# Art of Fighting (video game)

Art of Fighting (Japanese: 龍虎の拳, Hepburn: Ryūko no Ken, lit. "Dragon & Tiger Punch") is a fighting game released by SNK on arcades on 24 September 1992. It originally released for the Neo Geo platform in the early 1990s. It was eventually ported to the Neo Geo AES, Neo Geo CD, PC Engine Arcade CD-ROM², Sega Genesis, and SNES. The game follows two Karate users known as Ryo Sakazaki and Robert Garcia as they travel to fight criminals from the Southtown city in order to find Ryo's missing sister Yuri. The game employs special moves and stronger Desperation Moves that can be performed strategically by filling the player's energy bar and removing the enemy's by taunting them.
The game originated from Hiroshi Matsumoto's desire to create his own fighting game while making high emphasis on the storytelling. The developers from SNK found the gameplay challenging for the first time a video game developed a Desperation Move and made notable emphasis of graphical damage. The game went to become one of SNK's biggest hits from the early 1990s for its focus on fighting engine and storytelling. This eventually led to connect it to other SNK franchises to in the form of crossovers with the Fatal Fury among others which would form as the basis of The King of Fighters series from SNK. Despite its fame, critical response to the gameplay was negative as many considered the game inferior to previously released games like Street Fighter II, also resulting in criticism from their similarities. Nevertheless, the visuals were praised.

