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Review: Art of Fighting 3 |
OK, here’s a good one. A company famous for its fighting games finally releases the third in the series. They remove all the old characters except for the most famous two, vastly improve the quality of graphics and animation and significantly alter the gameplay. Who are they?
The answer is SNK, the game is Art of Fighting 3.
Can I just ponder a moment - has anyone ever seen this game in an arcade? Anywhere? I assume it was released in Japan, but outside there? Is this the most secretive release of all time?
Art of Fighting 3 is easily the best of the AOF trilogy. OK, I admit that’s not saying much at all, seeing how …um….”special” the previous two were, but this game corrects the faults of its predecessors and also manages a few new features, plus some impressive presentation too.
At heart it’s still an AOF game. You have a punch, a kick, a “heavy” attack and a taunt. Different directions and button presses elicit alternate attacks. It’s quite unresponsive and feels “stiff” - the attacks don’t feel like a natural extension of the character.
There’s still the traditional “Spirit Gauge” underneath the life bars, which regulates your use of special attacks, when it wears down to a certain degree, specials become weakened (Dan style projectiles : ) ) and when it wears out you can’t use them at all until you charge the bar up again.
I suppose if you’re an AOF fan, this will be second nature to you, but I’ve never warmed to the idea. I guess it’s there to prevent endless fireball fights and limit cheesy patterns - but I want to fight, not have to keep charging up after throwing three fireballs!
There are several special “features” that are new to the series available to the player.
Everyone has a couple of *ACK* Mortal Kombat style auto-combos, which are activated by pressing towards and A,A,B,B or something. It’s easy to rely on these, especially when your specials either suck or are out of power, plus they’re 100% reliable and sometimes end on a “launcher”.
Juggling has been introduced, and it functions in a very Tekken-like manner. You can “launch” your opponent, and then follow them along on the ground, continually jabbing at them as they float.
There’s also the “redirect” command - which is a sort of dodge (activated by Back+C) which sees you sidestep and trip your opponent. The timing is tricky, but it’s pretty useful.
What aren’t useful are the special moves assigned to each character. Not only are they in major short supply (three per character) - but they all seem to be rather useless; slow to perform and hard/impossible to combo. It’s yet another reason to stick with the auto-combos unfortunately.
There’s no combo meter! I know we did okay without one before SSF2 came along - but this is 1997 we’re talking about! It was pretty much essential by then. I’m assuming it was a conscious decision to leave it out - possibly to retain some of the old school AOF feel. Dumb.
And what the hell is up with the STORY?!?! Despite being set in the (in)famous Southtown - no mention is made of Mr Big, or Geese Howard. The end boss is some guy who drinks a potion and “Hulks out” as it were. WTF? Though I’m pleased with the inclusion of between-fight cutscenes and pre and post-fight dialogue - the content is pretty much “I’m looking for xxxxx” and “xxxx! I’m seeking revenge!” over and over again.
As I mentioned earlier, the roster of characters, except Ryo and Robert are completely new to AOF. OK, Kasumi Todoh was in King of Fighters ‘96 and ‘99 - but never an AOF game. Apart from those 3 (plus Yuri in a few cutscenes) - everyone else is on their first appearance. And hopefully their last. Well they’re not that bad; we’re not talking a World Heroes Jet level of retardation here, and they’re in no way stereotypes, but they just don’t inspire any admiration, amusement, hatred, jealously, lust or pity in me. In short I couldn’t care about a short fat guy who carries a Pelican in his backpack, or a man in a pink suit.
Which is a shame - because the art and animation for these characters, plus the backgrounds and effects is nothing short of superb. As I write this, only the SF3 games, plus, I think Mark Of The Wolves (which I still haven’t seen) can boast animation superior to AOF3.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe that this is the first ever 2D fighting game to make
extensive use of motion capture to animate the characters. The amount of frames used to animate each sprite is enormous and features fabulous life-like movements and details. For example, when a character is lying on the floor - you can still see them breathing.
This level of detail extends to the backgrounds, which are equally luscious and create a real feeling of depth. Special mention goes to the waterfalls at the ruined Quixotic Temple - the most realistic drawn representation of water I’ve even seen. And I like the composition of the scenery - the way a tree casts a shadow on the ground and walking under it casts a shadow on you. Several of the stages have both night/day modes, with subtle differences on each.
Music is mostly rather mellow and laid back. It’s well written and suits the Mediterranean feel of the game.
While AOF3 has addressed, corrected and improved nearly all of the problems its ancestors had - it still doesn’t feel solid and “realistic.” Jumps feel too floaty, and the characters don’t have any weight or solidity to them. Punches and kicks don’t connect with any real solidity, and the controller-reading is slow and glitchy.
It’s another case of looks great, plays badly. Not awfully, can I say, just far below other notable SNK releases.
