Fist of the North Star is well remembered by many Aussie teens as one of the first good manga movies you could get hold of in Australian video stores. Along with the likes of Akira and Ninja Scroll it was a popular hire. It's a pretty crazy film too, set in a bombed out nuclear world where the seas have dried up, it follows Kenshiro, a martial arts master of the Hokuto Shinken style as he tries to rescue his girlfriend Yuria from first his rival Shin the Fist of the South Star and then his nasty adopted brother Raoh. Think Mad Max mixed with Dragon Ball Z, only extremely gory. Kenshiro's pressure point technique often causes his opponents internal organs to explode in geysers of blood.

Well Koei have picked up the franchise and are applying their patented game engine to create Fist of the North Star Musou. It seems a good fit as Kenshiro's skill is supposed to allow him to defeat dozens of enemies as once and Koei can definitely deliver that. It should be noted though that all Koei's games are blood free and feature no gore at all, despite the fact thousands of people die on screen. Whereas Fist of the North Star frequently has peoples heads exploding and vomiting up blood before bursting like balloons. But of couse the company isn't just Koei, they're Tecmo Koei now, as in Ninja Gaiden Tecmo, so we can expect a bit of blood here and there.

Check the screenshots after the jump for a better idea of the games look, two and the one above are rendered cut scenes and two are gameplay. No release date yet but expect sometime in 2010.

Gameplay screens look pretty good, a lot better than the last Dynasty Warriors

Expect blood by the buckets, although it will probably fly far enough under the radar the OFLC won't notice it like Ninja Gaiden 2

Ken would have kicked your super seiyan ass

Not sure if the wailing love interest girl had purple hair or not in the game, this might be her