## Plot

Taking place in 1978, the martial artist called "Invincible Dragon" Ryo Sakazaki and his best friend Robert Garcia set out to find Ryo's sister, Yuri, who has been kidnapped by Mr. Big in Southtown. In Southtown, Ryo and Robert face several enemies in order to find Yuri's location using their karate known as Kyokugen Karate ("Extreme style") in combat. After defeating Mr. Big, the criminal leads them to the young girl who has taken the girl been taken captive by a man with a Tengu mask. Before Ryo finishes the assassin, he is interrupted by Yuri. Art of Fighting's story ends with a cliff-hanger; Yuri is about to disclose the true identity of masked man.
In the original Art of Fighting, only Ryo and Robert are playable in the single-player mode; all others can only be used in the game's Vs. mode.
* Ryo Sakazaki (リョウ・サカザキ, Ryō Sakazaki, sometimes written as 坂崎 亮, Sakazaki Ryō) is a skilled martial artist who practices his family's fighting style, Kyokugenryu Karate, acting as the top disciple alongside his sister Yuri, his father and sensei Takuma, and his best friend Robert Garcia. In the original game, Ryo searches South Town for Yuri after she is abducted by Mr. Big. In the sequel, following Yuri's rescue, Ryo and his family join the first ever of the King of Fighters tournament held by Geese Howard, the true mastermind behind Yuri's kidnapping. In Art of Fighting 3, when Robert disappears looking for Freia Lawrence, Ryo travels to Glasshill Valley to find him. Many years later, Ryo becomes master of the Kyokugenryu School, inheriting the title of "Mr. Karate" from his father as of Buriki One. He also takes on his own student, Marco Rodrigues, who features as a playable character in Garou: Mark of the Wolves and Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves. Voiced by: Masaki Usui (AOF–NGBC, KOF XIII), Tetsuya Bessho (AOF anime), Akira Kamiya (KOF '94 Drama CD), Masayoshi Kozaki (KOF XII), Daiki Takakura (KOF XIV onwards), Subaru Kimura (KOF for Girls) (Japanese); Alden Crews (AOF anime) (English)
* Robert Garcia (ロバート・ガルシア, Robāto Garushia) is Ryo's best friend and fellow Kyokugenryu student. He is the wayward son of a billionaire family from Italy, sent to train with Takuma as a favor to Robert's father. Robert is introduced in the first Art of Fighting, when he helps Ryo rescue Yuri from the criminal Mr. Big. As such, both Ryo Sakazaki and Robert go to South Town to interrogate fighters until finding Mr. Big. The second Art of Fighting game features Robert joining the Sakazakis in entering first King of Fighters tournament. In Art of Fighting 3, Robert visits Central America to help his childhood friend Freia Lawrence, who is being pursued by Wyler. Voiced by: Eiji Yano (AOF), Masanori Ikeda (AOF anime), Kazuhiro Inage (AOF2, KOF '94–'95, NeoGeo Battle Coliseum, KOF XI–XIII), Hideo Ishikawa (KOF '94 Drama CD), Mantarou Kouichi (AOF3, KOF '96–2003), Go Shinomiya (KOF XIV onwards), Kazuhiro Okamoto (KOF for Girls) (Japanese); Nick Sullivan (AOF anime) (English)
* Ryuhaku Todoh (藤堂竜白, Tōdō Ryūhaku) is the first opponent in the arcade mode of Art of Fighting. He is the creator and main teacher of the Todoh fighting style, which derives from Jujutsu, Kendo and Kobujutsu. Todoh has a long-standing rivalry with disciples of the Kyokugenryu school of karate and considers them a threat to his dojo in terms of profits; and also there is a long-standing personal animosity dating back to a rivalry with the Kyokugenryu karate master Takuma Sakazaki which began when both men were very young. Todoh is the only character from Art of Fighting to not return in Art of Fighting 2. Voiced by: Takayuki Sakai (AOF), Takeshi Aono (AOF anime, CVS2) (Japanese); James Carter Cathcart (AOF anime) (English)
* Jack Turner (ジャック・ターナー, Jaku Tānā) is a member of Mr. Big's syndicate, and a developer of his own fighting style. One of Mr. Big's highest-ranking subordinates, he devastates anyone who crosses his path. Jack is also the leader of the South Town gang known as the Neo Black Cats. Voiced by: Ginzō Matsuo (AOF anime) (Japanese); Eric Stuart (AOF anime) (English)
* Lee Pai Long (Chinese: 李白龍) is a master of Chinese martial arts from Taiwan and an expert of his country's medicine. His adoptive father and mentor, Lee Gakusuo, passed on his pharmaceutic knowledge and martial arts to him before instructing Lee to finish his studies in South Town. Once he arrived there, Lee became fascinated with the local style of Kenpo and neglected his roots to be a street fighter. He works as the director of the South Town prison, but also has a small herbal shop which he runs part-time. A former adversary and long-time friend of Ryo Sakazaki's father Takuma, he enters the tournament to test Ryo's skills. And like his friend, he dons a mask; in this case, a Monkey Mask. Voiced by: Eiji Yano (AOF), Kazuhiro Inage (AOF2)
* King (キング, Kingu) is a female Muay Thai fighter from France who dresses as a man in order to present herself as a reliable fighter, hide her true identity, and for various other reasons such as the fact that she has been at war with her own sex for years. Originally, her true gender was meant to be a surprise for the player, revealed only if she was defeated with a special move; as time went by, however, her design became more feminine, albeit without straying too far from the original concept. In the first Art of Fighting, King is hired by the criminal Mr. Big to work as a bouncer in his tournament. After King is defeated by Ryo Sakazaki and Robert Garcia who were searching for Ryo's kidnapped sister, Yuri, King agrees to help them to find Mr. Big. In Art of Fighting 2, King enters into the first of the King of Fighters tournament in order to win the prize money to pay for an operation for her younger brother, Jan, to regain the use of his legs. As such, Ryo and Robert decide to use the prize money to pay for the operation in gratitude for helping them to find Yuri.
Voiced by: Harumi Ikoma (games, KOF: D), Masako Katsuki (AOF anime), Yumi Tōma (KOF '94 Drama CD) (Japanese); Sharon Becker (AOF anime) (English)
* Mickey Rogers (ミッキー・ロジャース, Mikkī Rojāsu) is a former professional boxer who was expelled from the ranks after he accidentally killed a man in the ring. He currently stalks South Town seeking opponents to vent his anger and frustration on, and enters the tournament for the same reason. Like Crawley, Mickey gets a haircut between his two appearances. In Art of Fighting, Mickey becomes a small-time hood who works for Mr. Big so that he can get money as a street hustler.
    Voiced by: Kazuhiro Inage (AOF–AOF2)
* John Crawley (ジョン・クローリー, Jon Kuraurei) is a martial arts instructor, and with his brutal and aggressive fighting style was known to his friends as "The Madman" and "The Killing Machine". He enters the tournament to win the prize money and test his skills. In the first AOF, Crawley has longer hair. By the time AOF2 occurs, his hair is cut shorter. In John's AOF2 ending, the US Military attempts to recruit him to rescue the President's canary, but John refuses. Although it is not mentioned in the game, John seems to be assigned to the aircraft carrier USS Independence, since a large "62" is visible on the ship's island.
Voiced by: Masaki Usui (AOF–AOF2), Kaneto Shiozawa (AOF anime) (Japanese); Eric Stuart (AOF anime) (English)
* Mr. Big (Mr.ビッグ, Misutā Biggu) is the sub-boss character from the first two Art of Fighting games. Mr. Big was formerly in the Army's Special Forces, and fights skillfully with a pair of eskrima rattan sticks. He has been involved with the mob for as long as he can remember. He made it big in South Town, a city as seedy and corrupt as he is. He joins Geese Howard's criminal organization, soon becoming his right-hand man. Big secretly feared Takuma Sakazaki, the master of Kyokugenryu Karate, so he ordered the kidnapping of Takuma's daughter, Yuri, and threatened Takuma into working for him. The plan backfired when Ryo and Robert fought their way through South Town's crime to find both of them, beating Big senseless to rescue Yuri and Takuma. King worked as a bouncer at one of Mr. Big's establishments. :Voiced by: Iemasa Kayumi (AOF anime), Masaru Naka (KOF '96, KOF '98: UM), Nobuyuki Yuki (KOF XI, NGBC), Yūki Ono (KOF film), Yuki Arai (KOF:D onwards), Aya Saito (Pretty Big; KOFAS) (Japanese); Cliff Lazenby (AOF anime) (English)
* Takuma Sakazaki (タクマ・サカザキ, Takuma Sakazaki); also written as Sakazaki Takuma (坂崎 拓馬) is Ryo and Yuri's father who left them prior to the first Art of Fighting, though as the master and creator of Kyokugenryu Karate, he has taught both Ryo and Robert at a young age, with Yuri becoming his student later on after the first game. Takuma appears as the final boss of the game as a masked warrior named Mr. Karate (Mr.カラテ, Misutā Karate), having taken Yuri as a hostage. Before being defeated by Ryo and Robert, Yuri stops them, revealing his identity. It is later revealed that Takuma was forced to work for Geese Howard and that his right-hand man, Mr. Big, kidnapped Yuri to put him under control. In Art of Fighting 2, Takuma rebels against Geese and Mr. Big by fighting in their King of Fighters tournament, but retreats due to injuries sustained.

