REAL GAMES - ART OF FIGHTING

So this is what fighting games were like before Street Fighter 2! Wait...this game came out AFTER Street Fighter 2? That's just depressing.

Art of Fighting is your traditional fighting game. It's also the first fighting game that I have got to play since starting this site. Unfortunately, it's really not good. I love fighting games, and I love SNK fighting games most of all. King of Fighters, Samurai Shodown, Fatal Fury...etc, I love them all. So, why do I not like Art of Fighting? Well, there is plenty to bitch about, but not a whole lot to enjoy.

Why do I love SNK games so much?  I can sit here and give reasons all day, but like they say, "A picture is worth a thousand words."

Starting off, we get a decent cutscene explaining the story.  We find out that Ryo's sister has been kidnapped, and it is up to Ryo and Robert to face the mean streets of South Town in order to save her.  So far everything is good, but then we get to the character selection screen.  We can see a total of 10 characters, but only 2 are available for story mode.  That's pretty lame, and what's worse about it is that both characters have the same damn story.

Next up is one of the major flaws of this game, the controls.  First off, the buttons are just awkward.  You have a punch, a kick, a taunt, and a throw.  The throw is on the shoulder key for some reason, despite there being a wasted button on the front of the damn controller.  To make things worse, everything is stiff and unresponsive.  Mash the punch button and be amazed as you throw one punch a minute.  Special moves are a necessity towards the end, and they are barely functional.

To make up for the rage worthy controls, the game offers some pretty badass music.  Art of Fighting is filled with heavy 80's action movie type music.  It sets the mood, and it's pretty damn awesome.

Graphically, this game does not disappoint.  While this may be one of SNK's earlier entries, you can still find their trademark art style through out the entire game.  Granted, some of the scenes are laughable, but for a Super Nintendo game, they are pretty good.

The last section is probably the worst: the gameplay.  Regardless if you are playing this alone for the story, or if you are fighting against a buddy, this game is bad.  The biggest problem is the speed.  Everything is ridiculously slow.  Combine that with the shitty controls mentioned before, and you're left with a poor excuse for a fighting game.  However, this game does introduce something that I think is genius, and would like to see it in more fighting games: The "spirit" bar.  This thing basically limits the amount of fireballs you can shoot and slowly refills.  In this game, it is a major bitch, but with the proper tweaking, I think it would be a great addition to the fighting game genre.  Imagine playing Marvel vs Capcom 2, and some jackass picks Cable.  He starts doing the infinite gun blast cheapness when all of a sudden he stops because he ran out of ammo/energy.  Commence ass whipping.

A typical fireball spammer.  She may look all cute and innocent now, but she'll start spewing racial slurs and profanity over XBox Live when she loses.

Basically, Art of Fighting would have been a decent addition to the fighting genre if they had fixed the actual fighting part.  Everything else in the game is wonderful, just not the game itself.  It hurts me to do this, but I give it 1 and a half Ryo mullets out of 5.  There is no reason to ever release a broken game.