Fist of the North Star
System: NES
Release Date: April 1989
Developer: Shouei System
Publisher: Taxan
Genre: Beat ‘em Up
Fist of the North Star had a game released on Sega Master System unlicensed as Black Belt. I liked Black Belt a lot. Now we get an NES take on the franchise… and it’s… well, let’s talk about it. This is actually a port of Hokuto no Ken II and takes place later in the chronology of the story. You are Kenshiro and you have to explode the heads of a countless number of baddies as you move to the right and seek out mini-bosses and bosses.
On the surface, this isn’t much different from Black Belt so should do very well. But, that’s on the surface. As you punch enemies with the A Button, sometimes a star will float up from their carcass. Catch these stars to gain power. After the first star, you can hold the B Button to make Kenshiro do a rapid kick. After the second star, you can hold the A Button for a rapid punch. After collecting four star outlines, you have to collect filled in stars to continue powering up. Once you collect your first filled in star, you get super speed, which moves you as quickly as a jump normally would.
Enemies aren’t very sophisticated. Some of them stand there to get punched. Others throw bottles or shoot arrows at you, which you can punch back at them. The annoying enemies run on screen and do a slide tackle attack. These can easily be jumped over, but in the later levels, they can show up at any vertical level on screen, which gets annoying. Minibosses don’t seem to have special attacks as such and go down pretty quickly. This nets you some extra health and sends you along.
If Kenshiro powers up all the way, he tears his shirt off and then gains the ability to throw fireballs by pressing the A and B Buttons simultaneously. I didn’t find this too useful and accidentally threw them out when trying to go through doors a couple times. The bosses go down pretty quickly, as well. Each of them have a weakness that takes off a huge chunk of life if you hit it right away. Some of them attack in special ways or throw projectiles. You’re at a disadvantage if your health is low, but if you go in there at full power, they are already dead.
Graphics: 1.5
The sprites are slightly bigger than average, but not very detailed or attractive.
Sound: 0.5
The music is bad and loops after a few seconds. It took all I had not to turn it off.
Gameplay: 1.0
There’s not a whole lot to the game. Punch, kick, jump kick. Collect powerups, kill bosses. Repeat.
Difficulty: 1.0
This should be a pretty quick playthrough. You can continue if you die and earn free guys from points.
Fun Factor: 1.0
This wasn’t a terrible time, but it wasn’t a good time.
Overall Grade: 1.0
Fist of the North Star earns a D. Play it if you want a quick, mindless beat ‘em up. Don’t go out of your way to give it a shot, though.