ART OF FIGHTING 2

Review Introduction:

It may look really dated now, but I've always been a big fan of the original Art of Fighting game. It was one of my most played games in the arcades back then, and although I loved it, there was definitely LOTS of room for improvement. Enter Art of Fighting 2, can it take the series to new heights?

Gameplay: 🕹️

This sequel to the original Art of Fighting tries hard to rectify at least some of the problems people had with the original game. Firstly there's a bigger selection of characters, and you can now choose from twelve fighters in both one player and two player mode. This was in contrast to a selection of only the two main characters in the single player mode and 8 in two player, which is what you had in the first AOF.

One of the new fighters is Yuri, Ryo's sister who had been kidnapped in the first game, although there are a lot of other new characters (including minor fan favourite Eiji Kisaragi who later appeared in KOF '95) as well as the old ones. The controls are still pretty much the same, but everything has been tightened up and it feels much more solid. The game still isn't amazing but it's definitely better.

Graphics and Sound: 👾🔊

Like the first game the graphics are nice to look at and they feature some better backgrounds. The game also features the same large characters with bruises and cuts being added to their faces after being hit. Unfortunately they didn't bother improving the animation too much and AOF2 still suffers from looking very stiff. I did quite like the exchanges between the characters before and after fights though; some of these were very funny! (usual SNK-Engrish language if you are playing the English version)

The sound is a little improved too, with some good sound effect and decent music.

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Overall: 📊

I must admit I never really played this in the arcade as much as I did the first game. I just wasn't all that interested to be truthful. I had other better fighting games to play at the time, like Samurai Shodown for one. Granted, Art of Fighting 2 is better than the first, but there are still problems with it. Maybe it's just that I am crap, but the difficulty level seems insanely high unless you are an expert player and there are still many annoying moves that can be used to win easily. I haven't played it much really, but I would say that it's far better as a two-player game than the original.

Having said that, if you want to play a really good Art of Fighting game, you should check out Art Of Fighting 3. It might be very different, but overall it's a much better game in my opinion.