Neo Geo Round-Up #1

I've never really been the biggest fan of one-on-one fighting games, I'm sorry to say. I did get drawn in by the Street Fighter II craze like most gamers around that time, but aside from that game and a few other Capcom examples, it's a genre I haven't spent too much time on. This may be because I'm not that good at them. Learning the often-complicated special move commands and performing elaborate combos can be very satisfying but I'm not one of those gamers that it comes naturally to.

Mainly for this reason, most of the examples found on the Neo Geo have been largely neglected here in RKS Land. In an effort to rectify that, however, I have decided to take a look at each fighting game series found on SNK's mighty console in the form of round-ups. I can't promise they will be the most comprehensive evaluations as the finer points of such games are often lost on me, but I shall do my best. These posts, much like all of my posts, are more for my benefit than yours anyway, assuming anyone is even reading this, as they motivate me to play games I've seldom or never played before, but I do of course hope you like them! First up was going to be the Fatal Fury series which was, I believe, the first SNK fighting game series, but there are about a million of them. So instead, I've started with one I'm at least a little familiar with - the Art of Fighting series. Before I get started, however, here's a bit of general info on the series.

The games revolve around the students of the Kyokugen Karate Dojo in a place called 'South Town' which is of course filled with lots of ghastly hoodlums and criminals. Fights employ the usual best-of-three-rounds format and four buttons are used for combat - punch, kick, special, and taunt. Each fighter has a 'spirit gauge' which is used up when performing special moves and you can deplete your opponent's gauge by taunting them. Fighters have at least 3-4 special moves each which are performed in an SFII-ish way which happily means I can reliably perform most of them (usually), and they can also each perform a super attack (possibly the first game to offer them) as well as a 'desperation attack' which could only be used when your energy is very low - a particularly amusing way to win a fight! Anyway, that's the basics but let's take a look at the individual games of which there are three:

Art of Fighting (1992)

The first game is one I have played before, as detailed here, but not lately. There are only two playable characters for one-player - Ryo and his chum Robert - which is likely to do with the slightly more storyish approach than usual for this type of game. It's the usual nonsense to do with a hot girly (Ryo's sister) being kidnapped by the local crime boss. Cue a road trip around the more unsavoury parts of town to look for her while laying the smack down on whichever hoodlum is found in each location until you reach Mr. Big himself. There are ten characters in total and happily eight of the them (all but the bosses) are playable in two-player games. Most of them are martial artists of some sort but they are a typically varied bunch in terms of appearance, style, speed, etc. Technically the game is good for its day - the sprites are large, animation isn't bad, the backgrounds are varied and detailed, and the action is pretty slick, not too complicated, and just about the right speed for me. I did find it pretty tough though (I just about managed to get to the fourth opponent on my first session), and the lack of characters for one-player is a but whiffy. Other than that it's a solid game... 6/10

Art of Fighting 2 (1994)

After the good-but-flawed (for one player) original, there was only one thing I was hoping to see from this follow-up, and that, unsurprisingly, was more playable characters for loners like me. Happily, SNK kindly obliged and there are now a much more impressive twelve options accordingly. They include eight we already know and four new ones including Yuri, the hostage from the first game, and Geese Howard who is famous enough for even me to have heard of! Aside from that vital addition, there isn't too much different here. The 'spirit gauge' is now known as the 'rage gauge' but it serves a similar purpose, there is again a choice of bonus rounds (though different ones), the already-decent graphics have been tweaked and obviously there are new backgrounds for the additions to the roster, but that's about it. The story takes place a year later and is of the more normal 'crime boss (Geese this time) organises fighting tournament' type, but it plays pretty much as it did before with one exception - it's even harder! As mentioned, it took me a while to get anywhere with the first game, but here I didn't even beat the first opponent! I realise I'm not great at these games but the AI is so unforgiving. Great game for seasoned pros and two-players but amateur solo players steer clear... 6/10

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

After only two games, the third and (so far) last instalment seems like a reboot already. There are ten selectable characters this time and, aside from Ryo and Robert, they are all new. The story is stranger even than that of the first game and concerns Robert's search for a friend who is also being sought by Wyler, the game's boss (who is presumably evil), so he can force her to make an elixir. Or something weird like that anyway. There are no bonus rounds this time but the fighting action is similar to before, and thanks to the ultra-smooth new graphics it's more enjoyable than ever. For me at least. The backgrounds are varied and mostly great and the fighters are much more detailed and are now motion-captured too, so the animation is fantastic. The audio is also really good, with loud, satisfying effects over jazz and techno music. Thankfully for feeble players like me, it's also a lot more accessible too. There are more moves than ever (although the 'Ultimate KO' can be a little unfair), and I managed to reach the fourth opponent within about 20 minutes of playing on default difficulty without much trouble so, of the three games in the series, it's definitely the choice for the less-skilled players such as myself... 8/10

Final Thoughts:

Some gamers/collectors in the Neo Geo community can be a bit snobby and I know some hardcore fighting game fans can be elitists too, so I expect if anyone from either group sees this post I will earn a good few sneers, but that's okay. I suppose my burblings are more like my first impressions of the games after a few hours of playing them rather than proper full-on reviews. I don't doubt I would improve at all three of them if I really spent a lot of time learning more moves, becoming proficient with all the characters, perfecting use of the taunts, improving my character with the bonus rounds (in the first two game), etc, but alas, time is not on my side.

For the more casual fans of this type of game though, my conclusions are - give the first game a miss, the second is just as good for two players and much better for the experienced solo player, while the third game with its gorgeous graphics and more forgiving AI is the clear choice for players of my skill level, especially ones who want to dazzle any onlookers with beautifully-animated smackdowns!