Last Battle (video game)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Last Battle is a side-scrolling beat 'em up released for the Sega Mega Drive in 1989 by Sega. It is based on the manga series Fist of the North Star, and was originally titled Hokuto no Ken: Shin Seikimatsu Kyūseishu Densetsu (北斗の拳 新世紀末救世主伝説, Hokuto no Ken: Shin Seikimatsu Kyūseishu Densetsu^? "Fist of the North Star: The New Legend of the Century's End Savior"), but the English localization did not retain the license, forcing upon many name changes and graphical alterations. It is the sequel Sega's previous Hokuto no Ken game for the Sega Mark III, which was released as Black Belt outside Japan.

[edit] Gameplay

A comparison of Last Battle and its more violent Japanese counterpart, Hokuto no Ken: Shin Seikimatsu Kyuseishu Densetsu. Note also the differently coloured sprites

Due to the game being produced at the beginning of the Mega Drive's life its gameplay is highly simplistic and more akin to 8-bit games of the genre than other Mega Drive examples such as Streets of Rage. The featured levels are flat, two-dimensional and contain very little platform action, with combat restricted to the use of six basic attacks; A kick and a punch which can be performed while standing, crouching or jumping.

The game is known for its difficulty, primarily due to the character's limited offensive abilities, short range, lack of alternative strategies available to the player, highly skilled and far-reaching boss characters and the character's limited health. Also known for the huge 'wall of text' in the intro that's physically impossible to read in one run due to its speed and large phrases.

[edit] Localization

Because the English localization of the game did not retain the Fist of the North Star license, the developers changed the names of all characters, as well as their fighting styles, although the plot is relatively unchanged. The original Japanese version is specifically based on the second anime series, which spans Vol. 16-24 of the original manga. Kenshiro was renamed Aarzak and his two sidekicks from the series, Bat and Lin, became Max and Alyssa. Duke, the initial antagonist is actually Falco, while the three Rashō were rewritten into escaped fugitives.

Also, the blood and gore from the original game was edited out of the western localizations. In the original game, any of the normal enemies would have their heads explode, followed by their bodies in a bloody fashion as well as some boss characters having more of a gory finishes to their fights. Last Battle, however, edited down the gore so that the normal enemies would only fly offscreen when hit and many of the bloody animations for the bosses were removed or some of the bosses were recolored to look more like mutants than humans.

[edit] Fighting styles

[edit] Characters

Other characters from the series, namely Bask, Gayler, Shieno and Alf appear in the game, but are unnamed in the localized version.

[edit] See also

• List of fighting games

[edit] External links

• Last Battle review at Something Awful
• Last Battle at MobyGames