Art of Fighting
The "Art of Fighting" series originally served as a prequel to the "Fatal Fury" series, taking place during the late 1970s and early 1980s. This is reflected by the characters' official birthdates in the series and given ages in each game. This is made even more obvious with the appearance of a young Geese Howard in "Art of Fighting 2", and most of all, Ryo's best student who debuted as one of the playable fighters in ', Khushnood Butt. The Hyper Neo-Geo 64 game "Buriki One" and the PlayStation port of ' features an older modern-day Ryo adopting his father's former identity of Mr. Karate. While "The King of Fighters" series features characters from the "Art of Fighting" series and alludes to events occurring in the games, it follows a completely different continuity from that of the actual "Art of Fighting" and "Fatal Fury" games. This was done so that the "Art of Fighting" characters could fight alongside the "Fatal Fury" cast and other characters without aging them, but also continue to maintain the existing stories from the other games.