Art of Fighting

"Not nearly as good as the Neo Geo version, but decent for the SNES."

Art of Fighting was a game that was released in the arcades on the Neo Geo MVS unit and was a direct rival to Capcom's Street Fighter 2 Franchise, the game was SNK's second fighting franchise (the first being Fatal Fury aka Garou Densetsu); and had somewhat of a cult following to it.

At the time this game was around, SNK was making games mostly for the Neo Geo AES, so another company decided to port the game to other systems, the game was also available on the Neo Geo CD, and Sega Genesis consoles.

The game was first put on the Neo Geo AES which was a home version of the MVS, however the AES was at such a high price not many people could afford it, even the cartridges were $300 per game, but much like many arcade games, this one found itself on a home console, the game was ported to the SNES in 1993 by a company called Takara, Takara also did Battle Arena Toshenden on the Sega Saturn so you might've heard of this company.

Let's get one thing out of the way, this game has nothing on the Neo Geo version, think of it as a dumbed down port without all the bells and whistles that the Neo Geo version was known for, the sprites in the game arn't nearly as detailed as the MVS or AES versions, however they do feel right for a SNES game.

The controls are just like any other fighting game, you use directional inputs to initiate moves to deplete your opponents health until you win the match, some moves require more or less input than others, but their not to difficult to pull off.

The sound in the game had to be completely redone because the MVS and AES games had a sound chip capable of FM Synthesis, whereas the SNES had the SPC sound chip, music is fairly decent and expectable from the SNES, the game is pretty much going on to the next opponent until you get to the final boss, just like other fighting games.

The difficulty can be adjusted to your liking, and is not to hard on the low levels, however the higher ones are more difficult.

This game does have replay value, however don't get your hopes up to high if your expecting a near arcade perfect port of the Neo Geo game.

I would recommend getting this game if your a fan of SNK or the Neo Geo.

Final Score 7/10

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 06/27/08

Game Release: Art of Fighting (US, December 1993)