Art of Fighting Anthology

"This old girls can't hide their real age"

For the majority of the 1990s, SNK was Capcom's biggest competitor when it came to the race for fighting game supremacy. SNK brought us some of the most well known fighting games in existence. Games like Fatal Fury, Samurai Shodown, Last Blade, and even World Heroes come to mind, and you remember having fun with them.

And then... there's Art of Fighting.

15 years after the birth of this franchise, this game (and its two sequels, also included on this disc) just haven't stood the test of time very well. While there are some interesting ideas and concepts showcased in the AOF series, the game feels very clunky compared to its contemporaries. Most fighting games focus on a fast-paced battles, while the AOF series relies more on precision and careful timing with moves. Combos (and for that matter, special moves) are near-impossible to pull off regularly, and by the time you DO unleash one (the Sho-Ko-Ken, for example) you may just miss it altogether. In that day and age, it was just fine to people learning what fighting games are all about. But, in 2007, it comes off as purely frustrating.

First off in this collection is Art of Fighting. The game tries so many things to hide the fact that it's an obvious "Street Fighter clone", but it isn't quite enough. Still, some concepts introduced with this game have influenced fighting games today. The most notable of these features are taunts, pre-fight animations, and most of all the "Rage Gauge". Yes, people this was the first fighting game ever produced to introduce the idea of a full-functional secondary bar. While it didn't have quite the same affect as SSFIIT's "Super Bar", that idea of saving energy to unleash special attacks traces its origins to this title.

On the plus side, AOF introduced the aspect of an actual story. But, it really ONLY applies to the two main characters, one serious martial artist and his flashy-styled rival of a friend (sound familiar?).

Moving on, Art of Fighting 2 was not much of a change from the first game, save for the addition of a few more characters, which included the damsel-in-distress from the first game, Yuri Sakazaki.

And then comes Art of Fighting 3. Surprisingly, this game saw a few radical changes in the gameplay. The old animation style was abandoned for newer, more fluid sprites. In terms of actual gameplay, "blowouts" were added, which is basically a "first round knock-out" type of gimmick. Add to that the fact that ONLY Ryo and Robert have actual game endings and you have a game that has no redeeming qualities at all.

There are fighting game compilations, and then there's Art of Fighting Anthology. If you are a big fan of fighting games, this would be a nice little novelty collection to add to your library, but this game won't last more than 5 minutes in your system. For its nostalgic value, it'll really make you appreciate how far fighting games have come since 1992. That's about as far as it will go. It offers nothing more than the three games in its series. No unlockables whatsoever. You'll be hard pressed to find anything beyond trying it out, only to realize how shoddy the games actually are.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 12/25/07

Game Release: Art of Fighting Anthology (US, 05/17/07)