Art of Fighting 2

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Art of Fighting 2
Art of Fighting 2 arcade flyer.jpg
Developer(s) SNK
Publisher(s) SNK
Saurus (Super Famicom)
Director(s) Akira Goto
Producer(s) Eikichi Kawasaki
Hiroshi Matsumoto
Programmer(s) John Guso
Artist(s) Ayumi Tsuzaki
Higashi Pon
Kimura Ken
Composer(s) Yasuhiro Naka
Yasumasa Yamada
Yoshihiko Kitamura
SeriesArt of Fighting
Platform(s)
Release
  • Arcade
    • WW: 3 February 1994
    Neo Geo AES
    • JP: 11 March 1994
    • NA: 11 March 1994
    • EU: 11 March 1994
    Neo Geo CD
    Super Famicom
    • JP: 21 December 1994
Genre(s) Fighting
Mode(s)
Arcade system Neo Geo MVS

Art of Fighting 2 is fighting game developed and released by SNK in 1994. It is a direct sequel to Art of Fighting involving both new and returning characters fighting each other in the King of Fighters tournament.

Contents

Gameplay

Gameplay screenshot showcasing a match between Yuri Sakazaki and King. NEOGEO Art of Fighting 2 (Ryuko no Ken 2).png
Gameplay screenshot showcasing a match between Yuri Sakazaki and King.

The second installment in the Art of Fighting series added the "rage gauge"; similar to the "spirit system" of its predecessor, it limits the use and effectiveness of special attacks. This time the bonus stages are reworked: to increase the rage gauge, the player's character has to chop down a tree with one punch, to increase the maximum health meter, the player's character must defeat a number of punks under a certain time limit, and the Initiate Super Death Blow stage has now been adapted for each character's super special move.

Nearly every playable character from the first Art of Fighting, excluding Ryuhaku Todoh, returns in Art of Fighting 2. The game also adds three new characters, consisting of Yuri Sakazaki, Eiji Kisaragi, and Temjin, for a total of 12. While the previous game only allowed Ryo Sakazaki and Robert Garcia to be used in the single-player mode, Art of Fighting 2 expands the mode to accommodate all 12 characters. Additionally, Geese Howard from the Fatal Fury series appears as a secret boss if the player meets specific requirements in the single-player mode. Geese is not a playable character, however, with the exception of the Vs. mode in the SNES version.

Plot

The game's story is set a year after the original in 1979. Geese Howard, a rising star in South Town's criminal underworld, summons all 12 fighters both veterans and newcomers to the city for a martial arts tournament, "The King of Fighters". Geese was the final boss and series original antagonist of SNK's other related fighting game franchise Fatal Fury , whose story took place two years after the events of Art of Fighting 2 where the late Jeff Bogard had been murdered by the hands of his former Hakkyokuseiken sparring partner Geese, which sparks the revenge of Jeff's adoptive sons Terry Bogard and Andy Bogard to fight in Geese's next King of Fighters tournament which takes place a decade later in 1991. The events of all three Art of Fighting sagas is canonically a prequel trilogy to the Fatal Fury series. [1]

Production

Development of the game took a year. For the new characters, SNK were unable to connect them to the story, so that meant they had more freedom in designing them. The idea was making clashy and cool designs like Kisaragai, and Temjin. They wanted to rival King of Fighters in that way. Balancing them was the most difficult task. As the first game the staff were trying to pursue an interesting story, which necessarily meant more emphasis on the CPU battles. Art of Fighting 2 was meant to be more of a The King of Fighters -style, “fighting tournament” game. To that end, they intended for the vs. play to be more important this time. [2] Geese Howard's popularity in Fatal Fury and his younger look from the first original video animation influenced his appearance in Art of Fighting 2 as a hidden boss. [3]

