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SNK told us how they managed to pull off one of Kenshiro’s most iconic moves without sacrificing their Teen ESRB rating.<\/p>\n
Kenshiro is the latest guest character from an anime to make a splash in a mainline fighting game, punching his way into Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves this June.<\/p>\n
We got the chance to sit down with producer Shinya Tamaki and director Hayato Konya ahead of his release at Evo 2026, who explained the difficulties they faced in translating Hoktuo No Ken\u2019s comparatively gory fighting style into Fatal Fury\u2019s decidedly less grisly hand-to-hand combat.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\nPart of this problem necessitated finding a balance between Kenshiro\u2019s status as a Bruce Lee-inspired martial artist and the use of his special technique, the Hokuto Shinken, which sees him press opponents\u2019 pressure points, causing them to explode seconds later. It\u2019s arguably the most iconic thing about the show, and despite how bloody it is, it\u2019s something the team wanted to make sure they included in the game.<\/p>\n
To fix this, they covered the character model of Ken\u2019s opponents in a dark shadow against a deep red backdrop, where they then explode \u2014 but no blood is directly shown, and everything is implied. That doesn\u2019t stop it from being any less satisfying, though.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs you know, Kenshiro\u2019s main fighting style uses channeling points on his opponents, and typically after he uses them, they explode in three seconds,\u201d Tamaki told us. \u201cIt’s a very striking feature of the show. But he’s also a fighter, and for a fighting game, specifically, we wanted him to showcase both features. We wanted him to be a fighter and be able to use the channeling points as an actual gimmick. But of course, we couldn\u2019t have our characters exploding on screen, so we had to balance accordingly and make sure that it’s not too gory, but also have these parts that fans are expecting and want to see properly come to life in the gameplay.\u201d<\/p>\n
“Of course, we couldn’t have our characters exploding on screen, so we had to balance accordingly.”
\u201c<\/span><\/span><\/div>\nKenshiro Was a Perfect Fit for Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves<\/h2>\n Kenshiro isn\u2019t the wildest addition to City of the Wolves by far, following the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo and Salvatore Ganacci. Tamaki admitted that Kenshiro was an obvious choice for a DLC pick, given his popularity both in Japan and abroad. But apart from being a seriously cool guest character, slotting in a face from such a beloved anime was also a big marketing play from the folks at SNK to help appeal to a broader audience outside of the fighting game community.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe First of the North Star series and the brand are quite popular in Japan,\u201d he began. \u201cJust looking at that, and the fact that Kenshiro himself was also previously a fighting game character in another fighting game and how the overall aesthetic kind of fits with Fatal Fury, where it’s the Wolves fighting for their own cause\u2026 it fits. So we just thought, \u2018Alright, this is a great fit for our character. Everything aligns correctly, so we should go forward with developing the character, as well.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n\u201cFighting games are a niche genre, for sure,\u201d Tamaki continued. \u201cI think one of the biggest hurdles that we need to address is getting people that are not typically interested in the whole fighting game thing to actually turn around and say, \u2018Hey, what’s that? I want to try that out, I want to play that.\u2019 We want to get new faces, new people to touch these games, and I think this is one of the most popular ways to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOur main focus when choosing a new character to join the game is to give the current fans something fun to play with, but also something to get other people that previously would not be interested in the fighting game to give it a look and say, \u2018Oh, actually this looks interesting, we want to try this.\u2019 It might be bold, but really, this is our main priority, and we try to achieve that every time we release a new character.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\nThe Kenshiro Hype Doesn’t Mean a New Fist of the North Star Game is Coming from SNK<\/h2>\n This is the latest fighting game Kenshiro has starred in following Arc System Works\u2019 2005 Fist of the North Star. It\u2019s been over 20 years since then, and the game still boasts a dedicated playerbase of fans who occasionally go viral on social media by sharing absurd clips of the wildly unbalanced but equally fun fighter. Of course, we had to ask the good folks at SNK if they had any interest in creating a new fighting game centered around the iconic eighties anime \u2014 and while Tamaki admitted that it’s something the team would love to do, it\u2019s not a project the company is looking to pursue.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course, some of the developers at SNK would love the chance to make a First of the North Star fighting game,\u201d he laughed. \u201cAbsolutely. But this version of Kenshiro is actually not based on the old anime TV series. This is [based on] the new reboot series. So we were able to have a good synergy with that. We have a new show coming out, and we\u2019ll be in a good place to help support both [the game and the show]. The focus for this game is for the new character and his story, and we hope the fans enjoy that.\u201d <\/p>\n
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