## Gameplay

The Art of Fighting series follows the conventions of the time in the sense that the player faces a variety of opponents in best two-out-of-three matches. Each of the game's characters have a unique fighting style and set of special techniques. Ryo Sakazaki and Robert Garcia are the only playable heroes in the single player story mode, although eight of the game's ten fighters are playable by default in the two player versus mode. Mr. Big and Mr. Karate can be played in the Neo Geo MVS (arcade) version by reaching their respective stages in the game then having a second player join in, and in the Neo Geo AES (console) version through the use of cheat codes.
The player has two basic attacks—punch and kick—as well as a utility button that switches between punches, kicks, and throws. A fourth button is used for taunting. Art of Fighting's contribution to the genre was the inclusion of a "spirit gauge" underneath the character's life bar. When characters perform special techniques, their spirit gauge is depleted and their special attacks become weaker. Players can also drain their opponent's spirit gauge by taunting them.
The Art of Fighting series was also the first fighting series to allow players to perform a "super attack". In the original Art of Fighting, the player's character can learn a super attack (dubbed the super death blow) by completing one of the game's bonus rounds (this technique is available by default in the 3rd game). All three games also feature "Desperation Attacks" that can only be performed when the player's health is low and the life bar is flashing. The series also introduced graphical scaling into the fighting game genre: as the characters move towards each other, the camera zooms in to maximize the level of detail. Character sprites in Art of Fighting change as the fight progresses to become more bruised and cut as damage is taken.

## Production

Shortly after the release of Street Fighter, a headhunter approached director Takashi Nishiyama and convinced him to leave Capcom and join nearby studio SNK. Nishiyama took planner Hiroshi Matsumoto and the majority of his team with him and abandoned the Street Fighter IP. In SNK, Matsumoto directed the fighting game Art of Fighting starring the leads Ryo Sakazaki and Robert Garcia who fight people in the city of Southtown to rescue the missing Yuri Sakazaki. The cast were created by Matsumoto as an homage to the Capcom fighting games' characters. Whereas Ryo was modeled after American actor Patrick Swayze, Robert Garcia was based on the actors Steven Seagal and Andy Garcia, until his redesign in The King of Fighters XIV which used the image of Orlando Bloom. Matsumoto has stated that he felt he was appealing to people who did not usually play games by showing the story in the game instead of just media such as magazines and comics.
SNK staff members Youichiro Soeda said that Ryo and Robert's debut was unique to other games based on the company because the story did not focus on fighting tournaments but instead on the duo's quest to save Yuri Sakazaki. From the marketing side, SNK wanted to show the characters as big sized as possible on screen, leading to the zoom ins when they get close. In the early development prototype, this was so extreme that characters were only visible from their knees to upper body as they got closer on the screen. However, this changed and development scaled this down to be more manageable. Nevertheless, they still accomplished their goal of having some of the biggest and most detailed sprites among the fighting games of that generation. In order to create a more innovative fighting system, they created the taunts as strategic moves as well as the Desperation Moves which lead to in-game graphical damage. Since the game primarily mainly men, the staff had problems deciding on a female fighter. This eventually resulted in the creation of King created to be strong as modeled after was the actress Grace Jones famous for the character May Day in the James Bond film A View to a Kill (1985). However, the final design was more andrdogynous almost llike a man. Meanwhile, the other female character, Yuri, was given a more fragile portrayal despite having the same voice as King. In charge of the art was Shinkiro who has said he had no problems with designing Ryo because he himself had not been rich. Designing Robert Garcia, who was rich, caused him "trouble". Nobuyuki Kuroki said Art of Fighting was "action game at heart", fitting for a reboot that could emphasize more of its unique aspects, dreaming of creating such installment. He regarded Ryo as his favorite Art of Fighting character as he always used to play as him in the first game as a child. He considered his story unique by that time.
The original trilogy were all released for the Neo Geo MVS arcade system, Neo Geo AES home console, and Neo Geo CD. Art of Fighting was ported to the PC Engine CD, SNES, and Sega Genesis/Mega Drive, while Art of Fighting 2 was also ported to Super Famicom. Many of these ports made minor changes to the gameplay, story, or graphics.
The Neo Geo trilogy was compiled in Art of Fighting Anthology (龍虎の拳 ～天・地・人～, Ryuuko no Ken Tenchijin) for the PlayStation 2, while the original game was also included as part of SNK Arcade Classics Vol. 1 and the NEOGEO Station service. The trilogy has also been digitally re-released via the Wii Virtual Console and the ACA Neo Geo series.

