Black Belt

Description

Black Belt began life in Japan as Hokuto no Ken (北斗の拳), a licensed adaptation of the enormously popular manga and anime known internationally as Fist of the North Star. When exported overseas, the licence was removed and many character designs, names, story elements, and backgrounds were altered. While Japanese players controlled Kenshiro in a recreation of the anime, Western players instead controlled the original character Riki in a generic martial arts revenge story. Despite these changes, the underlying gameplay remained essentially identical.

The game contains six side-scrolling stages in which the protagonist fights continuous waves of enemies using punches, kicks, crouching attacks, and jumping strikes. Minor opponents approach from both directions and are dispatched in a single hit, while larger sub-bosses and end-of-stage bosses require specific attack patterns or weaknesses to be exploited. Health-restoring and temporary invincibility items occasionally pass overhead, rewarding players who can reach them with well-timed jumps. One element retained from the Japanese version is the exaggerated defeat animations, with many enemies bursting apart in a manner inspired directly by Fist of the North Star.

The large boss battles, colourful graphics, and fast action are appealing, but the ordinary stages are repetitive, limited in their variety. In retrospect, the game’s most interesting for two industry reasons. First as a localisation of Hokuto no Ken, making it one of the earliest examples of a Japanese licensed game being substantially altered for overseas audiences. Second it is one of the earliest published works of Yuji Naka, years before his involvement with Sonic the Hedgehog.