The Dynasty Warriors series already made a divergence into Gundam territory, and now is taking on another bloodier property: Fist of the North Star.
Say what you will about Dynasty Warriors, it must be somewhat successful or there wouldn’t be ten billion games in the series. Now Tecmo Koei is merging the hyper-violent Fist of the North Star manga and anime series (known as Hokuto no Ken in Japan) into a Dynasty Warriors offshoot that is expected to be popular as hell.
After Tecmo Koei offically announced Hokuto Musou (i.e. Dynasty Warriors: Fist of the North Star) for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 last week, the company’s stock rose 17%. Tecmo Koei CEO Kenji Matsubara expects to unload a million copies in Japan alone, and the Nihon Keizai Shimbun newspaper reports that the game is planned for release in other regions as well. If Dynasty Warriors: Gundam and its sequel were brought to other regions, I would throw a fit if Hokuto Musou were not.
Not that I’m a Gundam hater; I enjoy robots just as much as the previous and next guys. The Fist of the North Star anime is just so damn great and bloody and violent that I simply can’t wait to wander through a next-gen wasteland exploding heads and being all aloof. Fist of the North Star is an early 80s manga/anime series about a guy in an apocalyptic wasteland that will f**k you up, criminals, and that’s the perfect premise for any videogame. Kenshiro, the main character, doesn’t just f**k up criminals, he makes them explode after going all Bruce Lee on their asses. Fist of the North Star is a classic, though it is pretty graphic so be warned if you go searching for clips. The only thing that trumps Fist of the North Star could be Fist of the Blue Sky, basically the same premise but with gangsters in the 1930s.
This teaser video doesn’t have me super excited, but it’s short and probably of early gameplay. A guy explodes, so that’s a positive. At the least it should be fun to experience Hokuto Musou‘s story mode that will have players murdering their way through the tale of the original manga. There will also be a Dynasty Warriors-style mode, which, who knows, could be fun as well. I know I’ll be saying “You’re already dead” (Kenshiro’s catchphrase) if the game does end up making it to North America someday.
(Via: Andriasang)
Published: Oct 18, 2009 12:49 am