Hokuto no Ken: Seikimatsu Kyūseishu Densetsu (Bandai) (北斗の拳 世紀末救世主伝説)

Gameplay

The game consists of eight chapters alternating between two types of sequences: 3D cutscenes that recreate the major moments of the story, and battles where the player freely moves Kenshiro in a three-dimensional space to fight his enemies. The title stands out for its ambition to faithfully reproduce the anime, with full voice acting and the original voice cast reprising their roles for most characters. Its main novelty is the “real-time abeshi system”: hitting an enemy at the right moment triggers their death with one of the two hundred death cries from the manga, the cry varying depending on the player’s precision. The game also features a mode that lets players revisit unlocked cutscenes by replacing the dialogue with lines from other characters.

Of Note

Developed by Natsume for Bandai, this game is remembered less for its quality than for the gap between its ambition and its execution. The polygon models, stiff and repetitive in their animations, along with over-the-top death scenes, earned it a reputation as a “bakage,” a game considered unintentionally comedic. It was sold for 5,800 yen before tax.