I thought Dan Hibiki was more or less Robert Garcia's head on top of Ryo Sakazaki's body. Capcom had a lot of fun with this in some of their games. In Street Fighter Alpha 3, one of Dan's win quotes is, "I hate the art of fighting, but I wanna be the king of fighters." But by the best Dan/SNK reference is in Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter. Dan's ending spoofs the Art of Fighting ending, when Dan's sister stops Dan from killing Cyber Akuma and says "Brother! Stop! Don't you know who he is? He's our..." The End.
Could not agree more. And that is one of the main reasons I love SNK games. They had so much character and depth with a lot of lore that you could sink into. And they just built on it with each game. Every fighting game they had made exist in the same universe. Fatal Fury, Art of Fighting, Last Blade, Savage Reign, Samurai Showdown , Street Smart, KOF, etc. So they out-marveled marvel at the time. And I love them for that. Too bad not a lot of people know this cool thing about SNK. It was such an unappreciated inovater in video games.
I also loved SNK's character designs. They took way more risk. And I agree SNK started the more substance on the story fighting game and many other trends.
Hi Top Hat, you forgot to talk about the "hidden" super moves wich are exécutables only when your life bar is under 10% and your spirit gauge is full. Great vidéo anyway, art of Fighting is a masterpiece
Funny that, the move combinations for Desperations (they were called that - giving rise to SNKs implementations of Despeation Moves in later games) were never officially published back when, along with a couple of others (built upper), and IIRC, the only place you could see them was when you lost against the AI. Not even the ports had them on the manuals, tho by then everyone already knew how only Ryo and Robert had them in AOF1. It's pretty random when the key combination appears in a lose screen too. Obvious handiwork of the guy who created Street Fighter, tho as we can see it kind of failed to hide any secrets. :3
The player character in Street Smart looks kinda like Takuma, but wasn't named in the game or in promo materials. The only time he did get a name was in the Genesis port, and there he's called Tsutomu Amano.
The Sakazaki’s family fighting style is based on real life style called Kyokushin Karate, its’ fictional name is Kyokugen-ryu. Takuma is based on Kyokushin’s founder: Masutatsu Oyama.
Ryo Sakazaki and Terry Bogard are loosely based on B-movie actor and Martial Artist LOREN AVEDON, and Robert Garcia is loosely based on JEAN CLAUDE VAN DAMME and ANDY GARCIA, King is based on CYNTHIA ROTHROCK!
That scaling feature really mesmerized me at the time. It looked amazing! I also really liked that bonus rounds would increase the health bar and teach the super move. The sound effects were great, with every hit sounding really painful. The whole spirit gauge thing was annoying at first, but it's not so bad once you get used to it. The whole Fatal Fury connection made it interesting, and the inclusion of a Latin character made me an eternal fan. Robert García was extremely beloved in all the games he appeared within my gaming group.
Dude,, you just took me waaaayy back to almost 40 years ago!! We had MOST of these at our local arcade "Take Ten", throughout most of the 80's & 90's. But I probably wouldn't have even thought about those days agan, had I not seen this video!! 👍💯
My too.i,m for 43 years from Bulgaria I steep for first time I'm gamer toom in 1993-1994 my 3th Arcade game 🕹 .First ist Rampage and second Kung of Dragons 3th is arth of Finght .For Desperacion movie code i give 2 time for one Big boy and your girlfrend cinema ticket 🎟 😀 but it's worth it,s rolled game after 2-3 weeks 😀
Fun fact, the carrier John Crawley is assigned to is the USS Independence. I thought it was a neat background note. He's noted to be a Corporal according to his ending in AoF 2. I'm guessing there was an NJP involved.
Art of Fighting is criminally under rated and under appreciated. It introduced elements that have become staples in Fighting Games [Story Telling and the Super attacks] I hope I live long enough to see an AOF 4.
I love how her fighting style says Kyoko Genryu with a dash of Yuri's, and over the years, made a mockery of Street Fighter's super moves. Especially in KOF2001, were Yuri has a raging demon😂
I played a lot of this and World Heroes (they were on the same machine in my local arcade) once I got sick of SF2... but then X-Men: Children of the Atom was released....
I bout the _Art of Fighting Anthology_ for my ps2 and I was floored how difficult it was. It took me days to finally beat the first two games. It was a horrible example of button reading.
Had both the first 2 games on the Neo Geo home cart system, and while the original wasn't that hard, AoF 2 was incredibly challenging, especially if you made it to the hidden boss, Geese Howard. Had it saved at that point on my memory card, and I still think I only beat him once or twice the whole time I owned the game. AoF 2 was incredibly fun in 2 player mode, however. I remember having a great time playing it against friends.
Only AOF 2 is an input reader. AOF 1 is hard but beatable. Mr. Karate was very hard but the ones before him were not as hard. (sorry if I re-posted this but I guess my phone is acting weird)
AoF2 is probably one of the most difficult single player fighting games ever. Every character is as hard as most bosses in other games even at the lowest difficulty. AoF1 is hard but manageable. A0F3 is rather easy,
Actually in AoF you CAN use desperation moves (ryuko ranbo) if you are with very low health and have the full spirit bar. Probably one of the first games to have this feature.
Art of Figthing's presentation was increible for the time, and also the animé adaptation stands out for being Ayumi Hamazaki's only voice role in animé.
I heard that the King's top rip appears in Samurai Shodown 2. But only done by Hanzo's Baku'en Ryuu (Fireball Slinky) as the final hit to Nakaruru. Her top rips open also.
There's one feature that you forgot to mention the Super Special Moves (or Desperation Moves as they're later called). It's when your character is near death (around 25% or less) and you still have a full spirit gauge, you would be able to use an even more powerful attack. In Ryo & Robert's case, it's their Ryuko Ranbu which is their other signature Super Move.
