Last week SNK celebrated Art of Fighting's 30th anniversary. This particular fighter was first released for Neo Geo and arcades in September 1992. It helped pave the way for the genre and eventually got a second game (1994) and third game (1996).
SNK shared this special occasion by sharing a new drawing by SNK illustrator Tomohiro Nakata:
If you're at all interested in visiting Art of Fighting to celebrate its 30th anniversary, you can check it out via the Nintendo Switch eShop. It was made available in 2017 as part of Hamster's Arcade Archives collection.
In related news, SNK today announced characters from the Samurai Shodown game would be joining The King of Fighters XV as DLC characters. "Team Samurai" will be comprised of Haohmaru, Nakoruru and Darli Dagger (thanks, Gematsu).
Will you be revisiting Art of Fighting to celebrate its 30th? Would you like to see this series return in the future? Comment below.
Comments 16
That is friggin' bad "A"!!! Now go make Capcom vs SNK 3 in this style!!
Art of Fighting walked, so Fatal Fury could run, and KoF could fly.
Art of Fighting 2 also remains the most brutally, painfully difficult-to-the-point-of-being-unfun SNK game I've ever played 😅
The original Art of Fighting is a bit of a pain to play. Limited to 2 characters if playing single player, wreaks of Street Fighter knock-off, sprites are so large that it doesn’t leave much room to move around, also the cliffhanger ending is just laughably weak.
This article just made me want King of Fighters XIII all the more on Switch.
Art of Fighting is such a weird series where its both ignored and celebrated constantly by SNK. Hasn't had a new entry in who knows how long but they're always a constant in KOF and perhaps some of the biggest characters in that series (its hard to find anyone into fighting games who doesn't know Ryo Sakazaki). If Fatal Fury/Garou can get an all-new entry 20 years after the last though, anything's possible I suppose.
@CharlieGirl I got AoF 2 on the Switch and even on the easiest setting I can only make it through a few fights before giving up in frustration. Way harder than the other games in the series!
As a big fan of action movies of the 80s and 90s I appreciated how they tried to incorporate a story and give some kind of reason for all the fighting - as cheesy as it was
Garou: Mark of the Wolves and Last Blade 2 still remain as a pair of my favorite classic SNK games. And a part of me misses owning those AES cartridges.
Ninja masters is the most underrated SNK fighter!
My favourite Art of Fighting games from the series is Art of Fighting 2. In my opinion it is the most hardest fighting games I have ever played.
AoF is in an odd position. It’s a very rough game but it has also innovated many conventions not only for SNK fighting games but fighting games in general, but is largely forgotten as time goes on. While some of AoF’s conventions have carried on into mainstream, some never get used again, or only get used exclusively by the AoF crew.
Here’s most of AoF’s innovations:
-1st fighting game to introduce a Super Move (and I don’t mean the Haoh-Shoukoken, I mean the Ryuko Ranbu)
-1st fighting game to have a dash (double-tap forward)
-1st fighting game to have a mid-air back attack (press C when jumping over your opponent)
-1st fighting game where you can attack more than once mid-air (on the way up and on the way down)
-1st fighting game where the camera zooms in and out, giving the characters a wider playfield (NEOGEO version only)
-1st fighting game to display battle damage (the characters faces get bruised and their stance changes slightly)
-1st fighting game with ‘vacuum’ moves (a multi-hit special move that ‘locks’ an opponent for all the hits if they get caught)
Art of Fighting only innovations:
-characters can negate projectiles with a well-timed punch (including the Haoh-Shoukoken). This even carried over to other games, like KoF, but only for the Kyokugen characters (Ryo, Robert, Yuri, Takuma). It seems inconsistent between games however.
-Spirit gauge that fuels special moves. The implementation is AoF-only, but holding buttons to charge is now a universal mechanic.
There may be more, but these are the ones off the top of my head.
@CharlieGirl AoF came out almost a year after Fatal Fury.
@Kyloctopus What cliffhanger ending? If you beat the game straight without continues you unmask Mr. Karate and find out it’s….Player 1 from Street Smart
Not really a fan of the first two AoF but the third one is awesome.
If it wasn't for the popularity of both Fatal Fury and King of Fighters, there would had been a fifth Art of Fighting game. The series itself was canon and take place on the same universe to the Fatal Fury games so to keep the canon true characters like Ryo Sakazaki and Terry Bogard can't meet using their prime look, because of this the dream match concept was made so a match like that could happen which was included in Fatal Fury Special. The idea became so popular SNK turn it into its own series which eventually became KOF. So far Art of Fighting only had four entries in canon: Art of Fighting 1-3 and Buriki One which is a 3D take on the series.
Hopefully, SNK can make a new Art of Fighting game after they finish up the new Fatal Fury game.
For a moment I completely forgot that those Wolverine claws actually used to be a real weapon that you attach to your arms.
A while ago I googled for lists of the best Neo Geo games. I looked for ranked lists at least 25 games long. I ended up finding 7 qualifying lists with 132 unique games and a total of 410 separate entries.
Art of Fighting ended up the #78 best Neo Geo game.
Art of Fighting 2 ended up the #63 best Neo Geo game.
Art of Fighting 3: The Path of the Warrior ended up the #28 best Neo Geo game.
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