Art of Fighting 3 is a drastic step away from its predecessors. In Japan, it's known as Ryūko no Ken Gaiden, portraying it as a sidestory. Instead of focusing on Southtown, Art of Fighting 3 follows Robert Garcia as he searches for an old friend named Freia Lawrence. He's tracked her down to the fictional town of Glass Hill, Mexico, which serves as the setting for the game. There he finds that Freia has gotten herself mixed up with a man named Wyler, who is ruthlessly searching for her. Apparently, he needs her in order to complete a formula for an elixir that him and Freia's father created. This elixir has a "Jekyll and Hyde" effect on anybody who consumes it - it turns them into a hulking behemoth, and drives them crazy in the process. The rest of the cast are random other people who have somehow gotten themselves involved in this mess. Ryo Sakazaki (who's looking for Robert) and Robert Garcia are back for this final installment in the series, but this time they are joined by a completely original cast.
The first two games did pretty well at the arcades, but weren't exactly major hits. Perhaps because of this, SNK decided to completely reinvent the series. A few things stayed the same though. Desperation moves, taunting, back dashing, dashing, and the ki meter are all still present. All the actions that were possible in Art of Fighting 2 have been retained, but the ability to perform stronger punches and kicks by holding a button down has been ditched. Instead, it has been replaced Art of Fighting 1 style strong attacks by on button C.
In 1996, people were moving on to Nintendo 64 and PlayStation, and the once massively popular fighter genre was rapidly loosing steam in favor of the novelty of 3D games. The only fighters that were selling anywhere near what the genre had been capable of merely a year or two earlier were no longer Capcom's offerings, but instead 3D fighters like Virtua Fighter and Tekken. Art of Fighting 3 may be described as SNK's attempt to emulate a 3D fighter using 2D gameplay.
Unlike most 2D fighters, characters can move forward while attacking, allowing for easy combo opportunities. Its combo system is similar to those from 3D fighters, and mostly consists of juggle combos that are executed by simply pushing a few consecutive attack buttons with proper timing. Yes, juggle based combo systems tend to suck in 2D fighters, but SNK was able to pull it off here, and it actually works really well. Similar to the control scheme of many 3D fighters, pushing kick or punch while holding the joystick in a specific direction will sometimes perform a different attack than if the joystick is in neutral. These attacks are a important part of comboing in Art of Fighting 3, and several moves allow for follow up attacks. Also, similar to Virtua Fighter, you can jump and attack your opponent while they're lying on the ground. Fortunately ,this does little to slow down gameplay, and it's even possible to rise quickly immediately after a fall or to charge ki while on the ground and to attack while rising. Further revealing its 3D fighter inspirations, you can also side step to evade your opponent's moves. Art of Fighting 3 is a drastic step away from its predecessors. In Japan, it's known as Ryūko no Ken Gaiden, portraying it as a sidestory. Instead of focusing on Southtown, Art of Fighting 3 follows Robert Garcia as he searches for an old friend named Freia Lawrence. He's tracked her down to the fictional town of Glass Hill, Mexico, which serves as the setting for the game. There he finds that Freia has gotten herself mixed up with a man named Wyler, who is ruthlessly searching for her. Apparently, he needs her in order to complete a formula for an elixir that him and Freia's father created. This elixir has a "Jekyll and Hyde" effect on anybody who consumes it - it turns them into a hulking behemoth, and drives them crazy in the process. The rest of the cast are random other people who have somehow gotten themselves involved in this mess. Ryo Sakazaki (who's looking for Robert) and Robert Garcia are back for this final installment in the series, but this time they are joined by a completely original cast.
The first two games did pretty well at the arcades, but weren't exactly major hits. Perhaps because of this, SNK decided to completely reinvent the series. A few things stayed the same though. Desperation moves, taunting, back dashing, dashing, and the ki meter are all still present. All the actions that were possible in Art of Fighting 2 have been retained, but the ability to perform stronger punches and kicks by holding a button down has been ditched. Instead, it has been replaced Art of Fighting 1 style strong attacks by on button C.
In 1996, people were moving on to Nintendo 64 and PlayStation, and the once massively popular fighter genre was rapidly loosing steam in favor of the novelty of 3D games. The only fighters that were selling anywhere near what the genre had been capable of merely a year or two earlier were no longer Capcom's offerings, but instead 3D fighters like Virtua Fighter and Tekken. Art of Fighting 3 may be described as SNK's attempt to emulate a 3D fighter using 2D gameplay.
Unlike most 2D fighters, characters can move forward while attacking, allowing for easy combo opportunities. Its combo system is similar to those from 3D fighters, and mostly consists of juggle combos that are executed by simply pushing a few consecutive attack buttons with proper timing. Yes, juggle based combo systems tend to suck in 2D fighters, but SNK was able to pull it off here, and it actually works really well. Similar to the control scheme of many 3D fighters, pushing kick or punch while holding the joystick in a specific direction will sometimes perform a different attack than if the joystick is in neutral. These attacks are a important part of comboing in Art of Fighting 3, and several moves allow for follow up attacks. Also, similar to Virtua Fighter, you can jump and attack your opponent while they're lying on the ground. Fortunately ,this does little to slow down gameplay, and it's even possible to rise quickly immediately after a fall or to charge ki while on the ground and to attack while rising. Further revealing its 3D fighter inspirations, you can also side step to evade your opponent's moves. |
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