Catalogue No. - T-20601G

As far as I know most of the games based on Hotoku No Ken are pretty bad. Probably the best one was the Mega Drive version which was changed to Last Battle for the western market but even that was pretty bad especially the western version. The Super Famicom 1 on 1 beat'em ups are the worst though. So I wasn't expecting much from this Saturn game. Fortunately I was pleasantly surprised. This Saturn version is probably best described as an interactive story. The whole game is presented as an actual anime and this is where Banpresto must be commended on their work. While most companies use FMV which normally looks bad on the Saturn, Banpresto have actually made the anime scenes using actual Saturn hardware. No FMV at all. The end result is very good with crisp cut scenes and no loading. The only downer is the animation is lacking a bit. Still, I've seen worse real animation with less frames of animation that this game.

So, Hotoku No Ken looks good but how does it play? Well as I said it's basically an interactive story. You watch the cut scenes and read the story until Ken comes across an enemy. Then it's on to the actual playing part. This part consists of a type of paper scissors stone themed game. You must stop the bar as it slides up the power meter then select a move which Ken will perform. After selecting all the moves you wish to perform you then must press the A button as fast as possible to build up your strength meter. Then you sit back and watch the battle against the enemy.

Hotoku No Ken can become boring if you can't understand the story so maybe this game is only really recommended to fans of the series or to those who can read Japanese