Art of Fighting, known in Japan as is a 1992 fighting game developed and published by SNK for the Neo Geo MVS arcade system. It is the first game in the Art of Fighting series. It was eventually ported to the Neo Geo AES, Neo Geo CD, PC Engine CD-ROMò, Sega Genesis, and Super Nintendo Entertainment System. The game follows Kyokugenryu Karate users Ryo Sakazaki and Robert Garcia as they travel to fight criminals from South Town in order to find Ryo's missing sister Yuri. The game employs special moves and stronger Desperation Moves that can be performed strategically by filling the player's energy bar and removing enemies by taunting them.
The game originated from Hiroshi Matsumoto's desire to create his own fighting game while making high emphasis on the storytelling. The developers from SNK found the gameplay challenging for the first time a video game developed a Desperation Move and made notable emphasis of graphical damage.
The game went to become one of SNK's biggest hits from the early 1990s for its focus on fighting engine and storytelling. Art of Fighting introduced many concepts that have since become fighting game staples, including super gauge, super moves, taunts, dashes and screen scaling. This eventually led to connect it to other SNK franchises to in the form of crossovers with the Fatal Fury series among others which would form as the basis of The King of Fighters series from SNK. Despite its commercial success, critical response to the gameplay was negative, as many considered the game inferior to previously released games like Street Fighter II, also resulting in criticism from their similarities; nevertheless, the visuals were praised.
In 1978, the martial artist "Invincible Dragon" Ryo Sakazaki and his best friend Robert Garcia set out in search of Ryo's sister Yuri, who is being held hostage by the mob boss Mr. Big in South Town. After fighting several enemies with their Kyokugen Karate ("Extreme-style Karate") martial arts, Ryo and Robert defeat Mr. Big, who leads them to Yuri, who, in turn, is being held in captivity by an unknown assassin in a tengu mask. The assassin is defeated, but Yuri interrupts Ryo before he can finish him off; the story ends in a cliffhanger with Yuri about to reveal the masked man's identity.
In Art of Fighting, only Ryo and Robert are playable in the single-player mode; all others can only be used in the game's Vs. mode.
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. Ryo Sakazaki and Robert Garcia 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.
The player has two basic attacksâÂÂpunch and kickâÂÂas well as a utility button that switches between punches, kicks, and throws. A fourth button is used for taunting. Art of Fightings 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.
Shortly after the release of Street Fighter, a headhunter approached director Takashi Nishiyama and convinced him to leave Capcom and join nearby studio SNK. Nishiyama took planner Hiroshi Matsumoto and the majority of his team with him and abandoned the Street Fighter IP. In SNK, Matsumoto directed the fighting game Art of Fighting starring the leads Ryo Sakazaki and Robert Garcia who fight people in the city of South Town to rescue the missing Yuri Sakazaki. The cast were created by Matsumoto as an homage to the Capcom fighting games' characters. Whereas Ryo was modeled after American actor Patrick Swayze, Robert Garcia was based on the actors Steven Seagal and Andy Garcia, until his redesign in The King of Fighters XIV which used the image of Orlando Bloom. Matsumoto has stated that he felt he was appealing to people who did not usually play games by showing the story in the game instead of just media such as magazines and comics.
SNK staffer Youichiro Soeda called Ryo and Robert's debut unique compared to other SNK games, because the story was not centered on a fighting tournament, but on the duo's personal quest to rescue Yuri Sakazaki. The decision to zoom in as the characters got closer to each other was partially a marketing ploy to show off the detailed sprite work. In early development, the zoom-in was so extreme that characters were only visible from the knees up at the closest. Taunts and Desperation Moves were added to make the fighting system more strategic and show body damage to characters on-screen, respectively. Since the game primarily mainly men, the staff had problems deciding on a female fighter. This eventually resulted in the creation of King created to be strong as modeled after was the actress Grace Jones famous for the character May Day in the James Bond film A View to a Kill (1985). However, the final design was more andrdogynous almost llike a man. Meanwhile, the other female character, Yuri, was given a more fragile portrayal despite having the same voice as King. In charge of the art was Shinkiro, who has said he had no problems with designing Ryo because he himself had not been rich. Designing Robert Garcia, who was rich, caused him "trouble". Nobuyuki Kuroki said Art of Fighting was "action game at heart", fitting for a reboot that could emphasize more of its unique aspects, dreaming of creating such installment. He regarded Ryo as his favorite Art of Fighting character as he always used to play as him in the first game as a child. He considered his story unique by that time.
