And if you just go and buy the Hokuto No Ken comic book instead then the game dev will take it as "oh hey they are not interested in franchise so lets not make any more games on it"

This game is for people who are fans of the show and the manga because they understand it, just like the majority of Star Wars fans will immediately like something and buy even the worst so called Star Wars franschise games or even recent ripoffs... because they are fans of the franchise.

So basically if any of you are fans and you have watched all the anime and bought all the DVDs then buy this game if you are a fan otherwise you may be looking at the series staying "Japan Only" in the future as a result of the apathy... these types of games will never, NEVER sell anywhere near the ankles of games like Call of Duty or Halo but they don't have to... CoD and Halo are not franchises taken from comics, or novels, the games always came first so they don't have to worry about some anal retentive videogame fan pointing out how Reach failed to capture the Fall of Reach because the game still sold over 10 million copies.

It would be nice if the fans where actually getting a good game though.

^^ Does this game have any fans?

Played the first one...got for a few quid off of amazon. But it's terrible. It's long as all f**k but boring after the first few levels. Don't see how anybody needs a second game, seeing as how the first one was like infinitely long and just as boring.

Of course the same things that were not to the liking of people who bought the last game may be present there but at least thats more Fist of the North Star than fans were ever able to get in previous console generations... I am not trying to say oh just buy it even if its bad but if you know whats there already then what are people expecting?

The premise of Fist of the North Star lends itself well to a 2d side scrolling beat em up... but this is the generation of 3d polygon so thats what we get, the main character in the series mostly fights alone or single handedly takens down 8+ thugs/scrubs then certain matches are always duels...

I got the PS2 import only 2d fighting game... I knew ahead of time not to expect Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat and the game was fine for what it was...

Hell I still have Star Wars Masters of Teras Kasi despite how bad it was reviewed... yet that game and the PS2/Xbox1 SW Revenge of the Sith are the ONLY Star Wars franchise games to feature anything similar to a 3d fighter... I knew not to expect Soul Calibur or Virtua Fighter... but pro game reviewers and some videogamers need to realize this so that they don't go into a video game with such ridiculous expectations...

That new DC fighter by MK makers will be bought by fans of the comic characters... and it will play similar to MK with perhaps no buckets of blood... then again on Marvel side of things Wolverine in the old comics that made him famous (1970s, 1980s, early 90s) rarely used his claws to kill people as per the Comics Code label, unless he was ripping up robots or a certain special story or graphic novels that were never for kids anyways... yet besides Capcom making the related fighters there was no need to criticize the lack of claw stabbing action...

Basically if we were to get really anal retentive we could break the living daylights out of franchise videogames if we wanted to but if the games don't sell don't ever count on a game dev having the money to pay the programers/designers to try to adapt a franchise to a game.

I consider myself an elite gamer... I have beaten really hard games of gens past that were either franchise related or not and mainly featured no health regeneration (basically evade fire to get rank S) these days people complain and complain and I understand it but look at the games that are selling really... and why.

That Force Unleashed duology was horrible (bugs, repentative, etc) yet very playable (yet repentative and almost no different than dynasty warriors with god of war twist) in the reviews it was completely forgiven... even for abusing force powers we knew and its lowest score in the main stream review magazines and sites barely was close to the 7.0 mark... and thats some fans in there... nothing too wrong with that but go figure... yet Republic Commando was a gem of a SW fps and it was stuck on a console/PC and never given a sequel... (don't know how the sales were all I remember were complainers that they could not play as Jedi...sigh)

I bought the last game... I lent it to a fellow fan who was iffy and is a huge CoD/Halo day one purchase dude... he ended up loving it and got his own copy before it became hard to get...

If people take the same attitude with this game it will just become another rare, hard to find franchise game all over again... and its on both Xbox 360 and PS3...

Well it's safe to safe that Japanese developers are still stuck in the PS2 era, and that we can't expect much from them next gen either. With all the cpu/gpu power in the world, they still might create garbage. Word of advice; let it go.

To be fair there have been plenty of good japanese games this generation. I'd agree that the japanese studios were slow to adapt to shaders and the current gen type work pipeline but they've caught up just fine i think. That aside there's been PLENTY of garbage and insanely mediocre games coming out of the US and Europe as well, so it's hardly a problem only the Japanese devs are having.

This is simply the longest comment in history.

Why don't the bad guys/AI attack?

yeah, i didn't read it either. how the guy can rag on some decent games, yet defend this pile of steaming shite is beyond me.

Him and Optimus...i think they are related :Pyep.

I still think the Arc Systemworks one is the version to get (PS2):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0mspQcPKHU

lol i signed in to comment after that long ass message, i thought "maybe the game doesnt look so bad".... 30 seconds into gameplay 1 video, i couldnt keep a straight face. the graphics are bad, the gameplays bad... the ai doesnt fight, your kicks dont connect (and still hit 8+ people simultaneously) coupled with cheesy voice acting....

50 seconds from first video were enough for me lol. Holy shit, these enemies just stay there and wait for you to rip them up! @___@

For 5-10 bucks you can get some good old beat'em up from PSN/XBLA instead.

This game looks better than Ninja Gaiden 3 RE by far.

Will give it a chance at 10 quid I guess.

NO

No what?

lols.

yeah, the first level of Ken's Rage1 was the same thing, and the AI got more aggressive in upcoming chapters. Its Musou styles game. I am a Hokuto no Ken fan, and I didn't care for most of the games that used the license. I found the first game to be fun, and plan on eventually getting this one.

