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Art of Fighting
North American Neo Geo AES cover art
Genre(s)	Fighting
Developer(s)	SNK
Publisher(s)	SNK
Creator(s)	Hiroshi Matsumoto
Platform(s)	Arcade, Neo Geo AES, Neo-Geo CD, SNES, Mega Drive/Genesis, PC Engine CD, PlayStation 2
First release	Art of Fighting 1992
Latest release	Art of Fighting Anthology 2007

Art of Fighting (Japanese: 龍虎の拳, Hepburn: Ryūko no Ken, lit. "Dragon & Tiger Punch") is a fighting game series originally released for the Neo Geo platform in the early 1990s. It is the second fighting game franchise created by SNK, following the Fatal Fury series, and is set in the same fictional universe. The original Art of Fighting was released in 1992, followed by two sequels: Art of Fighting 2 in 1994 and Art of Fighting 3: The Path of the Warrior in 1996. A new Art of Fighting game is currently in development.

Games

Art of Fighting (1992)

Taking place in 1978, 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 Kyokugen 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.

Ryo and Robert are the only playable heroes in the single player story mode, although eight of the game's ten fighters are playable by default in the two player versus mode. Mr. Big and Mr. Karate can be played in the Neo Geo MVS (arcade) version by reaching their respective stages in the game then having a second player join in, and in the Neo Geo AES (console) version through the use of cheat codes.

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

In the United States, the RePlay arcade charts listed Art of Fighting as the top-grossing software conversion kit in December 1992.

A Sharp X68000 version of Art of Fighting was in development by Magical Company but it went unreleased for unknown reasons.

Art of Fighting 2 (1994)

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

Art of Fighting 3: The Path of the Warrior was the first game in the series (and the first SNK fighting game) to use motion capture for its animation, often being noted as some of the best sprite-work SNK has produced. It features a new cast of characters with the exception of Ryo and Robert. Yuri Sakazaki is seen in the game, but only as a side character in Ryo and Robert's story mode. The story switched focus from the Sakazakis to Robert Garcia. Robert disappears to search for an old childhood friend, Freia Lawrence, and he tracks her to Glasshill Valley, Mexico. Freia is wanted by the game's main antagonist, Wyler, to complete a powerful elixir that was created by his and Freia's fathers.

Upcoming Art of Fighting game

The King of Fighters game designer Toyohisa Tanabe wanted to worked on a new Art of Fighting after playing its third installment with The King of Fighters '96 engine but was not given permission.

At Evo 2024, following similar revivals of the Samurai Shodown and Fatal Fury series, SNK announced they were developing a new entry in the Art of Fighting series, marking the series' first new entry in nearly 30 years.

Ports and compilations

The original trilogy were all released for the Neo Geo MVS arcade system, Neo Geo AES home console, and Neo Geo CD. Art of Fighting was ported to the PC Engine CD, SNES, and Sega Genesis/Mega Drive, while Art of Fighting 2 was also ported to Super Famicom. Many of these ports made minor changes to the gameplay, story, or graphics.

The Neo Geo trilogy was compiled in Art of Fighting Anthology (龍虎の拳 ～天・地・人～, Ryuuko no Ken Tenchijin) for the PlayStation 2, while the original game was also included as part of SNK Arcade Classics Vol. 1 and the NEOGEO Station service. The trilogy has also been digitally re-released via the Wii Virtual Console and the ACA Neo Geo series.

Gameplay

The Art of Fighting series follows the conventions of the time in the sense that the player faces a variety of opponents in best two-out-of-three matches. Each of the game's characters have a unique fighting style and set of special techniques. The player has two basic attacks—punch and kick—as well as a utility button that switches between punches, kicks, and throws. A fourth button is used for taunting. Art of Fighting's contribution to the genre was the inclusion of a "spirit gauge" underneath the character's life bar. When characters perform special techniques, their spirit gauge is depleted and their special attacks become weaker. Players can also drain their opponent's spirit gauge by taunting them.

The Art of Fighting series was also the first fighting series to allow players to perform a "super attack". In the original Art of Fighting, the player's character can learn a super attack (dubbed the super death blow) by completing one of the game's bonus rounds (this technique is available by default in the 3rd game). All three games also feature "Desperation Attacks" that can only be performed when the player's health is low and the life bar is flashing.

