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The Lowdown
Pros: Contains original game
Cons: Poor remake, repetitive, easy to beat, not fun
 Purchase
at Play-Asia
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The original Fist of the
North Star game by Sega originated on the Mark III system. In the US it
was known as "Black Belt", since the anime wasn't around. The game was
extremely simplistic, enemies came running at you and you could punch or
kick them. It was like a faster version of the NES classic Kung-Fu. When
Sega set out to remake this game few people would guess that they would
remake little more than the graphics.Fist of the North Star is
designed so that even a rock could play the game. All you have to do is
mash the punch button and occasionally turn around to hit enemies
attacking you from behind. When you defeat guys they explode into a
blotch of blood. Does that make any sense? Seriously, the effect is more
humorous than cool. Causing enemies to explode charges up your special
attack meter. You can choose from one of four special attacks to
perform. Each attack requires a different amount of enemies to kill. The
special attacks are pretty much worthless for fighting on screen enemies
since one or two hits will kill them. Special attacks are best used for
bosses or if you character gets surrounded. Most of the special effect
attacks are lame, they'll cause your character to glow and maybe throw
an uppercut.
After about five minutes the game becomes boring. The background
barely moves so it seems like you're still in the same location. The
same enemies come at you over and over again, with little variety. By
the time you've made it to the first boss you'll want to turn the game
off. Fortunately Sega does have mercy on gamers that purchased this game.
The game is only a few hours long and can be beaten in one sitting, if
you can tolerate extreme button mashing boredom.
If the team at Sega Ages did do something right was making a decent,
but not great graphical enhancement. If you see the screen of the
original game it looks like real dated. The small sprites, few colors
and lack of a background makes the 3D ages version look good. The
characters are now large and some of the special attack graphics like
the one where you um.. glow. Seriously though the main character sprite
looks pretty good and if there was any graphic variety at all the
enemies wouldn't look so bad. The backgrounds aren't too bad they have
some detail to them, but suffer a lack of variation as well.
One neat thing that was included in the game was an emulated version
of the original game. It was neat to play again because you can see how
far the game has come along. At the same time the original game is as
fun, if not more fun than the new game. Which says maybe they shouldn't
have even bothered to remake the game at all. In either case your $20 is
better spent elsewhere.
Import Friendly?
Except for the first menu, totally in Japanese. However, its so
simplistic that you can learn how to play in seconds.
US Bound?
The Sega Ages collection has been announced in America, but there
is no set date for any of the games to be released.
Overall
If you're a fan of the series spend your $20 on buying a master system and
the original game. Everyone else your $20 is better spent buying loose
leaf paper to have a paper airplane race than this game.
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