Earlier this week, we got the full lineup unveiling for both Evo 2026 and Evo Japan 2026.
The lineups share 9 games each, with 3 unique ones where Evo in Las Vegas will have BlazBlue: Central Fiction, Invincible VS and Rivals of Aether 2 as their exclusive games. Evo Japan on the other hand will be showcasing King of Fighters 15, Melty Blood Type Lumina and one of the most wild fighting games ever made… Hokuto no Ken.
Hokuto no Ken, known in the West as Fist of the North Star, is one of the most iconic and famous manga and anime series from Japan and is heavily focused on burly, muscled men beating each other up and making weaker enemies explode with the mere touch of their finger.
Funnily enough, the Arc System Works-developed fighting game which released in arcades in 2005 and for the PlayStation 2 in 2007 is … in some ways the exact same as the source material, in the sense that if you get touched once you are very likely dying.
Contrary to the source material, however, it most definitely will not be happening quickly.
Filled with brutal combos that can kill you off of just one hit, the game is so loaded with firepower that according to the writeup on Super Combo, every single character is equipped with a 100% combo, though most of them aren’t infinites.
For a preview of the kind of madness you’ll be seeing on the main stage of Evo Japan 2026, here’s a video from Kawa showcasing the “Dribble” combo with my personal favorite character, Rei.
As you can see in the video, the combo at some point devolves to a hypnotic rhythm of hitting the buttons. As one of the YouTube comments puts it, “whereas combos in other games usually cost meter, Hokuto no Ken combos cost patience” — a very apt description.
To be frank, this game is absolutely absurd in the type of combos you can open up from just one interaction and it’s not uncommon to see combos not even kill the opponent because they simply take too long and will instead lead to a timeout where your opponent never really got to do anything.
Here’s a video from AnimEVO 2017 uploaded by Desguito which gives you a preview of what kind of nonsense you may end up seeing, all the way from top 8 player Heartia taking pictures with staff while being combo’d by their opponent Kain, to Taitsu discovering the ideal usage area for a fidget spinner (hey, they were a thing back in 2017) during his match against Setsuo.
Seeing the Japanese players who have practiced this game ever since it came out 20 years ago on the big stage is going to be a blessing in itself, and I am more than ready for it.