The series also introduced graphical scaling into the fighting game genre: as the characters move towards each other, the camera zooms in to maximize the level of detail. Character sprites in Art of Fighting change as the fight progresses to become more bruised and cut as damage is taken.

Plot

The Art of Fighting series serves as a prequel to the Fatal Fury series, with the three games taking place between 1978 and 1980, over a decade before the events of Fatal Fury: King of Fighters. The initial two games are set in South Town, the same setting as the Fatal Fury series, while the third takes place in the fictional Mexican town of Glasshill Valley.

Many characters from both Art of Fighting and Fatal Fury appear in The King of Fighters series, which is set in its own universe that ignores the continuity established in the Art of Fighting and Fatal Fury games so that the characters from both series could battle without having to age any of them.

Reception and cultural impact

Yuri has been well received by Japanese gamers, having been voted as the 19th favorite character in the 1997 character popularity poll on Neo Geo Freak's website. In 1995, Japanese magazine Gamest ranked her as number seven in the list of the top characters of 1994. In 2018, Yuri was voted as the tenth most popular Neo Geo character. Tiago O. Frosi from Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul regarded Yuri as one of the most impactful female characters in fighting game history due to how she initially debuts as a damsel in distress only to become a playable character both in the sequel and SNK's crossover video games. She was compared with Street Fighter character Sakura Kasugano for having similar archetypes as well as an imitated fighting style from veteran fighters.

Gavin Jasper of Den of Geek described her as adding to her family's "wonderful comedic existence", but felt she was more at place there than in King of Fighters as part of the Women's Team. He added "She's not quite Sakura and she's not quite Dan Hibiki, but she's fine for what she is," and praised her departure from a damsel in distress to a full character as the games progressed.

In other media

Video games

Some of the Art of Fighting cast have continued appearing in other SNK fighting games since the last game in the Art of Fighting series was released. In the same way that Geese Howard appears as a secret boss in Art of Fighting 2, Ryo Sakazaki appears as a secret boss in Fatal Fury Special and Fatal Fury: Wild Ambition. Unlike the battle against Geese in Art of Fighting 2, the battles against Ryo in both games are depicted as "dream matches" and are not canon to either series' storyline.

As a result of these crossover appearances between the two franchises, SNK produced The King of Fighters series, pitting characters from both series against each other. The series eschews the continuity of the Art of Fighting and Fatal Fury games for the purpose of having the Art of Fighting cast fight against everyone else without aging them. Ryo, Robert, Yuri, and King were introduced in the first installment and have appeared in nearly every entry, with Takuma and Kasumi frequently appearing as well. Eiji and Mr. Big also appear as playable characters in specific entries.

Characters from the series have also appeared in the SNK vs. Capcom series and in NeoGeo Battle Coliseum. Capcom's Capcom vs. SNK: Millennium Fight 2000 features Ryo, Yuri, and King while Capcom vs. SNK 2 adds Ryuhaku Todoh to the lineup. SNK vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos features Ryo, Kasumi, and Takuma under his Mr. Karate guise. NeoGeo Battle Coliseum features Lee Pai Long, Mr. Big and an aged Robert Garcia along with the older Ryo Sakazaki from Buriki One. In KOF: Maximum Impact 2, Ryuhaku Todoh drives the truck in one of the extra games.

The Street Fighter character Dan Hibiki is a parody of Ryo Sakazaki and Robert Garcia.

In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, some elements from the Art of Fighting series appear as downloadable content; specifically, two music tracks from the series appear (and can be played on the King of Fighters Stadium stage), Ryo Sakazaki makes three cameos in the game (as a background character in King of Fighters Stadium, as a spirit, and as the basis for a Mii costume), and Yuri Sakazaki and King both have background cameos in King of Fighters Stadium.

