Art of Fighting 2

"A very Poor conversion of the Neo Geo version"

Once again, Takara has made yet another failed attempt at a SNK/Neo Geo game conversion and has ruined something that would have probably made an enjoyable game for the 16 bit Snes/SFC.

Art of Fighting 2 for the SFC/Snes is by far the worst Neo Geo conversion made by Takara.

If you are a Diehard SNK/Neo Geo fan and were disappointed by all the previous 16 bit conversions of World Heroes, World Heroes 2 Fatal Fury 2, FF Special and Art of fighting 1, this game will disappoint you even more.
the 16 bit conversions of these games usually have alot of missing elements, but AoF2 is missing so many parts to it, it seems like the whole game was less than half complete.

Gameplay -
Awful.
One of the 'missing' elements I talked about before is that this game lacks any type of gameplay.
it seems that in developing this game, the game's creators never even bothered to create a decent AI for the CPU controlled opponents.
Even on the hardest difficulty, the computer controlled opponents in this game are extremely timid.
the CPU AI hardly ever make an attempt to attack you and uses the most simplistic and repetitive fighting patterns making them extremely predictable and thus, hardly worth the challenge.

On the bright side of things, this game has a few more options not found in the original Neo geo version such as a team battle mode where you can select a team of up to 1-8 members and battle it out with another player or CPU player's team.
The secret character, Geese Howard is also playable in this game via a code, though unfortunately, you cannot select him in arcade mode.

Controls -
Imo, the controls for the Arcade version of AoF2 wasn't very good and thus the Home version of AoF2 for the snes/SFC simply replicates that.
AoF2 uses the same impractical button layout as used in the WH games apart from World Heroes Perfect.
You basically have a soft and hard variations of punch and kick which is combined into one button for punch and another for kick.
In other words, if you want to do a soft punch, you must lightly press the punch button, if you wanna do a hard/fierce punch then you press and hold down the punch button.
Definitely not the best button scheme ever invented.

What's even worse about the home version of AoF2's button scheme is that while, the home version of World Heroes and WH2 rectified the awkward button set-up by having a special configuration which separates the soft and hard attacks into separate buttons to make it easier, AoF2 lacks this option.

Story -
Same as the arcade version.
The story is a continuation of where AoF1 left of.
After rescuing Yuri and meeting their father in AoF1, Ryo and his friend Robert, travel through South Town to reach get revenge on Mr Big and stop the evil behind SouthTown's criminal syndicate.
The AoF storyline ties in very well with the storyline of another popular SNK series, Fatal Fury.

Audio/Video -
Video: Poor.
The graphics in this game are incredibly poor.
Taking into account that the graphics in previous Neo Geo conversions made by Takara are decent, this one is very disappointing.
There is ALOT of missing detail and clarity in the backgrounds and the characters have alot of missing frames of animation.
given that the graphics in previous Neo Geo translations were 'ok' to say the least, the programmers of this game could have done alot better than this.
The only applause I give to this game in terms of graphics, is that the game has managed to retain all the intro and ending pics from the Neo Geo version, and the quality of the pics are not bad, considering this is a 16 bit game.

Sound:
average:
Just like many of the 'recent' Takara game conversions such as Fatal Fury Special and Samurai Shodown, AoF2 uses Dolby Surround Sound which is supposed to enhance the quality of the music in the game.
Seeing as how this game has had alot of faults in other elements such as graphics and gameplay, I would say that the music is in itself done alot better than everything else in the game, though that is not saying much considering that even with so called 'Dolby Surround' the quality of the music is still not very impressive.
I've heard better music in older Snes/SFC games that do not even have surround sound.

Replayability -
Very Little.
Perhaps, you may consider wanting to replay this game if you're interested in seeing all the character endings, or perhaps if you're keen on wanting to master all the characters in the game. But why bother?

To buy or to rent? -
Save your money.
I actually bought this game when it officially came out years ago, along with all the other 16-bit Neo Geo conversions made by Takara and I found it to be a regretable decision.
If you're really keen on playing this game, then I recommend that you just play the original Neo Geo version of the game.

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 05/29/02, Updated 05/29/02