Dan's design is a combination of Ryo and Robert. It's Robert's head on Ryo's body, and his style is a parody mix of them both. His emphasis on taunts is because, as you highlighted, taunting was a mechanic made popular by AOF
Actually, SNK was the first to make fun of Capcom's Street Fighter. In King Of Fighters 94, if you manage to reach Rugal Bernstein, he will reveal his gruesome collection of fighters that he *"defeated"* and made statues of, in the dialogue cutscene. In those metal statues, there's a statue of Ryu,Guile and Akuma. Dan was a somewhat retaliation to this. And in Capcom Vs SNK, there's a special interaction between Rugal and Guile. The special interaction has Guile doing his sonic boom on his statue, damaging it. Rugal then does his reppuken, completely destroying the statue.
i had this game when i was young, the SNES port, the guy from the store sold me with this argument: he got the cartuche box, and at the back it had a screenshot of Robert performing a Hawoh-ken and then said "do you like street fighter because of the hadouken right? look the size of the hadouken they do in this game!", my 5yo version thought that was enough of a reason to get tha game and i did. HUAHEUHUHEa
I've always respected AOF for the innovations it brought to the genre (dashing, super moves, character damage etc) it doesn't get the credit it deserves in that regard....however i've honestly never that big on the series gameplay wise. It was always too stiff and clunky and the "spirit gauge" restricting your use of special moves hurt it too. A damn shame tho because i always liked the graphics, music, and presentation of the series, but overall it doesn't hold up nearly as well as other classic SNK series like Fatal Fury, Samurai Shodown, or KOF. Tho i will say AOF 3 actually had excellent animations, too bad the game felt so "off" and weird to play. It felt very "slippery" like the fighters were sliding across the stage.
Art of fighting 2 was a significantly better game in my opinion but it still couldn't hold up to Samurai Shodown at that point. I thoroughly enjoyed the second one though
@@kokujin-r7254 I agree, AOF2 is my favorite in the series overall. I think it would have honestly been one of my favorite fighting games at the time if it was just faster, more fluid, and they ditched the spirit gauge thing. I loved everything else about that game.
@@Rei_Tatekei Yep! Man i've been saying that exact thing for years. It's funny because people say SNK stole from Capcom with Garou but there was AOF3 before SF3.
@@Rei_Tatekei I know alot of people like to say Capcom stole from snk but alot of those programmers were friends. They would actually talk about what they could do to improve each other's games. It wasn't as malicious as people thought it was
I think it's supposed to be '87, but somehow it got flipped along the way. It's also the only way Art of Fighting characters could possibly be able to interact with Fatal Fury characters in the KOF games.
Art of Fighting was the first SNES game I bought with my own money for my birthday. I had experience playing in in the Arcade prior so I was well familiar with it when I got the console version. I got good enough to beat it with both Ryo and Robert on the hardest difficulty in the arcade mode without losing a single round. It was an early video game achievement in my tween years. Like many fighting games of the time, the harder the difficulty mostly resulted in the AI's attacks taking off more damage and yours doing less. For AOF, you also started out with less health and spirit than your opponents and would enter every fight with a disadvantage even if you were successful in the bonus rounds. If you wanted either max health or spirit, then you couldn't get the Haow-Ken death blow. As cool and powerful as the attack was, it was too slow and unless your opponent was stunned it wasn't easy to hit the AI with it. Plus on the later difficulties it really didn't do that much damage even when you did pull it off successfully. For me I always tried to max out my health, though that was basically impossible without a turbo controller for the last bonus round. Maxing out spirit was the easier route but since you could refill that within the match itself, I didn't usually bother with it. Plus the last bonus round for that was easy to mess up anyways also. This wasn't an easy game but it's almost a cakewalk compared to AOF 2, which is disappointing it never got a North American release on the SNES. I played the Japanese version on an Emulator though so that was more than enough. Look forward to seeing your AOF 2 Video. Keep up the great work!
I'll say it again . You really should have more subscribers . I haven't really been a fan of fighting games since the days of the SNES and Genesis ( MegaDrive ) , but I still can't get enough of this rich history of fighter games that you have been providing to us . Excellent video as always !!!!
Me too. My brothers and I loved it on my Mega drive. We'd play yet a lot. The story got me hooked and made me replay it a million times times thinking there is some sort of secret ending. Good times
When I was about 6 (1994) the Round Table Pizza by my house had this game. After spending all my parents' quarters on it every time we went, they got it for me on SEGA Genesis. The characters seemed totally ridiculous to me, even compared to Street Fighter, but I loved it and it'll always be the pizza game to me.
I love this video and series soooooo much! I always kinda liked AoF because of how different it was. A lot of innovations from this small series effected the genre forever.
I find that Art of Fighting is deeply underrated of the contributions it brought to fighting games. The super special moves is an obvious one, I'd really like to see SNK re-visit this franchise someday. Also seeing the game it reminds me how when it came out there were tons of people in the arcade trying to beat it or going at it in versus mode. Both Aof1 and MK1 were really hard to play since there was always a bunch of people on the machines. Anyway, nice job on the video, you covered the topic really well.
Art of Fighting is the redheaded half brother who gets all the abuse from the rest of the family and then starts walking down odd paths(mostly thinking of you AOF3).
Now that, I didn't know, but it makes sense because of Swayze's vibes for Ryo from the movie Road House. What I also notice from Ryo's inspirations: • 孫悟空 - Kakarot from Dragon Ball (because of his Haoh-Shoko-Ken AKA Kamehameha, orange karate-gi, and black weight gear, even though Kakarot wears blue ones.) • Kenshirō from Hokuto no Ken (because Ryo has Kenshirou-looking moves such as the Zan-Retsu-Ken and Hien-Shippu-Kyaku.) • Ryu from Street Fighter (both have a Tomoe-Nage throw, as well as a Fireball and a Dragon Uppercut, both being executed by the same code inputs.)
