Fist of the North Star is a side-scrolling action video game produced by Toei Animation and developed by Shouei System for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). It was first released in Japan under the title Hokuto no Ken 2, on April 17, 1987, being the second Hokuto no Ken video game released for the Family Computer (Famicom) by the anime production company (which briefly entered the video game publishing business after their success with the original Hokuto no Ken game for the Famicom in 1986), while also serving as a tie-in to the Hokuto no Ken 2 anime series which began airing on Fuji TV a few weeks earlier. Taxan published the localized NES version on April 1989, making it one of the earliest Fist of the North Star products released in the U.S. alongside Viz Communications' English adaptation of the manga. The main differences from the Japanese version are: - The Japanese version is harder because projectiles are randomly thrown at you from the sides of the screen like in the previous game and the first two mini-bosses have to be hit in their heads. - Kenshiro's color was changed from black to blue. - The "abeshi" and "hidebu" power-ups were changed to white and black stars. - The NPCs that appear at the end of some stages were removed for the US version. - In the Japanese version, when you use a continue you are dropped in Stage 4. In the US version, you continue from the stage you were on.