Fist of the North Star: Ken's Rage

Although it could have done with more playable characters (where's my Juda!?), there is a huge amount of content, with story modes for each of the game's eight warriors taking several hours apiece to beat.

Fist of the North Star: Ken's Rage is a really good example of what games based of an anime/manga should play like.

A great game for every Hokuto no Ken fan, mixing a classical beat'em'up gameplay to the typical Dynasty Warriors mechanics.

First of the North Star, as a modification of Dynasty Warriors, is a good idea quite well executed. It has its own touch and personality, without differentiating itself too much from the series tradition.

If you come into this game expecting a revolutionary single player experience, you won't find it. However, if you enjoyed the shows and want a game that follows it faithfully, definitely pick this one up.

Ken's Rage is a decent deviation for Koei and has captured the essence of the Fist of the North Star anime and therefore succeeds on that front. However, as an action game the same problems from the Dynasty Warriors games make their presence well felt here as well which ultimately let the game down.

It's much deeper than I would have expected from a current age Musou style game, and I highly urge people who aren't usually enamored with the Dynasty Warriors series to check this out, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

It just feels like this game could have been renamed Dynasty Warriors: Fist of the North Star. If you like that style of gameplay, then you may enjoy this game. Otherwise it's not worth your time, even for fans of the series.

Fist of the North Star: Ken's Rage reminds us what a great beat-'em-up at its core is all about, as long as you're playing by yourself and hopefully in spurts.

With hours of violent action capable of being employed, Fist of the North Star: Ken's Rage is certainly an easily rentable option if you're looking to kill time as mercilessly as the in-game enemy, but anything beyond the re-skinned Dynasty half only proves to be a chore.

Fist of the North Star: Ken's Rage suffers from being too much and not enough like Dynasty Warriors.

The hardcore fan will simply rejoice, and won't even notice the many flaws. For everyone else, Ken's Rage is the average DInasty Warriors.

In all, way better than expected. [Issue#232, p.94]

Ken's Wrath has some good ideas and offers us a glimpse of what a Hokuto no Ken's game could be. But this is not that game, as it's repetitive, with many visual issues and an important lack of personality. It feels more of the same with the Warriors series, and it's dissapointing and several levels.

Although Fist of the North Star is far from beeing perfect, its intense atmosphere and engaging battles will surely manage to please any fan of the anime or manga... but if you're not among them, you should definitely look somewhere else.

Intense battles for any fan of the anime or manga. Don't expect any more.

Fans of the original manga will love it, but this is a game that doesn't offer anything for the rest of us.

A distinctly Japanese take on an irrevocably inscrutable cultural milestone, grab it from your nearest bargain bin for those sniggersome one-liners alone. [Issue#67, p.101]

As a Fist of the North Star game, Ken's Rage is disappointingly generic in its execution.

Fist of the North Star is a fun game if you're a fan of the anime series. If not, there isn't a whole lot here for you unless you like Dynasty Warriors. The dependence on the anime really hurts it.

Unfortunately, non-fans of the North Star will find very little in this waste-land of below average gameplay mechanics.

If you have any love for the manga, feel free to add the final scar to the tally. For everyone else, this is just an old-school brawler that's partial to shouting ATATATATATATA. Because you're already dead.

An acquired taste, and horribly aged, but the ultra camp bloodletting isn't especially poor. [Issue#98, p99]

Ken's Rage ruins a solid game-structure with a gameplay that lacks depth. And furthermore the graphics is really poor. A game only for addicted fans.

If you're one of the two people who couldn't wait for Fist of the North Star to get its own game on next-gen consoles, your time has finally come. Everyone else will find a mediocre brawler, hidden under a coat of post-apocalyptic paint.

For me the controls were the biggest disappointment I experienced.

Primitive graphics and terrible story telling make us more full of rage then Ken.

Other playable modes offer a little variety to Legend Mode, such as Dream Mode, which opens up a story not seen in the manga for rabid fans to devour, and Challenge Mode featuring endless waves of enemies to slaughter again and again, but unless you're that devoted fan with every single episode of the anime series and every volume of the manga, there just isn't enough here to recommend.

There are different stories to play through and plenty to unlock, but it's nothing special.

It is unfortunate that the game cannot match the quality of the anime.

Ken's Rage is an atrociously repetitive game that bafflingly remains entertaining in spite of its best efforts at self-sabotage. But don't let the low score fool you - you should pick this up when it hits the bargain bin. Just be prepared for the video game equivalent of Stockholm Syndrome.

A traditional beat 'em up that runs out of steam after about an hour. From that point on, everything is just a rehash of what has gone before. The environments are bland, the enemies lack variety, and in generel it feels like the details haven't been paid enough attention. The Japanese hairdo's are cool though.

Look: This is a game about punching perplexed paper dolls until they explode with blood, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. But it is so very much about that -- and only that -- that, unless you're in love, it's far safer on this side of the looking glass.

Something like Fist of the North Star deserved something better than just a blatant copy/paste job. Ultimately, all the buckets of blood in the world fail to hide this is the same thing players have grown disenchanted with a generation ago.

These folks add a considerable amount of content to a game in desperate need of variety, but their fighting styles and special moves aren't enough to make this rigid, repetitive actioner worth enduring. [Jan 2011, p.78]

Everything here feels too generic. Maps and characters, other than the primary ones, all look the same, combat is dull and repetitive and it feels like it was designed for a much earlier console.