I know it's a rather new game, but I love love love Fantasy Strike. I think it deserves so much more recognition! Great online play, easy to learn, difficult to master, on all current systems, etc.
Ahh Mr Top Hat my good man, would you consider doing the history of Die Hard Arcade/Dynamite Deka & it's not sequel Dynamite Cop/Dynamite Deka 2. Would fall in with your lovely SoR vids & a nice gap on TH-cam would be filled. Many thanks my good chap, Ta Ta.
Art of Fighting ROARED in the arcades and had a great crowd of players at my local arcade! What made this game standout more than SF ( besides the amazing visuals) was the special move/ super bar! It would take Capcom another 2 years to finally add a super bar to a single SF title!
I played the Super NES port back in the day. It had a special audio mode that played an 'enhanced' versions of the soundtrack. The music in this game was so good! I always played it loud! I always thought (or I read) that King was based on martial arts movie star Cynthia Rothrock.
AOF is legendary, When I first played it I was blown away by the visuals and sound quality, huge sprites. SNK games need to be gamed on proper SNK hardware, no conversions etc, MVS or AES
So many info is missing, and lot is mistaken, Ryo is not based on Ryu (pronounced リュウ, Hepburn: Ryū not Raiu) he is based on Goku and Kenshiro, SNK pitched a Hokuto no ken Game, and it was rejected(HENCE THE NAME RYUUKU NO KEN) They kept some of the moves, like the Zanretsuken, And the GI is same as Goku, and thats the reason why you can charge KI. It had nothing to do with Ryu, then they added the Kohou, to match Shotokhan characters. You also missed that Todoh is based on Soun Tendou. You found that info on Wikipedia, but just like Jordan Peterson said: READ MORE Still you have my like and subscription, for doing your part with this video!
I hope there is a build up to how all of these characters all meet up to cross over in the KoF franchise! In Mexico, arcade machines were very popular basically until a few years ago where game consoles reached somewhat more affordable prices. King of Fighters (+ Metal Slug) is a big hit down there as Street Fighter was up here in the US. Even the red frames for the AES multicart systems were super popular to house non SNK games like Marvel vs Capcom. I am enjoying these fighting game histories, keep up the good work!
I remember my friends and I playing this as often as we could as 12 years olds in New Zealand. We had a fish and chip shop near us that had this game in it, it was the only AOF cabinet in the entire city. We would spend hours upon hours playing it and trying to master all the moves. An older kid came in one day and did Robert's supermove and rapidly mashed the buttons as Robert was doing the combo, we were then given a false button combination of how to do it haha. As young, naive kids it took about 3 months to click that we had been duped Lmao, good times.
You forgot to mention that the SnES or SFC version also had desperation moves for ALL characters - something you also forgot to mention that this was the first game ever to introduce the idea of Desperation moves into the fighting games universe. The hint for all the different character’s desperation moves for the snes/sfc version are found after you beat the game at varying difficulties - easiest level will show Ryo/Robert/Mr Karate’s one, next level up is Todo and follows up to the Hardest mode which reveals Mr Big’s desperation move (lame but damaging). The SNes/sfc stood out for having that extra thrown in, great for 2 player local fights! Gawd i loved John Crowley’s desperation move! Go try it!!
Back in the day, this game captivated me in the arcades. It absolutely towered over everything i had ever seen before. Massive! Sprites that made street fighter 2 characters seem like dwarves, and that zoom effect was highly captivating. The music and quality of the sound... Just everything made me feel highly privelaged to play this work of art!! However, it was hard as balls! This game made my parents bankrupt. Gameplay does feel clunky and tight, so its far from perfect, but damn! The nostalga is high
Robert Garcia drives a Ferrari F40. That car didn't come out till late 80s. Also if you have a game save of aof on a neo geo memory card, if you played aof 2, your player started with the death blow if you got it in aof 1.
I wasn't aware that the boss characters (Mr. Big & Mr. Karate) were selectable through a special code in the arcade VS mode. I did know that if you reach Mr. Big & Mr. Karate in story mode and then someone challenges you in VS mode, those two characters were indeed selectable. I do like the strategy element that the bonus stages offer. Do you choose to increase your spirit gauge? Increase your Health bar? Or do you want to unlock your super death blow? Me personally, I don't care for the super death blow. I can beat the game without it. I do health bar the first two times and then try my timing skills on the spirit gauge increase last. Good history lesson. :)
Very intesting video, thank you. Made to concurrence SF2, AOF introduced Zoom, Spirit power gauge, face modification, tired stand when character's health come under 30%, giant fireball (haoshokoken) and ultimate attack (kyokugenryuogi), possibility of multiple kick/punch while one jump, oponent may receive hit after KO or after hitted while a jump, KO from a very little punch don't make character jump back, character cry their rage even it's still not the final hit, final hit have its special sound FX (feel like a punch knocking your head), multiple hit attack make oponent flying (zanretsu ken "1000punch" inspired from hokuto's hyakurestuken "100punch"), characters feel more credible and less folkoric than SF2, global ambient too (music & background scene), colorimetry si a good balance between realistic and easy to watch . Character design made by guy comming from Capcom is sometimes said as the real face that SF2 should show. Unfortunately, SNK was hurry and time developement too short (as often), animation frame, character balance, limited story mode (even it's more intense) and SNK's game difficulty (a wall for beginners) make this game underrated. AOF 2 was good balanced but it lost this feeling of surrealistic violence that AOF 1 has and new characters looks folkloric, then AOF 3 is quite different, smaller sprite size, manga colorimetry design, no face modification, surrealism feeling from AOF 1 is lost forever. Then SNK lost interest for this franchise. Half of the bar raised by AOF 1 was forgotten and are still not used on today's fighting games. I have no hope for a AOF4, cause we do not need AOF franchise, we need about spirit of AOF1, so if talent and smart developper may reproduce this feeling and think how to improve it, it's okay to me.
