The Art of Fighting at 30

Ahoy Captain Cats here and today we are going to look at a very important fighting game that turns 30 and that game is the Art of Fighting.

The Art of Fighting (AOF for short here on out) was created by Hiroshi Matsumoto and was developed and published by SNK in 1992. while it has all the bells and whistles of a fighting game at the time, AOF introduced a lot to what is being used in fighting games today. AOF introduced things such as graphical scaling, taunts, spirit gauge, Desperation Attacks (hidden commands), and in-game detailed battle damage to name a few.

Another thing that AOF introduced to fighting games as well is multiverse storytelling. AOF takes place years before the events of another classic fighting game series Fatal Fury that also turned 30 last year in the same town, Southtown. The story is about Ryo Sakazaki and Robert Garcia going throwout Southtown to find Ryo’s little sister, Yuri, who was kidnapped by Mr. Big. The game introduced us all to iconic characters that became a staple to another fighting game series, The King of Fighters, which itself turns 30 in 2 years.

If you have time to play this game, go and play it, you’ll be surprised how well it still holds up over the years.