Did you enjoy the first Fist of the North Star game from Tecmo Koei? The whole Dynasty Warriors schtick recycled for the popular violent anime brand may or may not have worked to the liking of fans, but reviewers hated the original game and they seem to hate the sequel in equal measure.

The game is roughly about a secret martial art that enables the user to explode body parts on the target, and it's set within a dystopian cyberpunk future where various characters are vying for power, knowledge or complete control of what's left of civilization. Players will hop into the role of one of many different main characters from the Fist of the North Star manga and beat the royal crap out of all the wasteland gangs and bosses that were prominently featured throughout the violent story of heroism and vengeance.

Well, pleasantries aside, Fist of the North Star: Ken's Rage 2 sucks royal cajones, according to the review scores. Jim Sterling's review of the game from Destructoid sums up most of it with this comment here, where he states...”Many of the boss encounters from Ken's Rage are regurgitated here, but with features seemingly removed.” Replace the word “boss” with anything game related and that's pretty much what the review repeats throughout until it nails a 3.5 out of 10 into the coffin.

The Koalition's review isn't any nicer than Sterling, saying that the sequel is a “bloody mess of a game” and it “fails to surpass the bar set by the previous entry in the series.” Koalition also rags pretty bad on the game's graphics, noting dated and “murky” visuals stripping away from the game's presentation. Koalition ended up giving the game a 40 out of 100, noting that the game's boring level designs and easy-enemy encounters made the game feel too much like a Dynasty Warriors clone and not enough like Fist of the North Star.

CheatCC does a better job than other reviews of breaking down what works and what doesn't regarding the story, noting that Omega Force attempts to retell a better version of the same story from the first game but makes the mistake of ruining the game's pace by interweaving too many images and breakpoints in the action, creating an inconsistent flow between the cinematics and the gameplay. They also make a noticeable point that by removing the jump button the game ultimately loses tons of flavor in level design as platforming is completely taken out. In other words, levels are more samey and there's less gameplay variety...if you're up for less gameplay variety. CheatCC ended up giving the game a 2.5 out of 5. Ouch.

Hardcore Gamer just kind of reiterates what ever other review states, noting the repetitiveness of the game's levels and gameplay, noting that “make no mistake, players will see plenty of the same stuff time and time again.” This is in regards to both the visual aesthetics and the gameplay mechanics, which isn't a good thign at all. Much like CheatCC, Hardcore Gamer employs a measure of praise towards Koei for ramping up the combos and versatility of the moves, but notes that it's still very limited and it isn't long before you're trudging through levels looking at the same moves on the same bad guys “time and time again”. They rounded out their score with 2.5 out of 5.

Overall, it seems the recurring theme throughout the reviews was that the game could have been fun had it not been so repetitive. The comments about the story cinematics ruining the game's pace seem plausible and outdated graphics is basically something that's up to the eye of the beholder, unless we're talking about Minecratf.

I guess next time Koei should send some Doritos and Mountain Dew to Geoff Keighley, Jim Sterling and the guys and gals at CheatCC and Hardcore Gamer if they want some better coverage.

Fist of the North Star: Ken's Rage 2 is currently available for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

A new trailer for Fist of the North Star: Ken's Rage 2 has been released featuring the main protagonist, Kenshiro, doing what he does best and unleashing all sorts of bloody carnage on some post-apocalyptic, wasteland gangs. You can see him let loose a barrage of combos and finishers with the short but sweet trailer.

Tecmo Koei has been unveiling various trailers leading up to the release of the thousand-army beat-e'm-up based on the widely popular Japanese anime, Fist of the North Star.

While the original game didn't fare very well in the review department, the game itself managed its own cult following, much like the anime it's based on.

If we're judging the game on the merits of gameplay and presentation, I must say that I'm actually impressed with what Tecmo Koei has in store for Fist of the North Star: Ken's Rage 2. The combos look righteous, the gore is intact, there's a bevy selection of playable characters and anytime you want to unleash some forbidden martial arts madness on some vile wasteland punks then the game seems to offer up that opportunity in spades.