I think it's really funny how you do a halfway decent job pronouncing Ryo's name (Lio, kind of like Yo but placing the tongue at the top of your mouth in the beginning in the L placement going right into Yo) but pronounce the Ry part of Ryu completely differently. Hahaha! Hot oil wins!
Btw fun tip, her attacks vary depending on which groove you choose. It also effects her specials, offense & defense as well. But she is an incredible character to master.
The stories that the games made by SNK are so good. that is one of the main reasons I love SNK games. They had great characters with their own interesting backstories and motivations. there was so much in depth lore that makes you love the characters even if the game wasn't as good. SNK took that basic blocks from the 1st Fatal Fury and Art of Fighting then went on to build on them with each upcoming sequel making their story more grandiose and intertwined. The same for every other game that came after. Every SNK fighter they had made exist in the same universe albeit in different time periods (except for KOF that kind of exists in its own pocket universe). Fatal Fury, Art of Fighting, Last Blade, Savage Reign, Samurai Showdown , Street Smart, KOF, etc. SNK out-marveled marvel before a shared universe was a thing. Too bad not a lot of people (especially in the west) know about SNK and how innovator and ahead of their time they were. just look at Terry's reveal on Smash Bros and how confused many people were about who he was. I'm glad that more famous youtubers like Top Hat Gaming Man and Maximillian Dude are shedding some light on this legendary company. (copied from the Fatal Fury video so more people can read my thoughts about the SNK games)
I thought Dan Hibiki was more or less Robert Garcia's head on top of Ryo Sakazaki's body.
Capcom had a lot of fun with this in some of their games. In Street Fighter Alpha 3, one of Dan's win quotes is, "I hate the art of fighting, but I wanna be the king of fighters." But by the best Dan/SNK reference is in Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter. Dan's ending spoofs the Art of Fighting ending, when Dan's sister stops Dan from killing Cyber Akuma and says "Brother! Stop! Don't you know who he is? He's our..." The End.
& Dan's Sister Returns as a Host in the Shop in SF5.
Roberts head, Ryo’s body and moves, and yuri’s personality
The animation in AoF 3 is ridiculously good. Looks so crisp even now.
[might be worth a video. One of the first motion captured fighters I think]
In my opinion that's what held it back. If it was done like Mark of the Wolves it would have been more fun.
Video games would not be the same without SNK. A big part of my video games childhood.
Same
They did so many things before everybody else.
I loved how SNK tried to make their fighting games more story heavy, that was something most fighting games didn't care about until MK VS DC Universe
Now kof 15 is under development now we will see what happen to shun ei again
Could not agree more. And that is one of the main reasons I love SNK games. They had so much character and depth with a lot of lore that you could sink into. And they just built on it with each game. Every fighting game they had made exist in the same universe. Fatal Fury, Art of Fighting, Last Blade, Savage Reign, Samurai Showdown , Street Smart, KOF, etc. So they out-marveled marvel at the time. And I love them for that. Too bad not a lot of people know this cool thing about SNK. It was such an unappreciated inovater in video games.
Yea that’s called Street Fighter Alpha
I also loved SNK's character designs. They took way more risk. And I agree SNK started the more substance on the story fighting game and many other trends.
Until Mortal Kombat vs DCUniverse?
Laughs in Tekken.
Hi Top Hat, you forgot to talk about the "hidden" super moves wich are exécutables only when your life bar is under 10% and your spirit gauge is full. Great vidéo anyway, art of Fighting is a masterpiece
Desperation Moves
Funny that, the move combinations for Desperations (they were called that - giving rise to SNKs implementations of Despeation Moves in later games) were never officially published back when, along with a couple of others (built upper), and IIRC, the only place you could see them was when you lost against the AI. Not even the ports had them on the manuals, tho by then everyone already knew how only Ryo and Robert had them in AOF1. It's pretty random when the key combination appears in a lose screen too. Obvious handiwork of the guy who created Street Fighter, tho as we can see it kind of failed to hide any secrets. :3
mr. karate 1st appeared as PLAYER 1 in a game called STREET SMART by SNK
A fighting game that was played as a beat-em-up. It was quite hard
The player character in Street Smart looks kinda like Takuma, but wasn't named in the game or in promo materials. The only time he did get a name was in the Genesis port, and there he's called Tsutomu Amano.
Snk neither confirmed or denied that he's takuma. But if you real snk you thats takuma . The other guy is said to be Jeff bogard
Street was a coin eater. 😂🤣😂🤣
I remember Dan's ending in Marvel vs. Street Fighter poked fun at Art of Fighting's ending.
Dan is basically Ryo and Robert fused LOL
An arcade machine that ends on a cliffhanger, unique I must say.
Game, not machine. Neo geo used cartridges. But I get what you're saying
It had a lot of things we take for granted and consider mandatory in the genre now
The Sakazaki’s family fighting style is based on real life style called Kyokushin Karate, its’ fictional name is Kyokugen-ryu. Takuma is based on Kyokushin’s founder: Masutatsu Oyama.
But in real life no fireballs appear
OSU!!!
Ryo Sakazaki and Terry Bogard are loosely based on B-movie actor and Martial Artist LOREN AVEDON, and Robert Garcia is loosely based on
JEAN CLAUDE VAN DAMME and ANDY GARCIA, King is based on CYNTHIA ROTHROCK!
@@chadbrick67 ...not for now, anyways
@@ramonantoniobennett-ryuuke6301 King was actually based on a dutch martial artist actress
That scaling feature really mesmerized me at the time. It looked amazing! I also really liked that bonus rounds would increase the health bar and teach the super move. The sound effects were great, with every hit sounding really painful.
