That 70's/90's Fighter

Art of Fighting/Ryuko no Ken <Fist of Dragon and Tiger>

     Art of Fighting was dismally bad. Even for vintage SNK. It's sad that the gameplay was so unploished, because the backstory behind the game actually sounds more interesting than anything that goes on within its bounds.

     It's sometime in the 1970's in Southtown, and the criminal empire is still setting up house, so to speak. Somewhere in the inner city, Takuma Sakazaki teaches his own patented form of karate (Kyokugen-ryuu: literally, EXTREME karate) to willing students and his (debatably willing) children, Ryo and Yuri. Also training there is one Robert Garcia, upper-class Italian type who seems to mainly be there to make feeble advances on little Yuri. All is well and good until Ryo's father and sister vanish while he was out panhandli-er, promoting the gym. So, he and Robert split up to find them.

     Turns out Yuri was kidnapped by Mr. Big, a middle-rank crime boss, to convince Takuma to use his genuinely impressive power for evil and profit, as opposed to good and profit.

     Ryo and Robert wander around, roughing people up for information. Most of them aren't particularly important to talk about, save King, the bouncer at a Southtown night club, and Ryhaku Todoh, an eccentric police officer who's almost as zealous of his fighting style as Takuma. King is a muay thai kickboxer (I'm getting tired of typing that), which is unorthodox since women are considered a jinx to the traditional belief. As such, she dresses and acts like a man most of the time. Upon her defeat, however, her shirt is ripped open magically, revealing her secret (ahem) to all. But the bargoers were apparently alright with it, since she kept working there, and she eventually gets a thing for Ryo later on. But I digress.

     At the game's end Ryo confronts the mysterious Mr. Karate, a tengu mask-wearing karateka who uses the devastating power of Kyokugen Karate! In a plot twist written and conceived by a flatworm, it turns out to be Takuma.

     ...and many, many years later, Takuma still puts that goofy mask on and seems to genuinely believe his kids don't think it's him. For instance, at the end of KOF '97, to celebrate their defeat of Orochi, he appears atop a tree and rewards them by revealing his uh, secret identity. Again. And is comically uppercut into the sky.

     You might have noticed that I've skillfully dodged discussing the game itself, instead opting for a rose-tinted recap of the storyline. That's because I like the characters, and discussing the details of how your special moves are tied to a power meter that decreases in massive chunks when you're taunted and gradually regrows, the sluggish play control, unbalanced damage, so on might hurt your opinion of them.

Art of Fighting 2

     The Sakazaki clan enters the newly-formed King of Fighters tournament. Not a whole lot noteworthy here, except that now all the characters are playable, and Yuri makes her fighting debut. AOF 2 also makes some hints at the backstory to Fatal Fury, with hidden boss Geese Howard alluding to the need to assassinate Jeff Bogard in the ending. Next!

Art of Fighting 3: Path of the Warrior

     A semi-enjoyable Art of Fighting... hm, that one came out of left field. I believe this is when SNK decided to time-warp the Sakazakis twenty years into the future, as this supposedly takes place between '95 and '96. But whatever, it has more of a seventies feel to it that AOF 2 (Yuri's outfit and stage in particular scream 80's to me, to be honest.)

     AOF 3 actually follows Robert and his childhood friend on a journey through Mexico to see his old friend Wyler. (Probably why the Japanese title is "Ryuko no Ken Gaiden <side story>.") He leaves pretty much all at once, so a concerned Ryo and Yuri set out to find out where he went.

     The combat system is still pretty loose, sadly, but at least now it's a little more apparent they're trying for a fighting engine with more emphasis on semi-realistic karate. A lot of the game depends on counters and grabs, and using your opponent's moves against them. And throwing fireballs. Hey, nobody's perfect. The AOF 3 engine is something many people are divided on, personally I don't care for it.

     Most of the crappy fighters from the last game are outta here, which makes sense. It'd take some REAL stretching of the backstory to get every last person into Mexico. Yuri's not fighting in this one, which is kind of a bummer. Instead, she follows Ryo around and gets attacked by a pelican. Really.

     The visuals in 3 are very rich and detailed; the character animations especially. It also stands out in my mind as having some of the largest characters onscreen. Also, some of the most oddly named: Rody-Birts? Must have read that wrong.

Capcom vs. SNK: Round One

     Capcom went through a period where they jealously guarded the Street Fighter property, even going so far as to threaten charges against Data East's crappy fighter (the one with Karnov) for infringement. Somehow, as far as I know, SNK escaped outright legal action for their trespasses in the realm of one-on-one fighting. However, Capcom still wasn't particularly pleased with them.

     Ryo Sakazaki, the orange gi-wearing hero of Art of Fighting could easily be mistaken for a Ryu clone or parody. He has the quarter-circle fireball, and wears a karate outfit. Never mind the fact that his character gets fleshed out with a family, his motorcycle, and so on, whereas Ryu's life apparently revolves around walking around and fighting people to see who's the strongest. But anyway, apparently Capcom was a bit incensed by the brightly-clad, buffoonishly-taunting Sakazaki.

     Probably egged on by the emphasis on taunting to lower your opponents' special meter, Capcom set about a sort of counter-slander campaign.

"Gentlemen, we can make him dumber. Louder. Slower and more useless!"
"Make him pink, too."
"MWAHAHAHA! IT LIVES!!"
"YAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!"
"No, Dan! I am your creator!"
"Doshita, doshita!?" *shakes fist*

     So, Dan Hibiki was born. His past was fleshed out a little when they made the nameless, big-nosed Muay Thai Sagat was beating up into his father. (Why Dan set out to create his own form of karate when his father was a muay thai, who are practically superheroes in Thailand...) Unfortunately, Capcom forgot about the fact they had already plagiarized themselves so much that by this point, Dan was simply regarded as "That other guy who plays like Ryu. But sucks."

     If you've played Pocket Fighter, undoubtedly you've seen Dan using the corpse of his big-nosed father as a blunt weapon. That's a jab at Takuma's Mr. Karate getup, except the nose on this guy is real. Shudder. Speaking of things about Dan's family that make me shudder- Dan's little sister, as seen in the end of X-Men vs. Street Fighter.

     Call it paranoia on my behalf, but I can't help but think Shingo from KOF was a counter-counter poke of some kind.

Advanced Engrish

     There was a point when SNK Japan must have realized their grasp on the English language wasn't so great. I like to think AOF 3 was the exact moment they chose to acknowledge that fact.

     Kasumi Todoh's victory pose thing sees her walking off after putting the opponent down for the count. Then suddenly, she stops and remembers something. She pulls an English phrase book from her hakama (that's the fancy word for them big pants) and in a heavy accent, says "Come back when you gwow up!"

     That and her horrible speaking when she finally encounters Ryo or Robert walking around and tries to deliver a formal challenge. "Robert Carcia, Ryuhaku Todoh... I am daughter..."

KOF-related notes...

Eiji Kisaragi, the ninja with too much makeup from AOF 2, apparently has known Mai since childhood and has a huge crush on her. He not only appears on the Rivals Team of '95, but in the background of Mai's stage in Fatal Fury Special

As mentioned before: Art of Fighting was supposed to take place in the late 70's. However, when they decided to have the Kyokugen team in King of Fighters, they had to unofficially 'push' everything up 20 years.