I’ve been a fan of SNK fighting games for many years. Fatal Fury, Samurai Shodown, and King of Fighters are their most popular classic franchises. It wasn’t until only recently that I gave Art of Fighting a chance, and it really grew on me. The original version released in the arcades is an obvious product of the time; a two dimensional one-on-one fighting game with a lot of charm, a cheesy storyline, and some of the most hilariously bad characters this side of Street Fighter II. As always, fans wanted a way to play this title at home without being forced to spend precious quarters. Unfortunately not everyone’s parents could afford to get them a Neo Geo console let alone games for it. That’s why SNK licensed many of their games to be ported to the Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis. Fatal Fury was a train wreck on both of the 16-bit platforms, and Art of Fighting was an even more technically demanding title. Today I’m here to take a look at the Genesis version which was, interestingly enough, ported over by Sega themselves.
Art of Fighting takes place in the in 1970s in the fictional city of South Town in the U.S. Fans of other SNK titles will no doubt recognize this as a typical setting for their other titles including many installments of the Fatal Fury franchise. The single player story tells of a young girl named Yuri Sakazaki being kidnapped by the leader of an underground criminal organization named Mr. Big. Unfortunately for this guy Yuri’s brother Ryo, and friend Robert Garcia have been heavily trained in the fictional fighting style of Kyuokugen Karate. This was invented by the father of Ryo and Yuri whom has long been missing. It’s up to Ryo and Robert to enter the seedy underbelly of South Town in order to defeat Mr. Big and rescue Yuri from his evil clutches. In between matches (and at the start of them) we’re given brief snippets of dialogue to help push along the story which is a really nice touch. Art of Fighting’s scenario isn’t particularly original, but it has a definite retro charm to it. The developers did an amazing job at making South Town feel like a location in an old martial arts film. This is one of the best settings for a game that SNK has ever created.
So what’s immediately disappointing is the fact that you can only select between two characters in the story mode. To make matters worse Ryo and Robert have nearly identical movesets, and there are no major differences in their strength and agility. The rest of the cast is unlocked in the two player versus mode, but I would much prefer to be able to play as anyone at any time. This was obviously a choice to keep the scenario tightly woven, but it’s disappointing nonetheless. The rest of the cast is awful and a little generic, but that’s why I like them so much. You have the heavyset owner of Mac’s Bar named Jack whose animations always make me laugh a little on the inside. Next up is Lee who at first appears to be just a copy of Street Fighter’s Vega, but you seen come to learn that he’s absolutely crazy and frantic. Mr. Big is laughably generic and cheesy in appearance, but somehow it makes him highly memorable and one of my favorite villains in any fighting game. I absolutely love the cast of this installment in the franchise.
There are several aspects of the gameplay that make Art of Fighting unique from the pack. The first and most significant of these is the spirit gauge. While each character has your standard set of punches and kicks the special moves are handled a little differently than in most similar titles. This is where the spirit gauge comes in to play. Each time you use a special move it drains this bar a specific amount, and when you run out you no longer have access to them. Fortunately you can recharge the spirit gauge, but this renders you unable to move for several seconds leaving you open to attack. You can also drain your opponent’s energy with a taunt attack. These options make for a very technical fighting system that, while not focused on performing combos like so many others, offers a plethora of strategic options. Also unique is that throughout the course of the story mode you’re thrust into three different styles of mini-games. These short training sequences involve breaking ice blocks, cutting bottles with a well placed karate chop, and more. Should you successfully complete these you get numerous bonuses such as a longer spirit gauge and even teaches you a super attack desperation move. This is a really cool feature.
Unfortunately several downgrades had to be made to get this title running on the lowly Sega Genesis. The first problem is the controls. Sega’s default three button controller renders this title nearly unplayable. Thankfully you can use a six button pad because that’s really the only way to play. The graphics have also taken a serious hit. The first thing you’ll notice is that the screen does not zoom in as the two characters get close as it did in the Neo Geo version. I wasn’t the biggest fan of it, but this was a distinguishing feature in the original release and it’s a little disappointing to notice it’s gone. The character models are also significantly smaller, and therefore have much less detail. It’s also worth noting that the backgrounds have been greatly toned down. There’s almost no animation now, and they’re a little sad even by the system’s standards. Overall Art of Fighting does look decent for a Genesis game though. The soundtrack has also taken a serious hit, but to be honest I think the composers did a good job in the conversion. They played nicely off of the sound chip’s strengths, and though nothing is completely re-created it all sounds decent.
I had very low expectations going into this version of the game. I’m a huge fan of the original Art of Fighting, and after playing Fatal Fury on the Genesis I had little hope that this port wouldn’t be completely butchered. Surprisingly Sega did a great job with this conversion. It’s not arcade perfect by any means, but it’s playable and still fun. Unfortunately the six button controller is a downright necessity, and without it this version of Art of Fighting isn’t even worth playing. It’s not ideal, but if you’re limited on options this is an okay port.