The whole spirit gauge thing was annoying at first, but it's not so bad once you get used to it. The whole Fatal Fury connection made it interesting, and the inclusion of a Latin character made me an eternal fan. Robert García was extremely beloved in all the games he appeared within my gaming group.
Dude,, you just took me waaaayy back to almost 40 years ago!! We had MOST of these at our local arcade "Take Ten", throughout most of the 80's & 90's. But I probably wouldn't have even thought about those days agan, had I not seen this video!! 👍💯
My too.i,m for 43 years from Bulgaria I steep for first time I'm gamer toom in 1993-1994 my 3th Arcade game 🕹 .First ist Rampage and second Kung of Dragons 3th is arth of Finght .For Desperacion movie code i give 2 time for one Big boy and your girlfrend cinema ticket 🎟 😀 but it's worth it,s rolled game after 2-3 weeks 😀
Wow, can't wait to find out who Mr. Karate really is! Guess I am just going to go watch The Empire Strikes Back while I wait.
@@trollerblade1011 No, he's Lando.
Spoiler alert its a stormtrooper
Fun fact, the carrier John Crawley is assigned to is the USS Independence. I thought it was a neat background note.
He's noted to be a Corporal according to his ending in AoF 2. I'm guessing there was an NJP involved.
Art of Fighting is criminally under rated and under appreciated. It introduced elements that have become staples in Fighting Games [Story Telling and the Super attacks] I hope I live long enough to see an AOF 4.
I love Yuri's story arc from damsel in distressed/kidnapped victim to someone NO ONE would dare tangle with
I know. Right? How many characters receive such a level of growth? I love how they composed Yuri's personality then to now.
They kinda immediately set the tone for female characters with King, and didn't screw it up with Yuri, or, well, Kasumi. :3
I love how her fighting style says Kyoko Genryu with a dash of Yuri's, and over the years, made a mockery of Street Fighter's super moves. Especially in KOF2001, were Yuri has a raging demon😂
Yuri is proto Sakura
MR. KARATE She copies Ryu so you're not wrong
I played a lot of this and World Heroes (they were on the same machine in my local arcade) once I got sick of SF2... but then X-Men: Children of the Atom was released....
World Heroes is my game part 2 also
I bout the _Art of Fighting Anthology_ for my ps2 and I was floored how difficult it was. It took me days to finally beat the first two games. It was a horrible example of button reading.
That's SNK games for you.
Man, AOF2 is when Geese gave you a heart attack.
Had both the first 2 games on the Neo Geo home cart system, and while the original wasn't that hard, AoF 2 was incredibly challenging, especially if you made it to the hidden boss, Geese Howard. Had it saved at that point on my memory card, and I still think I only beat him once or twice the whole time I owned the game. AoF 2 was incredibly fun in 2 player mode, however. I remember having a great time playing it against friends.
Only AOF 2 is an input reader. AOF 1 is hard but beatable. Mr. Karate was very hard but the ones before him were not as hard. (sorry if I re-posted this but I guess my phone is acting weird)
AoF2 is probably one of the most difficult single player fighting games ever. Every character is as hard as most bosses in other games even at the lowest difficulty.
AoF1 is hard but manageable.
A0F3 is rather easy,
Keep up the great SNK videos and I'll definitely become a patron!
Clearly, King is inspired by the movie, JUST ONE OF THE GUYS, its an 80s flick, pretty 80s, check it out!
@@hipertobias watch the movie
What is d name of d movie
@@danielarellano7186 "JUST ONE OF THE GUYS"
@@Ontime2day one of my favorite movies
@@hipertobias Reminds me much more of Cynthia Rothrock.
Actually in AoF you CAN use desperation moves (ryuko ranbo) if you are with very low health and have the full spirit bar. Probably one of the first games to have this feature.
My favorite TH-cam series!! Always look forward to these videos.
.. anyone remember "world heroes".. was about the same time as AOF
Its snk game back in the day snk make alot of fighting game and other game
World Heroes was created by ADK though, and not SNK, but did appear on the Neo Geo hardware for 4 games. SNK eventually did buy ADK out though.
Art of Figthing's presentation was increible for the time, and also the animé adaptation stands out for being Ayumi Hamazaki's only voice role in animé.
Top Hat Gaming Man
You forgot to mention wall jump
Awesome stuff, sir 🎩! It would be awesome to meet you one day.
I heard that the King's top rip appears in Samurai Shodown 2. But only done by Hanzo's Baku'en Ryuu (Fireball Slinky) as the final hit to Nakaruru. Her top rips open also.
There's one feature that you forgot to mention the Super Special Moves (or Desperation Moves as they're later called). It's when your character is near death (around 25% or less) and you still have a full spirit gauge, you would be able to use an even more powerful attack. In Ryo & Robert's case, it's their Ryuko Ranbu which is their other signature Super Move.
Final fight was never ever known as Street Fighter 2. If anything it was Street Fighter 89
Dan's design is a combination of Ryo and Robert. It's Robert's head on Ryo's body, and his style is a parody mix of them both. His emphasis on taunts is because, as you highlighted, taunting was a mechanic made popular by AOF
Love your videos brother!!...the nostalgia comes to me hard when I watch these things!! I would like to see you do vids on the World Heroes series!!
Actually, SNK was the first to make fun of Capcom's Street Fighter. In King Of Fighters 94, if you manage to reach Rugal Bernstein, he will reveal his gruesome collection of fighters that he *"defeated"* and made statues of, in the dialogue cutscene. In those metal statues, there's a statue of Ryu,Guile and Akuma. Dan was a somewhat retaliation to this. And in Capcom Vs SNK, there's a special interaction between Rugal and Guile. The special interaction has Guile doing his sonic boom on his statue, damaging it. Rugal then does his reppuken, completely destroying the statue.
bagsikdangal awesome info
@snkrules Man, your English is awful.
