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Art of Fighting

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Art of Fighting<tr><td colspan="2" style="font-size: 100%; text-align: center;">Ingame screenshot</td></tr>
Developer(s) SNK

<tr><th style="background-color: #ccccff;">Publisher(s)</th><td>SNK</td></tr>

Release date(s) 9-24-1992
Genre(s) Versus fighting
Mode(s) Up to 2 players simultaneously
Platform(s) Arcade, Neo Geo CD, PlayStation 2, Sega Mega Drive, SNES, TurboGrafx-16

<tr><th style="background-color: #ccccff;">Input</th><td>8-way Joystick, 4 Buttons</td></tr><tr><th style="background-color: #ccccff;">Arcade cabinet</th><td>Upright</td></tr><tr><th style="background-color: #ccccff;">Arcade system(s)</th><td>Neo-Geo (102 Mbit cartridge)</td></tr><tr><th style="background-color: #ccccff;">Arcade display</th><td>Raster, 304 x 224 pixels (Horizontal), 4096 colors</td></tr>

Art of Fighting (龍虎の拳 Ryūko no Ken?) is a fighting game series created by SNKnow-a-days it is known mostly as one one of the many SNK series that ties into The King of Fighters. Art of Fighting was SNK's second fighting game franchise, and somewhat of a risk after the poor commerical success of thier first Fatal Fury.

Contents

[edit] 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. 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 als used a gimmick where characters sprites become more bruised and cut as the fight progresses.

[edit] Plot

The games follow the struggles of the students of the Kyokugenryu Karate Dojo, Ryo Sakazaki and Robert Garcia, in what appears to the 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 ficticious area of Mexico.

The plot of Art Of Fighting connects with that of Fatal Fury, Art of Fighting 2, for instance, documents part of the rise of Geese Howard, from corrupt police commissioner to crime lord of Southtown and his first King Of Fighters tournament, by the time of Fatal Fury's stories Geese is crime lord and the KOF tournament is an annual event. Takuma is also said to be a contempory/peer of Jeff Bogard, father of Fatal Fury's main hero Terry Bogard, it is Jeff Bogard's murder at the hands of Geese Howard that triggers the events of the Fatal Fury series.

[edit] Continuity changes between AoF and KoF

On its own, the Art of Fighting series seems to take place in the 1978 - 1979, judging by the birthdates 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 adjusted the birthdates of the Art of Fighting characters (by not giving any of the characters' year of birth) to have the characters interact with each other without having to remake character sprites to account for age. But their histories remained the same and the events of at least Art of Fighting and Art of Fighting 3 seemed to have remained cannon 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 and could have taken place before that of Fatal Fury, the difference is that the gap has been closed by over a decade, 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 apparently around the same age she was in AoF 3 giving the appearance that the story takes place in 1995/1996 in the King of Fighters time-line and after the events of Fatal Fury 1 & 2.

The biggest problem in terms of Art of Fighting events tying into King of Fighters is Art of Fighting 2, which theoretically cannot have happened due to the role of Geese Howard, and if it did, it could not have happened after Art of Fighting.

The involvement of King of Fighters: Maximum Impact further confused the continuity of the three series as it appeared to tie into the events of Art of Fighting and Fatal Fury instead of King of Fighters, it has been suggested that fans view the time-lines as separate universes with Art of Fighting, Fatal Fury and Garou (and possibly Maximum Impact) taking place in one, and King Of Fighters taking place in the other.

However, to accommodate the cast of Garou: Mark of the Wolves characters such as Terry Bogard are being aged to match the supposed timeframe of the Mark of the Wolves games (which is said to take place in the year 2006) and so for The King of Fighters series, a lot of the Art of Fighting characters are being slowly aged to match how they would look had the Art of Fighting timeline not been altered. An example of this is Ryo in Buriki One and him and Robert in Neo Geo Battle Coliseum (but both games' ties to the KOF cannon is questionable).

[edit] Games

[edit] Art of Fighting series

[edit] Art of Fighting (1992)

The first game, the story-line has Ryo Sakazaki and Robert Garcia setting out to find Ryo's kidnapped sister Yuri taken 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 (meaning "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 on a cliff-hanger with Yuri about to disclose the true identity of Karate (it is their father, Takuma). Only Ryo and Robert are playable in the 1-player story mode, though 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)

The game clearly draws it's inspiration from Street Fighter, with two characters using the same martial arts discipline facing street hoodlums and criminals (and both characters being able to perform a move very similar to the Haduken) the game differed by using incredibly large sprites and adding the Spirit system; a Special Attack Bar that would deplete and need to be re-charged, limiting the number and severity of special attacks. Also of note is that the two characters looked very different from one another where as Ryu and Ken Masters started out almost identical with the exception of colour.

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 the ending for the Art Of Fighting Team's ending.

[edit] Art of Fighting 2 (1994)

Released after the incredible success of Street Fighter II, which had by now become the blueprint for fighting games, a blueprint still basically adhered to today and one that Art Of Fighting 2 adhered to then, making it seem more what someone today would expect a fighting game to be like where a player chooses any character from the roster and can play through a simple arcade mode and fight a hidden/unplayable boss. The game added 'the rage gauge', working similar to spirit system of it's predecessor it was a special attack gauge that had to charged, and limited the use and effectiveness of special attacks (Psychic Attacks).

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

Art Of Fighting 2 was the first and only time Yuri Sakazaki was a playable character in the series, and the only time in the series she wore her now trademark outfit and looked how she is does in King of Fighters.

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

Mostly forgotten Art Of Fighting 3 (Ryuuko no Ken Gaiden in Japan) featured a whole 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, while the similarities are undeniable, Street Fighter III was not released until the following year.

The story switched focus from the Sakazaki's to Robert Garcia and the game's plot was based around him disappearing to search for an old childhood friend Freia Lawrence, tracking her to a GlassHill, Mexico. Freia is wanted by the game's boss character Wyler to complete a potion for a power Elixer drug created by his and Freia's fathers some years ago, that has a Dr Jeckyll & Mr Hyde effect on it's users.

Most of the game's characters have become largely forgotten, with the one exception of Kasumi Todoh who has become a part of the King of Fighters cast.

[edit] Ports

All 3 games were released for the MVS Arcade System, Neo Geo Home System, as well as Neo Geo CD. No version of AOF exists for the Neo Geo Pocket.

[edit] Related titles

[edit] Characters

[edit] Characters From Fatal Fury

[edit] 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)

[edit] Other characters

[edit] Trivia

In order to meet Wikipedia's quality standards, this article's trivia section requires cleanup.
Content in the trivia section should be integrated into other appropriate areas of the article.
  • 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.

[edit] External links

Official sites
General resources
Art of Fighting
Characters
Eiji Kisaragi - Geese Howard - Kasumi Todoh - King - Mr. Big - Mr. Karate - Robert Garcia - Ryo Sakazaki - Ryuhaku Todoh - Yuri Sakazaki - Jack Turner - Lee Pai Long - Jin Fuha - Mickey Rogers - John Crawley - Karman Cole - Roddy Birts - Lenny Creston - Wang Koh San - Wyler
de:Art of Fighting

es:Art of Fighting fr:Art of Fighting it:Art of Fighting ja:龍虎の拳 pt:Art of Fighting

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