Film

A Japanese animated television film, Art of Fighting (バトルスピリッツ 龍虎の拳, Battle Spirits Ryūko no Ken), was created and directed by Hiroshi Fukutomi, animated by Studio Comet and produced by NAS. It was the third animated co-production between SNK and NAS, following Fatal Fury: Legend of the Hungry Wolf and Fatal Fury 2: The New Battle. The special was produced by Kenji Shimizu and Yoshiro Kataoka, and features a script by Nobuaki Kishima and character designs by Kazunori Iwakura. The film follows follows Ryo and Robert, who must rescue Yuri from Mr. Big after he kidnaps her to learn the whereabouts of a valuable diamond. The film aired on Fuji TV on December 23, 1993, and received an English-language release from US Manga Corps in 1997.

The Art of Fighting film was negatively received by several western publications. It was billed as stupid, idiotic and plodding, and compared to a Saturday morning cartoon. It was said it had "choppy animation, illogical perspectives, uninspired art, badly choreographed fight scenes, and most of all horrible voice acting", and none of the interest of the video game or its sequels translate into the anime. The film gathered a 14% rating at Meta Anime Rviews, placing it in the bottom 3% of the reviewed titles.

The 2010 live-action film The King of Fighters features an appearance by Mr. Big, played by Sam Hargrave. He is the only character from the Art of Fighting series to appear in the film.

See also

• List of The King of Fighters characters
• Characters of the Fatal Fury series
• List of fighting games

References

1. Art of Fighting user's manual (Neo Geo AES, US)
2. "RePlay: The Players' Choice". RePlay. Vol. 18, no. 3. December 1992. p. 13.
3. "The Softouch – Software Information: 新作情報 -- 龍虎の拳". Oh!X (in Japanese). No. 143. SoftBank Creative. March 1994. p. 25.
4. "Ready Yourself for Motion-Captured SNK Action!". Maximum: The Video Game Magazine (5). Emap International Limited: 122. April 1996.
5. The King of Fighters: The Ultimate History. Bitmap Books. 2022. p. 501. ISBN 9781838019181.
6. Romano, Sal (20 July 2024). "New Art of Fighting game and Samurai Shodown action RPG in development". Gematsu. Retrieved 20 July 2024.
7. "International Outlook". Electronic Gaming Monthly. No. 53. EGM Media, LLC. December 1993. p. 86.
8. Gamest, ed. (1997). Gamest Game Hero Collection 1997; issue 208 (in Japanese). Shinseisha. p. 1.
9. Ishii, Zenji; Pigu (January 1995). "第８回 ゲーメスト大賞". Gamest Magazine (136): 40. Archived from the original on 4 March 2009. Retrieved 25 December 2008.
10. "NEOGEO mini（ネオジオミニ）発売記念 好きなキャラクター人気投票＆NEOGEO mini入ってほしかったゲームのアンケート結果を中間発表！ 1位はコイツで"オーケー！"" (in Japanese). Famitsu. July 5, 2018. Archived from the original on July 5, 2018. Retrieved July 29, 2018.
11. "As Rainhas da Luta: representações das mulheres karate-ka nos Jogos Digitais" (PDF). Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul. Retrieved 19 May 2023.
12. Jasper, Gavin (14 November 2016). "King of Fighters: Ranking All the Characters". Den of Geek. Archived from the original on 2 July 2018. Retrieved 4 September 2017.
13. ^ Review by Anime Jump Archived 4 December 2008 at the Wayback Machine
14. "Art of Fighting – Anime Review". Animeworld. 28 October 2018. Retrieved 6 December 2018.
15. Review by THEM Anime
16. Review by Anime on DVD Archived 7 June 2008 at the Wayback Machine
17. "Reviews at Animecritic". Archived from the original on 4 December 2008. Retrieved 16 January 2009.

External links

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• United States
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• Speculative fiction
• Martial arts
• 1990s

• Ryuko no Ken -Ten Chi Jin- at SNK Playmore
• Ryuko no Ken series at NBC Museum of SNK Playmore
• Art of Fighting at the Killer List of Videogames
• Art of Fighting 2 at the Killer List of Videogames
• Art of Fighting 3 at the Killer List of Videogames
• Art of Fighting (anime) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia

• 1993 anime films
• 1993 films
• ACA Neo Geo games
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• Central Park Media
• D4 Enterprise games
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• Fighting games by series
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• Saurus games
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