Yuri adapts and learn other fighters moves such as Ryu, Terry and akuma and has taken Makoto’s intro animation as well.
People always think Capcom started the beef when it was SNK who started it with AOF, then AOF2, then KOF'94. All before 1995 where SFA dropped. xD
Capcom made Street Fighter 1. Many of the people who made SF1 later on went to SNK where they made Fatal Fury, Art of Fighting,etc.
i had this game when i was young, the SNES port, the guy from the store sold me with this argument: he got the cartuche box, and at the back it had a screenshot of Robert performing a Hawoh-ken and then said "do you like street fighter because of the hadouken right? look the size of the hadouken they do in this game!", my 5yo version thought that was enough of a reason to get tha game and i did. HUAHEUHUHEa
I've always respected AOF for the innovations it brought to the genre (dashing, super moves, character damage etc) it doesn't get the credit it deserves in that regard....however i've honestly never that big on the series gameplay wise. It was always too stiff and clunky and the "spirit gauge" restricting your use of special moves hurt it too. A damn shame tho because i always liked the graphics, music, and presentation of the series, but overall it doesn't hold up nearly as well as other classic SNK series like Fatal Fury, Samurai Shodown, or KOF. Tho i will say AOF 3 actually had excellent animations, too bad the game felt so "off" and weird to play. It felt very "slippery" like the fighters were sliding across the stage.
Art of fighting 2 was a significantly better game in my opinion but it still couldn't hold up to Samurai Shodown at that point. I thoroughly enjoyed the second one though
@@kokujin-r7254 I agree, AOF2 is my favorite in the series overall. I think it would have honestly been one of my favorite fighting games at the time if it was just faster, more fluid, and they ditched the spirit gauge thing. I loved everything else about that game.
Yea, and Capcom stole the idea for SF3 from AOF3.
@@Rei_Tatekei Yep! Man i've been saying that exact thing for years. It's funny because people say SNK stole from Capcom with Garou but there was AOF3 before SF3.
@@Rei_Tatekei I know alot of people like to say Capcom stole from snk but alot of those programmers were friends. They would actually talk about what they could do to improve each other's games. It wasn't as malicious as people thought it was
I like the first game despite its stuff controls. The 2nd game is my favorite even though the ai is bs. I need to play more of 3rd game
The arcade cabinet for Art of Fighting was so cool as a kid, the zooming in and out was very attractive.
AOF takes place in 1978!? There nothing about that game that gives off a 1978 look lol
Isn't that an F40? That car is from 1987.
Well you know how inaccurate video games are in the certain years they take place in especially fighting games you just go with it.
True. This looks more like the 80's if anything.
I think it's supposed to be '87, but somehow it got flipped along the way. It's also the only way Art of Fighting characters could possibly be able to interact with Fatal Fury characters in the KOF games.
@@lindyxmjh4589 Yea because I always c thought it was the 80's just how most characters looked
"Soon, all will know Todo! No, not the dog!" - Todo's daughter Kasumi in KOF96
I always thought that Ryo and Robert was kinda inspired by John Kreese and Terry Silver from Karate Kid 3.
Wow...man i never made that comparison in my mind but i can definitely see it.
Terry silver is Dan hibiki LoL John kreese is Geese Howard LoL
@@Mallyumansky
Geese howard is souther from
Hokuto no ken / fist of the north star
rival schools, strider, and saturday night slam masters
Nailing it. You're on point. Keep this up, 100 k soon.
Gee, who can Mr. Karate possibly be!!!
👺
Great video but I think you should try your hand at fighting layer
Thanks for the video man. I appreciate. I hope to see more from this series as well
Thanks for your content, you should do World Heroes, whats that game about, any relations to fatal fury or art of fighting ?
Hats off (pun intended) to you for putting out so many quality videos so quickly! We see the effort and appreciate it!
Yes! One of my favorite fighting games of all time. I used to speed run this on all difficulty settings. Definitely a classic!
Art of Fighting was the first SNES game I bought with my own money for my birthday. I had experience playing in in the Arcade prior so I was well familiar with it when I got the console version. I got good enough to beat it with both Ryo and Robert on the hardest difficulty in the arcade mode without losing a single round. It was an early video game achievement in my tween years.
Like many fighting games of the time, the harder the difficulty mostly resulted in the AI's attacks taking off more damage and yours doing less. For AOF, you also started out with less health and spirit than your opponents and would enter every fight with a disadvantage even if you were successful in the bonus rounds. If you wanted either max health or spirit, then you couldn't get the Haow-Ken death blow. As cool and powerful as the attack was, it was too slow and unless your opponent was stunned it wasn't easy to hit the AI with it. Plus on the later difficulties it really didn't do that much damage even when you did pull it off successfully.
For me I always tried to max out my health, though that was basically impossible without a turbo controller for the last bonus round. Maxing out spirit was the easier route but since you could refill that within the match itself, I didn't usually bother with it. Plus the last bonus round for that was easy to mess up anyways also.
This wasn't an easy game but it's almost a cakewalk compared to AOF 2, which is disappointing it never got a North American release on the SNES. I played the Japanese version on an Emulator though so that was more than enough.
Look forward to seeing your AOF 2 Video. Keep up the great work!
I'll say it again . You really should have more subscribers . I haven't really been a fan of fighting games since the days of the SNES and Genesis ( MegaDrive ) , but I still can't get enough of this rich history of fighter games that you have been providing to us . Excellent video as always !!!!
I had this game in genesis and I played a lot in arcades.I beat both of them with one credit. It was somehow hard and unfair.
Me too. My brothers and I loved it on my Mega drive. We'd play yet a lot. The story got me hooked and made me replay it a million times times thinking there is some sort of secret ending. Good times
When I was about 6 (1994) the Round Table Pizza by my house had this game. After spending all my parents' quarters on it every time we went, they got it for me on SEGA Genesis. The characters seemed totally ridiculous to me, even compared to Street Fighter, but I loved it and it'll always be the pizza game to me.
