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Fist of the North Star's sensitive minigame
We thought this minigame in the Fist of the North Star DS game was awesome enough to warrant its own post. As the latest screenshot update on the official website illustrates, Raoh's storyline is playable in addition to Kenshiro's.This follows outside of the main game as well, with this Raoh-spotting minigame. We've seen some weird minigames in our tenure as DS fans, but this one may manage to be the freakiest yet. Given a selection of four details from manga panels, you are asked to pick which depiction of Raoh features Raoh crying over his brother Toki. That's actually not the whole of the game; it's a wireless multiplayer trivia game, which is a neat addition. Still, for us it's always going to be the crying-Raoh game. Lest you think Raoh is weak, we should tell you why he's crying over his brother Toki: it's because he has just punched Toki almost to death, and is about to punch him all the way to death. You'd cry too.
Fist of the North Star screens precisely attack our eyeballs
There's something about stylus controls and Fist of the North Star that go so well together. Despite the animation being sub-par in the anime, we still enjoyed it very much (but don't even get us started on the live-action film) back in the day, so the prospect of being able to play it on our DS is one we've been in favor of for a bit now. Oh, how we can't wait to hit some fools with about a billion punches.These newest screens mix in a couple oldies with all of the others, so keep that in mind. For the most part, though, it's all fresh.
Fist of the North Star DS comes with neighsayer
The DS Fist of the North Star game was already an interactive manga in which you tap spots on the screen to beat up on dudes. It was already pretty bizarre. But Spike has decided to pile bizarre upon bizarre with this bonus for early purchasers.It's a keychain that plays a horse noise. Awesome, right? You could be out anywhere, and suddenly have the urge to listen to the sound of a horse, and just have a horse noise right there. In your pocket. To be fair, the horse immortalized by this keychain is not just some regular horse, but Kokuoh-Go, Raoh's giant horse who is also a king. Unfortunately, we don't know what Kokuoh-Go sounds like, but maybe his neigh is way tougher-sounding than a normal horse's.GAME Watch has some new screens of the game, in case you're as interested in extremely violent screen-tapping as we are.
New and interesting ways to bust up dudes in Fist of the North Star
Spike has updated their Fist of the North Star website with a couple of new screens showing the varied input methods in the game. The gameplay is not entirely limited to tapping things, but sometimes involves tapping and then dragging. We might not know too much about Fist of the North Star, but we know that any game involving using the stylus to cut a guy's face all criss-crossed is something we want to play.Also revealed in the latest update: you'll be able to play as characters other than Kenshiro. Raoh is mentioned by name, but there will certainly be more.[Via Ruliweb]
Fist of the Web Site
We hope other people are as interested in the Fist of the North Star game as we are. It should at least be better than the Sega Master System Fist of the North Star game (though the music probably won't be as awesome). We are aficionados of the dudes-getting-punched-many-times genre, of which Fist of the North Star is one of the classic works. That is why we're so interested in a fresh take like this one which combines classic material with new mechanics. The website shows some nice clear screens, and introduces the game in general terms -- the action sequences, story sequences, and unlockable character cards.Can tapping dude-shaped things on the screen many times really substitute for pushing buttons many times to punch dudes? We cannot wait to find out! Of course, we may have to read the dudes' reactions to our punches in an incomprehensible foreign language, because there's little likelihood of a U.S. version. But that's okay -- we can pretty much get the gist of "Ow! My face has been punched numerous times!" in any language.
More screens of the Fist of the North Star interactive manga thing
We're willing to work with a blurry magazine scan to get a few more screens of the Fist of the North Star interactive manga game. Some of the screens are identical to those we saw before, but new ones appear as well. Since this uses (obviously) manga graphics and screen-tapping mechanics, it reminds us a bit of a non-musical take on Ouendan, which relied on manga-style scenes on the top screen to tell the story. Therefore, in our heads, manga + touching on-screen icons = fun. And then this Fist of the North Star thing swaps out music and ridiculous situations for over-the-top violence.We can also just make out the January 31st release date and the 6040 yen price. ($53-- ouch) Check out the full scan after the break!
Fist of the North Stylus
We don't know if it'll be fun, and we don't really know if it'll have any replay value, but damned if this Fist of the North Star game isn't pretty. Seems to us that the right way to do a tie-in game for a manga is to use manga in the game rather than making some ugly 3D models of all the characters.Here's how Hokuto no Ken: Hokuto Kami-ken Denshousha no Michi (something like Fist of the North Star: The Way of the Storyteller of the Northern God maybe, but don't take our translation as gospel) works: you touch certain marked points on the screen with the stylus to make Kenshiro fight and to otherwise progress the story along.It's kind of a simple idea, but touching icons on the screen is sort of the basis for many DS games (hello, Ouendan) and it works just fine. This way, at least, the Fist of the North Star story is told in a faithful way, using gorgeous visuals. They're especially gorgeous when compared to the NES Fist of the North Star game.