Reception

The game was praised by both GamePro and Electronic Gaming Monthly for having far better graphics, sound, character selection and gameplay technique than the original Art of Fighting, though three of EGM's four reviewers complained that in single player mode the opponent AI is "incredibly cheap". [4] [5] GamePro gave it ratings (out of 5) of 5 for graphics, 5 for sound, 4.5 for controls, and 4.5 for fun factor. [4] Electronic Gaming Monthly's four reviewers gave it ratings (out of 10) of 8, 8, 6, and 8. [5] Computer and Video Games gave it a 95% score, calling it "easily the best beat-'em up to appear in recent years", comparing it favorably with recent Street Fighter II incarnations but criticizing its high £150-175 cost. [6] Nintendo Life found the game superior to the first one due to its improved single player mode as well as system though he still had mixed feeling about the enjoyment the fighting system can give. [7] Pocket Gamer found the fighting system too simplistic in comparison to other SNK works like KOF. [8] Despite praising the improvements, Hardcore Gaming felt that the gameplay was too similar to its predecessor. The Super Nintendo port was panned as the "version is nothing short of a disaster, with horribly inaccurate visuals, atrocious controls, and slaughtered game physics" [9] IGN agreed, finding the AI too challenging while the visuals instead feel like a stepdown, ruining SNK's attempts to improve the formula they established. [10]

Art of Fighting 2 was re-released for the Wii's Virtual Console in North America on 28 July 2008 [11] and Nintendo Switch's ACA Neo Geo worldwide on 11 January 2018.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Terry Bogard</span> Fictional character

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geese Howard</span> Fictional character

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<i>Garou: Mark of the Wolves</i> 1999 video game

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<i>Real Bout Fatal Fury</i> 1995 video game

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<i>Fatal Fury: King of Fighters</i> 1991 video game

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Fatal Fury 3: Road to the Final Victory is a 1995 head-to-head fighting game released by SNK for the Neo-Geo arcade and home platforms. It is the fourth game in the Fatal Fury series after Fatal Fury Special. Console versions of Fatal Fury 3 were released for the Neo Geo CD, Sega Saturn, Windows-based computers and on the Wii Virtual Console. The game is also included in the compilation Fatal Fury Battle Archives Volume 1 for the PlayStation 2.

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Characters of the <i>Fatal Fury</i> series Fictional character

The following is a list of video game characters featured in the Fatal Fury fighting game series developed by SNK. The series consists of the original Fatal Fury, Fatal Fury 2, Fatal Fury Special, Fatal Fury 3, Real Bout Fatal Fury, Real Bout Fatal Fury Special, Real Bout Fatal Fury 2, Fatal Fury: Wild Ambition, and Garou: Mark of the Wolves.

Nobuyuki Kuroki is a Japanese game designer working for SNK. He did art for several Art of Fighting and Fatal Fury games and took a bigger role in The King of Fighters XIV and Samurai Shodown.

References

  1. ↑ Art of Fighting 2 user's manual (Neo Geo AES, US)
  2. ↑ "Art of Fighting 2 – 1994 Developer Interview". Shmulplations. Retrieved June 10, 2023.
  3. ↑ "Art of Fighting Anthology Hits PS4 Tomorrow: The Origins of an SNK Classic". PlayStation. 29 August 2017. Retrieved October 1, 2018.
  4. 1 2 "ProReview: Art of Fighting 2". GamePro . No. 58. IDG. May 1994. pp. 102–3.
  5. 1 2 "Review Crew: Art of Fighting 2". Electronic Gaming Monthly . No. 57. Ziff Davis. April 1994. p. 40.
  6. ↑ CVG, issue 150, page 52
  7. ↑ "Art of Fighting 2 Neo Geo". Nintendo Life. Retrieved June 10, 2023.
  8. ↑ "Art of Fighting 2 Swutch". Pocket Gamer. Retrieved June 10, 2023.
  9. ↑ "Art of Fighting 2 / Ryūko no Ken 2 (龍虎の拳) - Neo Geo, Neo Geo CD, Super Famicom, PlayStation 2, Wii, PlayStation 3". Hardcore Gaming. Retrieved June 10, 2023.
  10. ↑ "Art of Fighting 2 review". IGN. Retrieved June 10, 2023.
  11. ↑ "One WiiWare Game and Two Virtual Console Games Added to Wii Shop Channel". Nintendo of America. 28 July 2008. Retrieved 2008-08-04.
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