Hokuto no Ken (Master System)

For the Western versions, see Black Belt.

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Hokuto no Ken
System(s): Sega Master System, Virtual Console
Publisher: Sega Enterprises, Ltd. Sega Corporation
Developer: Sega R&D 2 M2
Distributor: Aaronix (TW)
Licensor: Buronson, Shueisha, Fuji TV, Tetsuo Hara, Toei Animation
Genre: Action
Number of players: 1-2 (alternating)
Release Date RRP Code JP 1986-07-20 ¥5,0005,000 G-1303 TW 19xx G-1303 JP ▼ 2008-02-26 600pts600

Hokuto no Ken (北斗の拳) is a beat-'em-up action game developed and published by Sega for the Sega Master System, based on the manga and anime series Hokuto no Ken.

Hokuto no Ken was reworked for a Western audience, with an entirely new set of graphics and a different soundtrack as Black Belt. The game received a sequel on the Sega Mega Drive, Hokuto no Ken: Shin Seikimatsu Kyuuseishu Densetsu, which was given the same treatment overseas and released as Last Battle.

Story

The martial artist Kenshiro (ケンシロウ) sets out to rescue his girlfriend Yuria (ユリア) from his rival Raoh (ラオウ).

Gameplay

The game is a single-plane beat-'em-up played on left-to-right side-scrolling stages. Kenshiro faces numerous underlings and minibosses before fighting a boss. Boss fights take place in separate, closed arenas with no scrolling and use larger sprites.

Kenshiro is moved with and and crouches with . He jumps with ; jumping from a crouch performs an extra high jump. He jumps down from platforms with . Kenshiro punches with and kicks with . Punches are faster but kicks have greater reach. Both can be done from a crouching position; kicks (but not punches) can be done from a jump.

Kenshiro has a health bar that diminishes as he takes damage from foes. He loses a life if he loses all of his health. He also loses a life if he runs out of time. The game ends if he loses all of his lives. The player receives an extra life at 100,000 and 300,000 points. Health and time are replenished at the beginning of each stage. A small amount of health is replenished from defeating ten common enemies and a larger amount of health is replenished from defeating a miniboss.

Items

	E
	Restores a portion of Kenshiro's health. This item appears if the Kenshiro performs an extra high jump when the timer reaches 80 seconds in Chapters 1, 3, and 4.
	P
	Temporarily makes Kenshiro invulnerable to damage. This item appears if the Kenshiro punches one of the dog-faced statues that appear in Chapters 2 and 5.

Chapters

	サザンクロスタウン
	ゴッドランド
	デビルリバーズ
	カサンドラの伝説
	聖帝十字陵
	The weak spot of the boss cycles between the head, chest, waist, and legs.
	拳王ラオウ
	The final hit on the boss must be a punch.

Production credits

• Programmer: Yuji Naka
• Enemy Graphics: Yuji Naka
• Sound: Katsuhiro Hayashi

Source:

Uncredited

Magazine articles

Main article: Hokuto no Ken (Master System)/Magazine articles.

Promotional material

File:HokutonoKen SMS JP TVAdvert.mp4

JP TV advert

File:HokutonoKen SMS JP TVAdvert.mp4

Physical scans

Sega Retro Average
Publication Score Source

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Based on 0 review

Sega Retro Average
Publication Version Score

	N/A
Based on 0 reviews

Hokuto no Ken (Master System)

Master System, JP
Cover
Cart Manual

Master System, TW
Cart

Technical information

ROM dump status

System	Hash	Size	Build Date	Source	Comments
?	CRC32 24f5fe8c MD5 ddd6b56e864a7dfd74a9e04bc4407f41 SHA-1 26c5da3ee48bc0f8fd3d20f9408e584242edcd9d	128kB		Cartridge (JP)
?	CRC32 c4ab363d MD5 6024c42162c64c922e722547c6f4995f SHA-1 a66f9373f75355855aac52fdc11d9ad887fd5556	128kB		Cartridge (TW)

External links

• Sega of Japan Virtual Console pages: Master System