Play Hokuto no Ken 7 - Seiken Retsuden Denshousha heno Michi Online

Ever wanted to punch a guy so hard his head explodes in pixelated glory? Hokuto no Ken 7 on SNES lets you do exactly that—and somehow wraps it in an RPG shell where you wander a wasteland recruiting punch-happy weirdos to your cause. At first glance it feels like a standard fighter, but then you realize you're managing stats, picking which martial arts moves to upgrade, and occasionally stopping to train in the desert like some kind of post-apocalyptic gym rat.

The real joy comes when you finally nail those ridiculous Hokuto Shinken combos—timing a button press just right to make some poor bandit's skeleton light up before he crumples. It's janky in that classic SNES way (good luck figuring out some mechanics without trial and error), but there's something weirdly satisfying about building your own team of wasteland warriors. Just don't expect it to hold your hand—half the fun is accidentally discovering how to trigger those dramatic finishers while button-mashing in desperation.

It never got the attention of bigger Fist of the North Star games, but if you like your 16-bit violence with a side of bizarre RPG quirks, this one's worth dusting off.