Tecmo Koei has an early 2013 launch planned for the North American release of the game for the Xbox 360 and PS3. A Wii U version of the game is also in the works and will release shortly thereafter.

You can learn more by visiting the official Facebook page.

Do you really want to play Fist of the North Star: Ken's Rage 2? Well, Tecmo Koei has made it easy for gamers to unleash their forbidden martial arts skills by letting a playable demo loose on the Live Marketplace and PlayStation Network...the only downside is that you'll need to login using a Japanese region account to gain access to the demo.

As reported by Siliconera, if you login from the Japanese region you can grab a demo of the game that makes it cool and dangerous to point fingers and touch people. Speaking of which, I'd imagine the Fist of the North Star group would do pretty well in a zombie apocalypse...probably the only group you would feel safer around using their bare hands to fight zombies.

Anyway, to sweeten the deal Tecmo Koei is letting some DLC costumes go for free for a limited time, eight costumes in total from the original Fist of the North Star game. At the end of December there will also be crossover costume content made available for download with the release of the game in Japan.

No need to worry about getting your hands on the game, though, if you live outside of Japan. North Americans will be able to get their hands on the game starting in early February, 2013 for the Xbox 360 and PS3. The Wii U version is planned to launch in Japan in January, so we can imagine that the Stateside version for the Wii U will follow sometime after the Xbox 360 and PS3 launch.

For those of you who did not quite get your fill of planet-sized swords, dudes with six arms and punching gods in the face with the first Fist of the North Star game, you’re in luck! Tecmo Koei has today announced a Feb. 5 U.S. release date for the upcoming action title, complete with a brand-spanking-new trailer of epicness.

So, it looks like our severely pissed off protagonist did not, in fact, kill everything in the universe at the conclusion of Fist of the North Star: Ken’s Rage. And with more things to beat the stuffing out of, you better believe that means there’s room for another game featuring Ken and his seemingly limitless amount of rage. Enter: Fist of the North Star: Ken’s Rage 2.

While Ken’s Rage 2 is currently a “working title,” this latest trailer at least guarantees that the new game will be just as street-rat-crazy as its predecessor. It was kind of hard to tell through all of that dramatic blur and blood, but I’m pretty sure I saw a guy getting stabbed with a few spears, another guy punching someone like a jackhammer, and a bunch of other cool-as-hell Fist of the North Star-style violence.

Fist of the North Star: Ken’s Still Pretty Pissed (my own working title for the game) is set to hit the U.S. on Feb. 5. It’s coming to Xbox 360 on disc and will be available on the PlayStation Network for the PS3. A Wii U version will follow sometime further down the line.

Tecmo Koei tossed out a handful of new trailers for the upcoming Fist of the North Star: Ken's Rage 2, which is set for release at the end of December for the Xbox 360 and PS3 and a late January release in 2013 for the Wii U.

STFU and Play took hold of the media blowout that Tecmo let loose, which not only comes full of awesome gameplay, but there's tons of info and details laid out for the characters, the game modes, multiplayer and more. You can check out the new promo trailer below.

The part where Ken rattles his fists like maracas and ends with a finger point that undoubtedly resulted in brains exploding into the atmosphere was freaking epic.

The game seems to take on the thousand-army beat e'm up approach made famous by other Tecmo Koei games, such as the Dynasty Warriors and Warriors Orochi franchises. I guess it makes sense given the way the fighters behave in the Fist of the North Star series, but I'm pretty sure that they could probably garner slightly more appeal if they took an Asura's Wrath (minus the $6.99 DLC ending) approach and had a more anime-style fighting feature implemented.

If you're a fan of Fist of the North Star, you can look to import Ken's Rage 2 at the end of December, but it probably won't get to you in time for Christmas. Wii U owners will have to wait until late January before being able to get their hands on the title.