## Reception

Review scores :
| Publication | Score |
| GameSpot | 4/10 |
| IGN | 4.5/10. |
| Nintendo Life | 4/10 (Switch) |
In the United States, the RePlay arcade charts listed Art of Fighting as the top-grossing software conversion kit in December 1992. Critical response to the game has been negative when it came to the gameplay and positive to the visuals. Nintendo Life was negative to the game, considering it a poor game from SNK that cannot compete similar games like Street Fighter II, citing few playable characters, limited gameplay and a strong enemy AI despite still praising the graphics. GameSpot agreed citing the visuals as one of the best ones in Neo Geo but criticized the " underlying gameplay is nearly devoid of soul." He specifically said this due to the requirements needed to perform special moves and called the game a Street Fighter "knock off". IGN was also negative, claiming the game lacked more innovations than just King's gender and criticized the gameplay for being too simple. They cited that the previously released Fatal Fury: King of Fighters had the same negative problems involving only three playable characters but lacks the innovation that Fatal Fury had as in such title two players could tag the enemy AI together in contrast to Ryo and Robert who fight alone. Nevertheless, like other reviewers, IGN cited the visuals as one of its few good parts.
A number of critics compared Ryo and Robert to the Street Fighter protagonists Ryu and Ken Masters due to their physical appearance and techniques; However, their morales and bond were praised. Greg Kasavin of GameSpot regarded "Haohshokohken" move as one of the most influential fireball moves in fighting games' history due to how strong and big is Ryo's fire technique and how it would be notable in Capcom's later games like Marvel vs. Capcom.

### Legacy

Matsumoto was also involved in the Fatal Fury: King of Fighters fighting games created by Nishikiyama. The game focuses on Terry Bogard, Andy Bogard and Joe Higashi entering into The King of Fighters tournament to avenge Jeff Bogard killed by host Geese Howard. The second sequel, Art of Fighting 2, incorporated Geese Howard due to his popularity in Fatal Fury and his younger look from the first original video animation as a hidden boss. The scene of Ryo Sakazaki in the first Art of Fighting game where he is driving a bike in his fighting clothes became an internet meme based on how hilarious is that a man is drviving while wearing a karate gi. Merchandise such as clothing based on it was developed. SNK artist Falcoon was caught on it by surprise when a friend showed him wearing a shirt featuring such meme. Bringing Ryo to Fatal Fury Special was considered a good an idea by Yasuyuki Oda believing he fits the cast and how it revolutioned the idea of the crossover concept that would conceptualize The King of Fighters. However, keeping the inclusion under wraps proved problematic for SNK "Although the developers planning to keep Ryo Sakazaki's appearance secret until the game release, Ryo was announced on a huge screen at Tokyo Game Show.
The character of Dan Hibiki from the Street Fighter series is deemed to be a parody of Ryo's similarities with Ryu and Ken, but his design is more like Robert's while he is showing mannerisms like those of Yuri Sakazaki. In humorous retaliation, Street Fighter II co-designer Akiman drew an artwork of Street Fighter Sagat holding a defeated opponent by the head during the release of Street Fighter II: Champion Edition. The defeated opponent wore an attire similar to Ryo's: an orange karate gi with a torn black shirt underneath and geta sandals like Ryo; but had long dark hair tied to a ponytail like Robert. These similarities are addressed in the crossover game SNK vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos with GameSpot's Greg Kasavin stating that fans would appreciate the appearances and the interactions between Ryo, Dan and Takuma.
A Sharp X68000 version of Art of Fighting was in development by Magical Company but it went unreleased for unknown reasons.