No sergeant? lol

Since you are such an expert in game development please elaborate as to what is it you want in a current gen Anime/manga franchise videogame like fist of the north star Ken's rage and what other fist of the north star games have you played and how do you feel about the SW The force unleashed saga?You make it sound like ONLY and ONLY the Hokuto No Ken manga/comic books exist... you forget or you sound like you are not aware of the TV series, the film and the OVA series.

And again specially you being one of the main people who run a videogame fansite that started as an Xbox fansite... you should know very well just how words like "buy the comics instead of the game" sound and just how it does NOT HELP further development on sequels or even next video game ideas for the franchise.

I really don't mind if the video game were to just be judged as more of the same with new little things but just saying buy the comic instead is pure ignorance and apathy. Game development studios and the people who green light franchise based videogame projects just don't go and have infinite financial resources to waste money making a multiplatform game even if it does not live up to some "unknown" fantasy some game review site or some fanboy has.

In fact... games based on old franchises like this are a surprise that they are getting made in the first place... Hokuto No Ken, despite its cult following was never any type of series that dethroned other much more popular anime/manga series... like Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon :p

This console generation with its multiplatform stances and online multiplayer screwing the single player mode when the single player mode had yet to evolve further has pretty much screwed the way current gen video games are made to be what we end up buying.

Using shaders as an excuse?? please how many years did it take Call of Duty (which causes other games to lose sales if released close to its launch date) to use shaders on current gen consoles? please stop making excuses and weasel worded attacks on certain videogames and get over yourself... like I said... if Dynasty Warriors and games using elements of Dynasty Warriors was so horrible then Star Wars The force unleashed 1 and 2 should have scored below a 3.5 out of 10 score... but it did not and instead got high praise despite huge flaws... you cannot have a double standard for fanboism in review and fansites or maybe better yet the Hokuto No Ken related videogame franchise should just stay as a PlayStation ONLY game series and locked to Japan like many other series have after all the haterade.

The mangas and anime series came out in Japan in the 80s... you in France were quite lucky to have gotten some company to buy the rights and air it on television... in the USA people had to find out from word of mouth (cult following) and going to videostores wayy back then to buy the VHSs.

So you don't want to "advise anyone to buy a game" then if its not worth it why mention it and why bother give it negative coverage?

People (usually tend to be real fans and gamers) on youtube and review sites tend to cover these types of obscure franchise based games already.

I don't believe I ever said that YOU or your site should be more forgiving of this game but in comparison to other games based on much bigger franchises that are obviously well known... like Star Wars and the Dynasty Warrior/God of War esque The Force Unleashed... the review and "advice" coverage sites have gotten away with bloody murder.

But we are NOT talking about video game development studios that were shut down because their non-franchise based game failed are we? and that has nothing to do with franchise based games... but if we were and we were to get a game like Street Fighter 1 only to advice against it we would never have gotten a Street Fighter 2 would we?

In the USA franchise based games have a tendency not never live up to or just be plain horrible when made into a video game... E.T...., Star Wars Masters of Teras Kasi, countless live action hero films based videogames from the NES, SNES, Genesis, PSX, Saturn days... (where by the way on N64, GoldenEye 007 became legend and watermark but then again that was an already veteran elite back then studio with fanboys essensially working on that game in a genre that was not perfect for it but excellent nontheless)

I only seem to recall coming to this site back when it was Xboxyde and does it matter if it had a Playsyde? I mean there is usually a lot of anti-Japan and anti-Sony venom in this site from people who are basically directly trolling any work on the non-Microsoft console.

Again if you don't want to support Ken's Rage 2, why give it free coverage? most of the people buying this game will go and talk to other gamers about it and honestly if they played and completed and still hated Ken's Rage 1 those people should already be aware of what they are getting themselves into... once again what is the game developer supposed to do here to please the critics? specially when people OUTSIDE Japan are given the option to buy it and what graphical features is a game based on this franchise supposed to have?

I mentioned The Force Unleashed for obvious reasons but when it comes to game cashing in on the game shops cash register there is a list of usual subjects that dominate it... obscure franchise based games like this and a few others are not video games that are known to break millionS (plural) records sold and therefore the funding behind such games is going to be equally as risky... what should gamers do? just import the old used games? who wins there really?

What message does that really send to game publishers who finance their studios to make games? Its already happened with other franchises that have simply stayed in Japan Only and PlayStation Only... is this what has to happen? I mean really?

Those old Hokuto No Ken games were NO DOUBLE DRAGONS, Final Fights and Street Fighters but they did not have to be and they were for their time ok (not saying ZOMG AAA title!!11! but it really is a miracle that an old 1980s manga/anime that has had Original Video Animation made later is getting a videogame in this current gen platforms and thats multiplatforms and outside of Japan damnit!!

You know yourself that Kens Rage 1 was not that great either but it did its job based on the franchise and again I personally did my own research with real gamers people have different tastes... they either love watching anime or they hate it and if they love anime they either hate old pre-2000 anime or they manage to respect it instead of demanding a remake with some cool looking pretty boy that resembles the Twilight vampire in DMC.... yeah maybe that is what should happen, they should just make a deal with Ninja Theory and let them remake it because they know better than anime fans and videogame fans... /sarcasm

AQlso i think it's well established that Akumajou is batshit crazy by now anyway, so i don't think you should take that too seriously.