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 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.
In the United States, the RePlay arcade charts listed Art of Fighting as the top-grossing software conversion kit of December 1992. Critical response to the game has been negative when it came to the gameplay and positive to the visuals. Nintendo Life was negative to the game, considering it a poor game from SNK that could not compete with similar games like Street Fighter II, citing few playable characters, limited gameplay and a strong enemy AI despite still praising the graphics. GameSpot agreed, citing the visuals as one of the best on the Neo Geo, but pointed out that the "underlying gameplay is nearly devoid of soul." GameSpot specifically said this was due to the requirements needed to perform special moves, and called the game a Street Fighter "knock off". IGN was also negative, claiming the game lacked more innovations than just King's gender, and criticized the gameplay for being too simple. They cited that the previously released ' had the same negative problems involving only three playable characters, but lacks the innovation that Fatal Fury had, as two players could tag the enemy AI together that game, in contrast to Ryo and Robert, who fight alone. Nevertheless, like other reviewers, IGN cited the visuals as one of its few redeeming qualities.
A number of critics compared Ryo and Robert to Street Fighter protagonists Ryu and Ken Masters due to their physical appearance and techniques; however, their morales and bond were praised. Greg Kasavin of GameSpot regarded "Haohshokohken" move as one of the most influential fireball moves in fighting game history due to how strong Ryo's fire technique is, and how it would be notable in Capcom's later games like Marvel vs. Capcom.
Art of Fighting introduced many concepts that have since become fighting game staples, including super gauge, super moves, taunts, dashes and screen scaling. The sequel, Art of Fighting 2, incorporated Geese Howard due to his popularity in Fatal Fury and his younger look from the first original video animation as a hidden boss. Yasuyuki Oda reflected that both Art of Fighting and the other IP, Fatal Fury, seemed to appeal to fans of male-oriented series like Fist of the North Star and Dragon Ball. The inclusion of several macho fighters led to the dilemma of including more female characters, with Mai Shiranui standing out as SNK's first female fighter. With Mai's high popularity in Fatal Fury, SNK decided to include Yuri in Art of Fighting 2 as a playable character, which received a similar response. The scene of Ryo Sakazaki in the first Art of Fighting game where he is riding a motorbike in his fighting gi became an internet meme. Merchandise such as clothing based on it was developed. SNK artist Falcoon was caught on it by surprise when a friend showed him wearing a shirt featuring a meme. Bringing Ryo to Fatal Fury Special was considered a good idea by Yasuyuki Oda, who believed he fits the cast and how it revolutionized the idea of the crossover concept that would conceptualize The King of Fighters. However, keeping the inclusion under wraps proved problematic for SNK. Although the developers planned to keep the character's appearance a secret until the game's release, Ryo was announced on a huge screen at the Tokyo Game Show.
The character of Dan Hibiki from the Street Fighter series is deemed to be a parody of Ryo's similarities with Ryu and Ken, but his design is more like Robert's while he is showing mannerisms like those of Yuri Sakazaki. In humorous retaliation, Street Fighter II co-designer Akiman drew artwork of Street Fighters Sagat holding a defeated opponent by the head during the release of '. The defeated opponent wore an attire similar to Ryo's: an orange karate gi with a torn black shirt underneath and geta sandals like Ryo; but had long dark hair tied to a ponytail like Robert. These similarities are addressed in the crossover game ', with GameSpots Greg Kasavin stating that fans would appreciate the appearances and the interactions between Ryo, Dan, and Takuma.
A X68000 version of Art of Fighting was in development by Magical Company, but went unreleased for unknown reasons.