rope or chain to the arcade cabinet to prevent theft. The player is to wear these gloves while playing (although it is also common practice to play without the gloves, though this can scrape the knuckles).

When an on-screen enemy makes an attack on the player, a punch pad will swing out on its hinge at a smooth pace, and upon reaching full extension at 90 degrees, the LEDs light up red. The pad stays lit for a short time, and then the pad returns inside the cabinet to rest. The player must punch this pad while the LEDs are lit. The strength of the player's punch is irrelevant to the game, and the game warns the player not to punch hard, to prevent the risk of breaking the machine. Only the timing of the punch is important, punches should be delivered at half strength, with exact timing.

Punching a pad when it is fully extended and the LEDs lit results in the attack being blocked, and the opponent receiving damage in the form of a counter-attack. Punching too early or too late results in either blocking the move with no counter-attack, or receiving lessened damage from the attack, also with no counter-attack damage to the opponent. Missing a pad completely (the pad retracting without ever being hit) results in full damage taken by the player. As opponents get more difficult - and particularly when they use their special moves - punches will be thrown and pads will pop out in faster succession and in more chaotic patterns, or special precautions may need to be taken, such as only striking one pad that is lit while other dummy pads pop up, or striking pads in the exact order they deploy.

Like conventional fighting games, the player has a life gauge at the top, and the enemy has a life gauge that must be brought to zero as well. Also both characters have a super combo gauge, in the form of seven stars remotely resembling a Big Dipper, which fans will recognize as a reference to the Hokuto Shinken style in Fist of the North Star. As attacks are landed or damage is taken, the stars light up along the super gauge and when full, the game will automatically execute the special move for the player. The game will also instruct the player how to use the particular special move it chose, based on the enemy the player is fighting. The game accurately follows the Fist of the North Star series, and each enemy is not only a character from the series, but also the special move which the player must use to defeat them is the same move that was used to defeat that character in the series.

For example, the first opponent is Zeed, who the player, as Kenshiro, must finish with the Hundred Crack Fist of the North Star. This is simulated in the game by, upon filling the seven stars in the super combo gauge, the game alerts the player to "Strike 30 times!" All six punch pads deploy and the player must punch 30 times in a short period (roughly 8 seconds) while the pads continuously deploy to give the player more punch fodder, and if successful, an animation plays where Kenshiro finishes Zeed with the notorious catchphrase, "You're already dead!" The violent deaths of the characters is greatly downplayed compared to the series, often the opponents' faces are simply warped with a camera effect and the picture fades out to the screaming of the opponent.

Fans of the original series will be pleased to recognize the characters and special moves involved, such as Kenshiro needing to kick the fat aside from Heart's stomach to reach his vital point, which will be punched with one delayed fatal punch. This is simulated by punching the pads in a clockwise fashion until Heart's stomach on the screen becomes indented enough for Kenshiro to reach the vital point, and then placing one final punch on the lone pad that pops up. Enemies use their special moves from the series to spice up game play as well, such as Colonel using his "Silent Fist of the South Star" technique, in which four pads will pop up at once, but only one will have its LEDs light up when fully extended. The player must strike only the lit pad to counter, if any other pad is struck, the player takes damage.

After earning game credits (by inserting tokens, etc.) and pressing start, the player must choose a path. The paths are akin to Circuits in Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!; each path is a set of opponents within a story arc, and the player will only play that set of opponents. This serves as a difficulty setting. The first path is a training path where Kenshiro's master, Ryuken, will teach the player how to play the game and explain the finer points of timing punches. The subsequent paths involve harder and harder opponents moving toward the right, and include such memorable story arcs from the series as Kenshiro's quest to fight Shin and avenge himself and Julia, or Rei's quest to fight Yuda after the Death Omen Star has befallen him and he has only 3 days to live.

[edit] Characters

Many characters from the Fist of the North Star series are represented in Fighting Mania.

Playable characters are:

• Kenshiro - The main character from Fist of the North Star. He is the character for all paths, except path 5 and 7.
• Rei - Kenshiro's ally in the series, and the hero for the fifth path. In Rei's quest, the first opponent is Raoh, who ends the battle with a fatal blow. At this point, "the Death Omen Star has fallen over Rei." Whatever life is left in the gauge after this battle will be what he will start with against the next opponent, and so on through the path without regaining life after each battle.
• Raoh - In the seventh and final path, the player plays as Raoh, the leading antagonist in Fist of the North Star, and Kenshiro's brother. The path follows Raoh's rise to power to become the "King of Fists."

Enemy characters are:

• Basics of Hokuto Shinken Path (tutorial):
  • Ryuken (tutorial)
  • Zeed

• Southern Cross Path
  • Zeed
  • Heart
  • Shin

• Nanto Rokuseiken Path
  • The King of Kiba
  • Rei
  • Shuh the Star of Benevolence
  • Souther

• End of Century's Conqueror Ken-Oh Path
  • Colonel
  • Devil
  • The Warden Uighur
  • Ken-Oh

• Nanto Rokusei Ken, Star of Justice Path (play as Rei)
  • Ken-Oh
  • The King of Kiba
  • Amiba
  • Yuda the Star of Enchantment

• Legend of the Century End's Savior Path
  • Jagi
  • Amiba
  • Toki
  • Ryuga
  • Raoh

• Legend of the Century End's Tyrant Path (play as Raoh)
  • Toki
  • Jyuza of the Clouds
  • Fudoh of the Mountains
  • Kenshiro

[edit] Scoring

Scoring in the game is not fully explained anywhere, even in the instructions included with the cabinet. However most of the scoring is obvious enough. You are scored on five attributes of play:

• Life: The remaining life in your health gauge at the end of the round.
• Wis (Wisdom): (Unknown, possibly a ratio of successful hits to partial hits and misses?)
• Agi (Agility): (Unknown, possibly related to Wisdom, perhaps one is a bonus for a number of successful hits, while the other is a bonus for a low number of misses or partial hits?) (Game will give 100% if all hits are countered by the player)
• Spec (Special): Your ability to execute the specific special finishing move for that opponent.
• Time: A bonus for the time remaining on the play clock at the end of the round.

[edit] External links

• Official Japanese site