| Art of Fighting | |
|---|---|
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| Developer(s) |
|
| Publisher(s) | |
| Director(s) | Hiroshi Matsumoto |
| Producer(s) | Eikichi Kawasaki |
| Designer(s) | Ahokamen Boke Teizo Muta Tony Oki |
| Programmer(s) | John Guso |
| Composer(s) | Masahiko Hataya Toshio Shimizu Yasumasa Yamada |
| Series | Art of Fighting |
| Platform(s) | |
| Release |
|
| Genre(s) | Fighting |
| Mode(s) | |
| Arcade system | Neo Geo MVS |
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 tow Karate users known as Ryo Sakazaki and Robert Garcia who 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 eventuallly 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.