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Revision as of 23:50, 16 February 2007

Art of Fighting
Ingame screenshot
Developer(s)SNK
Publisher(s)SNK
Platform(s)Arcade, Neo Geo CD, PlayStation 2, Sega Mega Drive, SNES, TurboGrafx-16
Release9-24-1992
Genre(s)Versus fighting
Mode(s)Up to 2 players simultaneously
Arcade systemNeo-Geo (102 Mbit cartridge)

Art of Fighting (龍虎の拳, Ryūko no Ken, lit. "Fist of the Dragon and the Tiger") (AoF) is a fighting game series created by SNK. It is one of the many SNK series that ties into The King of Fighters. Art of Fighting was SNK's second fighting game franchise; Fatal Fury was the company's first.

Gameplay

Art of Fighting was the first fighting game with a "super bar" , and introduced the "spirit gauge" and "desperation move" (the equivalent of super moves, often used with SNK fighting games) into the fighting game vernacular.[citation needed] A spirit gauge is a manually charged super combo gauge where all special moves will utilize and drain, with greater amounts of power dealing greater amounts of damage.

The game also introduced camera zooming into a fighting game, so as the characters move away from each other, the camera will zoom out to keep both players on the screen. This affected the gameplay because the left and right side of the screen does not act as moving invisible boundaries anymore (as in Street Fighter II); the stages' boundaries are the only boundaries in the game. Art of Fighting also used a gimmick where characters sprites become more bruised and cut as the fight progresses.

Plot

The games follow the struggles of the students of the Kyokugenryu Karate Dojo, Ryo Sakazaki, and Robert Garcia, in what appears to be the late seventies. Ryo is the son of the Kyokugenryu Karate discipline’s creator, Takuma Sakazaki, and Robert is the wayward son of a billionaire family from Italy. The initial two titles are set in Southtown, a common location in SNK games that is also the setting for the Fatal Fury series, while the third appears to take place in a fictitious area of Mexico.

The plot of Art of Fighting alludes to Fatal Fury. Art of Fighting 2, for instance, documents the rise of Geese Howard, a character in Fatal Fury, from corrupt police commissioner to crime lord of Southtown. Takuma is said to be a contemporary of Jeff Bogard, father of Fatal Fury's main hero, Terry Bogard; Jeff Bogard's murder at the hands of Geese Howard triggers the events of the Fatal Fury series.

Continuity changes between AoF and King of Fighters

The Art of Fighting series seems to take place in the late 1970s, judging by the birth dates of its characters (Ryo's AoF year of birth is 1957). When SNK brought the characters from its many games together for the King of Fighters series, they deliberately left out the birth dates of the Art of Fighting characters to have the characters interact with each other without having to redesign the characters to account for age. However, their histories remained the same and the events of at least Art of Fighting and Art of Fighting 3 seemed to have remained canon for The King of Fighters series, this has caused some confusion.

Art Of Fighting appears to have taken place before the events of King Of Fighters '94. King of Fighters '96 is the first game to tie into Art of Fighting 3; Robert Garcia appears in his costume from that series and Kasumi Todoh is added to the Women's Fighters team; this seems to indicate that the story takes place in the King of Fighters timeline, after the events of Fatal Fury 1 and 2.

Games

Art of Fighting (1992)

In the first game, Ryo Sakazaki and Robert Garcia set out to find Ryo's sister, Yuri, who has been kidnapped by Mr. Big. Mr. Big has taken the girl to entice Takuma Sakazaki, Ryo's father and originator of the fictional form of karate known as Kyokugenryu Karate ("Extreme style"), and because Ryo refused to work for Big. After they defeat Mr. Big, Ryo and Robert face the enigmatic Mr. Karate. Art of Fighting's story ends with a cliff-hanger; Yuri is about to disclose the true identity of Mr. Karate as their father, Takuma.

Only Ryo and Robert are playable in the 1-player story mode, although eight of the characters are playable in the 2-player vs. modes (Mr. Big and Mr. Karate can be played via the use of cheat codes).

Art of Fighting's events are referenced often in the wider SNK universe; King Of Fighters '97 for instance, parodies the events of the game in its ending.

Art of Fighting 2 (1994)

Art of Fighting 2 was released after the incredible success of Street Fighter II, which had by then become the blueprint for fighting games. The second installment in the AoF series added the "rage gauge"; similar to the "spirit system" of its predecessor, it limited the use and effectiveness of special attacks.

The game's story is set a year after the original. Geese Howard, a corrupt police commissioner and rising star in Southtown's criminal underworld, calls fighters to the city for a new tournament, "The King Of Fighters". Howard was the final boss and series villain of SNK's other fighting game franchise, Fatal Fury, whose story took place over a decade after the events of Art of Fighting.

Art of Fighting 2 was the only time Yuri Sakazaki was a playable character in the series. It also marked the only time that she donned her trademark outfit, which was made famous in King of Fighters.

Art of Fighting 3: The Path of the Warrior (1996)

The mostly forgotten Art Of Fighting 3 (Ryūko no Ken Gaiden in Japan) featured a new cast of characters, with the exception of Ryo and Robert. Because of this and the game's fluid animations and high quality graphics, comparisons are often drawn between it and Capcom's Street Fighter III, which was released the following year.

The story switched focus from the Sakazaki's to Robert Garcia. Garcia disappears to search for an old childhood friend, Freia Lawrence, and he tracks her to GlassHill, Mexico. Freia is wanted by the game's boss character, Wyler, to complete a powerful elixer that was created by his and Freia's fathers. The drug affects users in a similar manner as the potion in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

One of the game's characters, Kasumi Todoh, became a part of the King of Fighters cast.

Ports

All three games were released for the MVS Arcade System, Neo Geo Home System, and Neo Geo CD. No version of AoF exists for the Neo Geo Pocket.

Characters

Characters From Fatal Fury

Characters appearing outside this series

These include characters that have appeared in The King of Fighters as well as the SNK vs. series.

also known as Mr. Karate (ミスター・カラテ)

Other characters

Trivia

  • Finish Hiroshi, the planner of Street Fighter 1, is one of the directors/producers in this series. [1] [2] [3]
  • The producer of Art of Fighting 3, Takashi Nishiyama is the person who directed Street Fighter 1 (credited as "Piston Takashi" in that game). [4] [5] [6] [7]
  • In the English version of Art of Fighting, the Haoh Shohkoh-Ken is known as the Haow-Ken.
  • If the last hit against King is a special move, her shirt will get ripped off, revealing her bra. This also happens to Yuri in Art of Fighting 2. This behavior is mirrored for both characters in the first two games in The King of Fighters series.
  • The first Art of Fighting ends in a cliffhanger and Mr. Karate's identity as Takuma would not be revealed until the intro of the next game. However, the Super NES port of this game's ending reveals this detail, as well as some sequences not present in other versions.
  • All projectile moves can be thrown faster or slower depending on the speed you enter the joystick command followed by the button.
  • All characters can diffuse a thrown projectile if it is punched/kicked at the foremost tip.

References

Official sites
General resources
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