Fist of the North Star (NES)

Hokuto no Ken 2 for the Famicom is yet another Spartan X-style beat-'em-up based on the manga. While not a particularly great game, it's a remarkable improvement over its predecessor, which is probably why Taxan chose to bring this over to the US as Fist of the North Star despite being based on a much later portion of a manga that was barely adapted to English at the time.

To do: More regional differences, such as the presence of kanji characters and NPCs in the Japanese version.

Hidden Message#

Like Hokuto no Ken, there is a bit of hidden text crediting the developers, this time at the end of the ROM:

PRG by Y.Saka & M.Yoshihara 
CHR by Ken.S & M.Higa

Y.Saka is a shortened name for Yasuhide Sakakura, M.Yoshihara is Masahiro Yoshihara, Ken.S is a shortened name for Kenichi Suzuki, and M.Higa is Makoto Higa, as shown in the game's ending credits.

Also, the soft-reset test in this game uses the following string:

MASAHIRO

Debug Leftovers#

Rather than just simple debug leftovers, there are actual disabled cheats still sitting in the code of both versions. Game Genie codes LEEKIAAA EEOPIAAA (Japan) or LEEKIAAA EEOPTAAA (US) will re-enable it.

At the title screen:

• Hold A and press Start to obtain a maximum power-up at the beginning of the game.
• Press Right a number of times the same as the desired level number, then hold B and press Start to begin from the selected level.

The game also contains a leftover Easter egg from the first game. A part of the function code to read the controls is shared between the two games, which should reverse controls for the second player. The code itself is working if you use the Famicom controller with microphone, counting shouts and even triggering, but since there is no 2-player mode at all in this game the code does nothing to the game itself.

Regional Differences#

Title Screen#

Japan	US

Ending#

In the Japanese version, a picture of Lui is shown during the bad ending credits. In the US version, only the credits are shown.

Japan	US

In the Japanese version, another ending music will be played in the bad ending screen. In the US version, due to a programming error, it was replaced by noise and could not play music properly.

Miscellaneous#

• The Japanese version is harder because projectiles are randomly thrown at you from the sides of the screen like in the previous game and the first two mini-bosses have to be hit in their heads.
• Kenshiro's color was changed from black to blue.
• The "abeshi" and "hidebu" power-ups were changed to white and black stars.
• The NPCs that appear at the end of some stages were removed for the US version.
• In the Japanese version, when you use a continue you are dropped in Stage 4. In the US version, you continue from the stage you were on.