I love this video and series soooooo much! I always kinda liked AoF because of how different it was. A lot of innovations from this small series effected the genre forever.
Snk put out a bunch of fighting games in the 90's. This was one of my favorites.
I honestly have never heard of this game I love learning new stuff on this channel.
Art of fighting is one of those games that doesn’t get the credit it deserves; it brought more advancements to the fighting genre than even fatal fury
I find that Art of Fighting is deeply underrated of the contributions it brought to fighting games. The super special moves is an obvious one, I'd really like to see SNK re-visit this franchise someday.
Also seeing the game it reminds me how when it came out there were tons of people in the arcade trying to beat it or going at it in versus mode. Both Aof1 and MK1 were really hard to play since there was always a bunch of people on the machines.
Anyway, nice job on the video, you covered the topic really well.
Art of Fighting is the redheaded half brother who gets all the abuse from the rest of the family and then starts walking down odd paths(mostly thinking of you AOF3).
Please, please, please do Fighters' History!
Art of Fighting was one of my favourites despite the sometimes maligned zoom effect.
Ryo is also based on Patrick Swayze.
Now that, I didn't know, but it makes sense because of Swayze's vibes for Ryo from the movie Road House.
What I also notice from Ryo's inspirations:
• 孫悟空 - Kakarot from Dragon Ball (because of his Haoh-Shoko-Ken AKA Kamehameha, orange karate-gi, and black weight gear, even though Kakarot wears blue ones.)
• Kenshirō from Hokuto no Ken (because Ryo has Kenshirou-looking moves such as the Zan-Retsu-Ken and Hien-Shippu-Kyaku.)
• Ryu from Street Fighter (both have a Tomoe-Nage throw, as well as a Fireball and a Dragon Uppercut, both being executed by the same code inputs.)
Where did you hear that?
I know it's a rather new game, but I love love love Fantasy Strike. I think it deserves so much more recognition! Great online play, easy to learn, difficult to master, on all current systems, etc.
Ahh Mr Top Hat my good man, would you consider doing the history of Die Hard Arcade/Dynamite Deka & it's not sequel Dynamite Cop/Dynamite Deka 2. Would fall in with your lovely SoR vids & a nice gap on TH-cam would be filled.
Many thanks my good chap,
Ta Ta.
Art of Fighting ROARED in the arcades and had a great crowd of players at my local arcade! What made this game standout more than SF ( besides the amazing visuals) was the special move/ super bar! It would take Capcom another 2 years to finally add a super bar to a single SF title!
Thank you for all of your content man! It’s great all of the time but even more so in this time. God bless and stay well! ✌🏾
I played the Super NES port back in the day. It had a special audio mode that played an 'enhanced' versions of the soundtrack. The music in this game was so good! I always played it loud!
I always thought (or I read) that King was based on martial arts movie star Cynthia Rothrock.
I love SNK fighting games! Fatal Fury is my favorite fighting series of ALL time! Keep up the good work!👍🏽👍🏾👍🏿
AOF is legendary, When I first played it I was blown away by the visuals and sound quality, huge sprites. SNK games need to be gamed on proper SNK hardware, no conversions etc, MVS or AES
So many info is missing, and lot is mistaken, Ryo is not based on Ryu (pronounced リュウ, Hepburn: Ryū not Raiu) he is based on Goku and Kenshiro, SNK pitched a Hokuto no ken Game, and it was rejected(HENCE THE NAME RYUUKU NO KEN) They kept some of the moves, like the Zanretsuken, And the GI is same as Goku, and thats the reason why you can charge KI. It had nothing to do with Ryu, then they added the Kohou, to match Shotokhan characters.
You also missed that Todoh is based on Soun Tendou.
You found that info on Wikipedia, but just like Jordan Peterson said: READ MORE
Still you have my like and subscription, for doing your part with this video!
I was a young button masher and would "play" this game in Cental London. Loved it very much
Art of fighting 2!!!!! The culture NEEDS it from you TOP HAT
I hope there is a build up to how all of these characters all meet up to cross over in the KoF franchise!
In Mexico, arcade machines were very popular basically until a few years ago where game consoles reached somewhat more affordable prices.
King of Fighters (+ Metal Slug) is a big hit down there as Street Fighter was up here in the US. Even the red frames for the AES multicart systems were super popular to house non SNK games like Marvel vs Capcom. I am enjoying these fighting game histories, keep up the good work!
Thanks for this video! I love the trilogy Art of fighting! Unfortunately many people forgot about this serie!
I always picture you stroking a hairless cat during your intro. Great video as always 😁😁😁
I remember my friends and I playing this as often as we could as 12 years olds in New Zealand. We had a fish and chip shop near us that had this game in it, it was the only AOF cabinet in the entire city. We would spend hours upon hours playing it and trying to master all the moves. An older kid came in one day and did Robert's supermove and rapidly mashed the buttons as Robert was doing the combo, we were then given a false button combination of how to do it haha. As young, naive kids it took about 3 months to click that we had been duped Lmao, good times.
Your channel is gold man keep it up.
You forgot to mention that the SnES or SFC version also had desperation moves for ALL characters - something you also forgot to mention that this was the first game ever to introduce the idea of Desperation moves into the fighting games universe.
The hint for all the different character’s desperation moves for the snes/sfc version are found after you beat the game at varying difficulties - easiest level will show Ryo/Robert/Mr Karate’s one, next level up is Todo and follows up to the Hardest mode which reveals Mr Big’s desperation move (lame but damaging). The SNes/sfc stood out for having that extra thrown in, great for 2 player local fights! Gawd i loved John Crowley’s desperation move!
Go try it!!
John from Art of Fighting 1 still has one of the coolest themes in Fighting Games.
