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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.
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.
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 Kenโs comparatively gory fighting style into Fatal Furyโs decidedly less grisly hand-to-hand combat.
Part of this problem necessitated finding a balance between Kenshiroโs status as a Bruce Lee-inspired martial artist and the use of his special technique, the Hokuto Shinken, which sees him press opponentsโ pressure points, causing them to explode seconds later. Itโs arguably the most iconic thing about the show, and despite how bloody it is, itโs something the team wanted to make sure they included in the game.
To fix this, they covered the character model of Kenโs opponents in a dark shadow against a deep red backdrop, where they then explode โ but no blood is directly shown, and everything is implied. That doesnโt stop it from being any less satisfying, though.
โAs you know, Kenshiroโs main fighting style uses channeling points on his opponents, and typically after he uses them, they explode in three seconds,โ Tamaki told us. โIt'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 couldnโt 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.โ
"Of course, we couldn't have our characters exploding on screen, so we had to balance accordingly."
Kenshiro Was a Perfect Fit for Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves
Kenshiro isnโt 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.
โThe First of the North Star series and the brand are quite popular in Japan,โ he began. โJust 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 causeโฆ it fits. So we just thought, โAlright, this is a great fit for our character. Everything aligns correctly, so we should go forward with developing the character, as well.โโ
โFighting games are a niche genre, for sure,โ Tamaki continued. โI 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, โHey, what's that? I want to try that out, I want to play that.โ 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.โ
โOur 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, โOh, actually this looks interesting, we want to try this.โ It might be bold, but really, this is our main priority, and we try to achieve that every time we release a new character.โ
The Kenshiro Hype Doesn't Mean a New Fist of the North Star Game is Coming from SNK
This is the latest fighting game Kenshiro has starred in following Arc System Works โ 2005 Fist of the North Star . Itโs 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 โ and while Tamaki admitted that it's something the team would love to do, itโs not a project the company is looking to pursue.
โOf course, some of the developers at SNK would love the chance to make a First of the North Star fighting game,โ he laughed. โAbsolutely. 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 weโll 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.โ
"The Art of Fighting's Story Isn't Finished Yet"
Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves is the most recent old-school SNK title to get a new game, following Samurai Shodown in 2019. That just leaves the Art of Fighting series without a new iteration, but fans should take heart โ Tamaki cautiously confirmed that a new AoF project is, indeed, in the works, but remained cagey as to what exactly that project entails.
โPreviously, SNK announced that we are working on something, though we can't go into the specifics of what the plan is,โ he said. โBut that news is out there, and yeah, we are happy to say that there is something that we are working on. The Art of Fightingโs story isnโt finished yet. Please stay tuned for more information.โ
At Evo 2026, SNK revealed The Path of the Warrior: Art of Fighting 3 R, an updated version of The Art of Fighting 3, which is set to release on Steam with rollback netcode, re-balanced gameplay, and two new characters on an as-yet unreleased date.
Virginia (she/her) is IGNโs News Editor. With ten years of experience reporting on games and entertainment, sheโs got a storied background in the fighting game community, influencer news, and viral online trends. Find her on Twitter at @TheeMissGlaze .
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