THE BIG BUZZ WEEKEND EDITION: The Bloody, Beautiful Return Of The North Star

Another round of THE BIG BUZZ WEEKEND EDITION continues! KOEI TECMO (Man, I still remember the days of electronic handheld football from them... Don't you?) released a statement today confirming the soon-to-be-released FIST OF THE NORTHSTAR to European X-Box and PS3 consoles, with an as-yet-to-be-announced release date here in the states. The Dynasty Warrior's meets Streets of Rage format style game from OMEGA FORCE is quickly shaping up to be the hottest game since the GOD OF WAR trilogy! The sheer violence of this classic one superhuman versus one hundred tale is excitement enough if Koei games gets it right.



Of course, to the uninitiated, this game is the most recent addition to a manga franchise born way back in 1983 by BURONSON and TETSUO HARA--- and after 2 animated TV series, 4 feature films (including the 1995 American B-movie adaptation starring GARY DANIELS), and a revamped Japanese OVA, it's safe to say that the series will be around long enough to assure that you'll have time to get acquainted... The story goes a little something like this:

It happened in 199x (don't you love those ambiguous dates?)... The Post Apocalyptic Earth to come became overrun by psychopathic gangs and utter misery (The Road Warrior playing the backdrop here). Out of the wasteland comes KENSHIRO, a stranger bearing seven scars and master of an assassins' art known as Hokuto Shinken, or 'Divine Fist of the North Star', in which a single blow can make a man explode. His quest to confront RAOH, the master of Nanto Seiken, or 'Sacred Fist of the South Star', whose brutal iron fist reign over the gangs becomes complicated when former students of both schools get in the way of his journey, as well as the innocent lives he's sworn to protect caught in between.

As a gamer, I can't wait to experience the possibility of watching Ken engulf his combatants with a hundred punches and calmly walking away, saying 'You're already dead.', just before the entire gang explodes in individual gouts of blood--- I know, I know... It sounds far more bloodthirsty than it needs to be, right? Kratos settled that argument years ago on the PS2, so with the high profile release of this title, it should leave no room for question on what violence and old school justice is really about! This is PLANET GRIFFIN and THE BIG BUZZ WEEKEND EDITION.