I love TopHatGaming!!!! So much nostalgia!!! 😘
5:25 That Mr Big's identity was Frankie Lideo.
And got turned into stardust by Mecha Jackson turned into a massive battle spaceship.
I bought AOF not too long time ago here in Japan! Cool story and nice gameplay actually!
Back in the day, this game captivated me in the arcades. It absolutely towered over everything i had ever seen before. Massive! Sprites that made street fighter 2 characters seem like dwarves, and that zoom effect was highly captivating. The music and quality of the sound... Just everything made me feel highly privelaged to play this work of art!! However, it was hard as balls! This game made my parents bankrupt. Gameplay does feel clunky and tight, so its far from perfect, but damn! The nostalga is high
I still own this and AOF2. I always loved the sound in both games. Specially when players get hit by the giant hadouken
I love the AOF sound effects. Especially when they get hit by a heavy attack/special attack. It really gives that sense of power to the attacks.
Good story about Art Of Fighting. How about looking into Global Champion next?
Robert Garcia drives a Ferrari F40. That car didn't come out till late 80s.
Also if you have a game save of aof on a neo geo memory card, if you played aof 2, your player started with the death blow if you got it in aof 1.
Art of fighting is one of the hardest fighting games.
What I love about the SNES version of this game is that in 2 player mode you're able to use all the characters and they all get a Final Death Blow!
I hate it how he calls Ryu Rhy-yoo and calls Ryo correctly.
You had one job man.
Thank you so much!!! Always look forward to your vids.
I wasn't aware that the boss characters (Mr. Big & Mr. Karate) were selectable through a special code in the arcade VS mode. I did know that if you reach Mr. Big & Mr. Karate in story mode and then someone challenges you in VS mode, those two characters were indeed selectable. I do like the strategy element that the bonus stages offer. Do you choose to increase your spirit gauge? Increase your Health bar? Or do you want to unlock your super death blow?
Me personally, I don't care for the super death blow. I can beat the game without it. I do health bar the first two times and then try my timing skills on the spirit gauge increase last. Good history lesson. :)
Very intesting video, thank you.
Made to concurrence SF2, AOF introduced Zoom, Spirit power gauge, face modification, tired stand when character's health come under 30%, giant fireball (haoshokoken) and ultimate attack (kyokugenryuogi), possibility of multiple kick/punch while one jump, oponent may receive hit after KO or after hitted while a jump, KO from a very little punch don't make character jump back, character cry their rage even it's still not the final hit, final hit have its special sound FX (feel like a punch knocking your head), multiple hit attack make oponent flying (zanretsu ken "1000punch" inspired from hokuto's hyakurestuken "100punch"), characters feel more credible and less folkoric than SF2, global ambient too (music & background scene), colorimetry si a good balance between realistic and easy to watch . Character design made by guy comming from Capcom is sometimes said as the real face that SF2 should show.
Unfortunately, SNK was hurry and time developement too short (as often), animation frame, character balance, limited story mode (even it's more intense) and SNK's game difficulty (a wall for beginners) make this game underrated. AOF 2 was good balanced but it lost this feeling of surrealistic violence that AOF 1 has and new characters looks folkloric, then AOF 3 is quite different, smaller sprite size, manga colorimetry design, no face modification, surrealism feeling from AOF 1 is lost forever. Then SNK lost interest for this franchise.
Half of the bar raised by AOF 1 was forgotten and are still not used on today's fighting games.
I have no hope for a AOF4, cause we do not need AOF franchise, we need about spirit of AOF1, so if talent and smart developper may reproduce this feeling and think how to improve it, it's okay to me.
I like the first one but fatal fury special was my favorite
Fury
5:40 a video about the mad history behind Michael Jackson and Sega gaming patnership? Yes, please!
I think it's really funny how you do a halfway decent job pronouncing Ryo's name (Lio, kind of like Yo but placing the tongue at the top of your mouth in the beginning in the L placement going right into Yo) but pronounce the Ry part of Ryu completely differently. Hahaha!
Hot oil wins!
So AOF was the first to do supers and also ultra combos? Interesting
The Art of the Hat Man clearly! Great video again THGM, cheerio!
Good thing you mentioned Dan. I'm sure most people don't know he was designed to make fun of AoF's Ryo and Robert.
Can you a story on FIGHTER'S HISTORY Series?
I am considering doing that week!
I have always preferred aof, fatal fury and kof over Street fighter series.
Wei Tsung Soo why
If you like the pc engine version of this game, the ports of Fatal Fury 2 and Special are a sight to behold as well. Very close to the Neo Geo.
I use to main King back on Capcom VS. Snk 2 love doing the Surprise Rose.
Btw fun tip, her attacks vary depending on which groove you choose. It also effects her specials, offense & defense as well. But she is an incredible character to master.
The stories that the games made by SNK are so good. that is one of the main reasons I love SNK games. They had great characters with their own interesting backstories and motivations. there was so much in depth lore that makes you love the characters even if the game wasn't as good. SNK took that basic blocks from the 1st Fatal Fury and Art of Fighting then went on to build on them with each upcoming sequel making their story more grandiose and intertwined. The same for every other game that came after. Every SNK fighter they had made exist in the same universe albeit in different time periods (except for KOF that kind of exists in its own pocket universe). Fatal Fury, Art of Fighting, Last Blade, Savage Reign, Samurai Showdown , Street Smart, KOF, etc. SNK out-marveled marvel before a shared universe was a thing. Too bad not a lot of people (especially in the west) know about SNK and how innovator and ahead of their time they were. just look at Terry's reveal on Smash Bros and how confused many people were about who he was.
I'm glad that more famous youtubers like Top Hat Gaming Man and Maximillian Dude are shedding some light on this legendary company. (copied from the Fatal Fury video so more people can read my thoughts about the SNK games)