Pachinko is really exciting!
Dude, we had no idea pachinko was so cool! We knew Japan was all into it, but we always thought it was some boring gambling thing. Turns out it's all a bunch of big people with huge chest muscles beating the crap out of each other in a post-apocalyptic wasteland! Man, when that guy punched the other guy like a hundred times really fast, that was some awesome pachinko! And then the other guy like exploded into a beam of yellow light! And the cool pachinko music was playing, and it totally got us pumped about pachinko!We know the graphics aren't totally next-gen (look at the cardboard hair), but it must be super tough to render realistic pachinko visuals! We are going to buy Jissen Pachinko/Pachislot Hisshouhou! Sammy's Collection Hokuto no Ken Wii RIGHT. NOW. We're totally ready for some pachinko mayhem! Watch the totally cool pachinko video after the break, and you'll feel the same way! PACHINKOOOOOO![Via Siliconera]
Fist of the North Star Pachinko uses Miis
We brought you the story that an EA producer was not given access to Mii code for My Sims, and that according to him, no third parties were. The situation seems to have changed, because Sega Sammy is using the little guys and gals in its Jissen Pachinko/Pachislot Hisshouhou! Sammy's Collection Hokuto no Ken Wii. It's not the most exciting implementation of Miis, with no Fist of the North Star-style makeovers or actual in-game avatars-- in fact, it consists mainly of a Mii portrait tied to a character profile.The game uses Nintendo Wi-fi as well, but for online rankings, which hardly counts as online play. We aren't ready to call that an implementation of third-party online play yet.Coming from a licensed pachinko game, proof that it is possible for third parties to use Miis. Sega does what E ... Ain't?
Finally, a pachinko game for the Wii
We might sound sarcastic, but we're happy to see different kinds of games come to the Wii. This latest title from Sega Sammy is a collection of pachinko and pachislot (pachinko plus slot machine) simulations, called (deep breath!) Jissen Pachinko/Pachislot Hisshouhou! Sammy's Collection Hokuto no Ken Wii (Fighting Pachinko/Pachislot Victory Way! Sammy's Collection Fist of the North Star Wii). It's based on the same popular Sega Sammy pachinko games that have been released on the DS, PS2, and PSP, and contains a bundle of pachinko and pachislot boards. And, of course, it carries the license of the classic, brutal Fist of the North Star manga and anime series.This one is interesting for the same reason a lot of Wii games are: Wiimote controls. Apparently, you can use the Wiimote steering-wheel style to control the speed of the dropping balls. We admire the novel Wiimote use! It also has online ranking, in case competition motivates your pachinko-playing.Jissen Pachinko/Pachislot Hisshouhou! Sammy's Collection Hokuto no Ken Wii (Fighting Pachinko/Pachislot Victory Way! Sammy's Collection Fist of the North Star Wii) comes out on May 24th in Japan, and probably never anywhere else. Any pachinko fans here? Do any of you import these kinds of things?
Japan software sales chart, Aug. 7-13: The DS kicks back
Another week, another software sales chart. Let me just say, I find it insane the Nintendo DS has games selling this crazy. Honestly, what is the deal here? Does Nintendo package a hit of crack in every box or something? This week, seven out of 10 games belong to the Nintendo DS.1. New Super Mario Bros. (DS) - 117,706 / 2,731,934 2. Tamagotchi Shop 2 (DS) - 66,564 / 334,875 3. Melty Blood: Act Cadenza (PS2) - 64,980 / *NEW* 4. More Brain Training (DS) - 59,585 / 2,985,432 5. Cooking Navi (DS) - 57,257 / 290,960 6. Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS) - 44,201 / 3,077,295 7. Brain Training (DS) - 38,954 / 2,688,146 8. SD Gundam Generation G Portable (PSP) - 36,592 / 192,227 9. Fist of the North Star Pachislot (PS2) - 33,951 / 116,507 10. Kirarin * Revolution: Kira Kira Idol Audition (DS) - 33,332 / *NEW* As you might have noticed, New Super Mario Bros. reclaimed the top spot, knocking off Gundam, which spiraled down to the eighth spot. Wow, what a drop. Gundam was the fastest one-week selling PSP game ever, but I don't think it's going to break any more records with its extreme drop in sales. I had a DS and really liked it, but, after awhile, there weren't really any games that interested me, so I sold it. But now with all these games selling so well, I'm beginning to wonder if I'm missing out on something here. (Via PSP Advanced)
