Art of Fighting
Art of Fighting (龍虎の拳: Ryūko no Ken), or AOF (or RnK in video game music archives) for short, is a video game series created by SNK. It is one of the many SNK series that ties into The King of Fighters.
Gameplay
Art of Fighting was the first fighting game with a super bar, and introduced the "spirit gauge" and "desperation move" (the equivalent of "super combo", often used with SNK fighting games) into the fighting game vernacular. A spirit gauge is a manually charged super combo gauge where all special moves will utilize and drain, with greater amounts of power dealing greater amounts of damage.
Story
The central story of the original Art of Fighting is a typical damsel-in-distress story set in the fictitious city of South Town (a common setting among SNK video games), where the duo of Ryo Sakazaki and Robert Garcia try to rescue Ryo's sister and Robert's love interest, Yuri Sakazaki. It takes place before the Fatal Fury series, since Jeff Bogard, father of Terry Bogard from Fatal Fury, is alive at the time Art of Fighting took place, according to what Takuma Sakazaki said during the ending.
Although the story starts this way, future games would focus more on the struggles of the Sakazaki family and their fictitious style of karate known as Kyokugen-ryuu (meaning "Extreme style"). The more recent games containing the Sakazaki family are outside the Art of Fighting series, mostly the King of Fighters series.
The birthdates are actually adjusted from the original birthdates from Art of Fighting so that the AOF characters would be in level with those from Fatal Fury and of the newer characters at the time KOF was introduced. 1957 was the actual birthyear of Ryo Sakazaki and King, 1956 is Robert Garcia's actual birthyear, 1930 was Takuma Sakazaki's actual birthyear, and 1961 was Yuri Sakazaki's actual birthyear. The actual-aged Ryo can be seen in Buriki One.
Games
Art of Fighting series
- Art of Fighting
- Art of Fighting 2
- Art of Fighting 3 - The Path of the Warrior
Other games involving characters from Art of Fighting
- Fatal Fury Special - Ryo Sakazaki appears as a secret boss
- The King of Fighters '94
- The King of Fighters '95
- The King of Fighters '96
- The King of Fighters '97
- The King of Fighters '98 - The Slugfest
- The King of Figthers '99: The Millennium Battle
- Capcom Vs. SNK - Millennium Fight 2000
- Capcom Vs. SNK 2 - Mark of the Millennium 2001
- The King of Fighters 2000
- The King of Fighters 2001
- The King of Fighters 2002: Challenge to the Ultimate Battle
- The King of Fighters 2003
Characters
Characters With Appearances Outside this Series
These include characters that have appeared in The King of Fighters as well as the SNK VS. Series.
- Takuma may also appear in his alter-ego form of Mr. Karate.
