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PS2
Ryuuko no Ken:
Ten-Chi-Jin Collection -
New Import |
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NCS
Game
Synopsis
«©NCSX»
In 1992, Ryo Sakazaki (he looks like Ken... with a
mullet) and Robert Garcia were on a mission. Ryo's
little sister Yuri had been kidnapped and the two
friends ventured into the seedy Southtown to bring
her home. Instead of sleuthing or congenial
conversation, Ryo and Robert busted heads all the
way up to the top of the food chain of the criminal
organization that ruled Southtown - Mr. Big and
Mr. Karate.
After their escapades, Ryo and Robert
were called back to Southtown for another challenge to
determine the King of Fighters in Ryuuko no Ken 2.
Yuri Sakazaki joined her big brother in the
competition along with their father, Takuma Sakazaki
where the family was able to defeat Geese Howard,
the kingpin of Southtown.
In the third Ryuuko no Ken
game, Robert Garcia takes center stage where he's on
a mission to help a friend named Freia Lawrence.
SNK celebrates the Art of Fighting series by
collecting all three games on 1 PS2 disc and throws
in an online fighting mode, the ability to edit
character colors, and a new arrange music mode.
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NCS Game Notes
» The title screen features the original cover
art of all three Art of Fighting games. After
pressing START the following options appear:
Top Row: Art of Fighting 1-3 and Online Mode
Bottom Row: Memory Card / Controller Config /
Screen Option / Sound Option / Character Color
Configuration.
» The default button commands are as follows:
PUNCH...........SQUARE
KICK............. X-BUTTON
THROW.........TRIANGLE
PROVOKE......CIRCLE
P+TH.............R1-TRIGGER
PR+TH...........L1-TRIGGER
K+TH.............R2-TRIGGER
» Loading times are very quick and unobtrusive on
all three games.
» The online mode allows for bouts against net
connected opponents through the Multi-Matching BB
Service provided by KDDI.
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Art of Fighting I
The familiar Neo Geo logo chimes on screen along with a warning
about export. A photograph of Robert, Ryo, and Yuri
appears only to have the glasses cracked. A game
demo starts with a faithful recreation of the sound
and music of the Neo Geo original. Upon pressing
START the following options appear
Game Level..........MVS / Easy / Normal /
Hard
Language.............Japanese / English /
Spanish
The fighters fill up nearly 3/4 of the height of the screen when
they're close together and roughly 1/2 the height at
their furthest distance apart as allowed on screen.
The game may be played with the D-pad or analog
thumbstick. For this particular game, we found the
analog pad friendlier to use with special attacks a
breeze to pull off.
When the camera pans in and out, the frames of animation for the
background graphics have been compromised. There are
noticeable breaks in the background animation frames
when fighters close in and leap out. The main part
of the action is however fluid with big fighters
jumping and attacking like natural born bruisers.
When the fighters are standing in place and
seemingly just jittering around, there are
noticeably fewer frames of animation than the Neo
Geo original. Similar to the original Neo Geo game,
the shadows of the fighters flicker something fierce
which can be slightly distracting.
Art of Fighting offers two game modes: VS Mode and STORY MODE. Only
Ryo or Robert may be chosen in STORY MODE. A total
of 8 fighters are featured in the game.
Robert walks or rather prances faithfully to the gait that he
exhibited in the Neo Geo original. He seemingly
tiptoes everywhere in light-footed fashion. The
fighters spit blood when they get smashed in the
face and everyone suffers from bruising. After a
fighter gets clobbered a few times, his face will
become swollen and disfigured. After a few more
blows, it turns paunchy and purple. At the end of
the bout, the faces of the fighters are wrecked like
ripe pieces of broken fruit.
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Art of Fighting 2
The intro of the game depicts the events of the first AOF and
how Ryo and Robert busted heads to help a sister
out. Press START and three options appear:
Game Level.........MVS / Easy / Normal / Hard
Game Speed........85% / 100% / 115% / 130%
Language.............Japanese / English /
Spanish
In addition to Robert and Ryo, any of the other 10 fighters may be
chosen to use as a champion. The shadows flicker
again underneath each fighter and the control feels
slightly more substantial than the first game with
each fighter seemingly exhibiting different "weight"
from one another. For example, controlling the
pot-bellied Jack feels more weighty than the svelte
Yuri who moves faster and is more agile.
As in the first AOF, frames of background animation have been
removed which makes for slightly disjointed camera
action as fighters ramble in and out of range. For a
jittery experience, play the game at 130% speed and
view the stuttered background as it scrolls in and
out. Playing the game at 85% speed allows for a more
thoughtful experience in that every move may be
thought out and button mashing is theoretically kept
to a minimum as you think through your next move in
deliberate fashion. Adjusting the speed of the game
speed to 85% appears to also slow down the music to
85%.
Faces get bruised and swollen after a few punches connect and Jack
loses his sunglasses with a single punch to show off
his newly swollen face.
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Art of Fighting 3
Robert the Raging Tiger is on a mission to help a friend and
the Latin fighter takes center stage. Press START
and the following options may be toggled:
Round & Time.........Round [1/3/5] and Time
[30/60/90/Infinity]
Language................Japanese / English /
Spanish / Portuguese
Level.......................Easy / Normal /
Hard / MVS
The most visually impressive Art of Fighting game with crisp clean
graphics and faithful animation of the characters.
The frames of animation in the game appear intact.
Robert literally dances on the battlefield with his
fancy footwork while Ryo just bends his knees in
place while pumping elbows.
A total of ten fighters are featured in the game including Robert
and Ryo. There's an Arabian sword handler named Sinclair,
a goliath with busted up pants named Wyler, Karman
who wears a crimson leisure suit, and Wang-Koh-San,
a corpulent type with blue Keds, aviator goggles
over his head and a sack of goodies strapped to his
back. Cowgirl Lenny-Creston whips up a storm with
her lasso and her jeans are tattered at the knees
like a pair of distressed Evisus that young hipsters
wear... except she looks
about 40 years old and is unlikely to get any
younger.
The blood blows out ruddy and shocks of it blast away whenever a
punch or kick connects. Art of Fighting is the most
polished of the three games in terms of conversion
quality. The camera pans in and out of the action
smoothly and accommodates the brisk action on
screen. The shadows still flicker noticeably
however.
We suspect most players will spend the most time on AOF3. It's
visually on par with native PS2 fighting games and
the kitschy Neo Geo magic is retained for old school
fans to relive Neo Shock love.
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NCS
Consensus
The visual impact of the first two Art of Fighting games
suffers somewhat from the disjointed background
animation due to the aforementioned missing frames.
Thankfully, it's only a visual niggle that doesn't
affect the fast paced action or the flow of the
control as a gamer crushes the competition. Perhaps
it is ironic then that Art of Fighting 3 which
required the most memory in the Neo Geo original is
the truest PS2 conversion in terms of animation
quality.
NCS' library of Neo Geo software is pretty much complete from Neo
cartridges to MVS cartridges to all of the
conversions on the PS1, DC, PS2, and Xbox. The Art
of Fighting Collection is another welcome addition
to our SNK archive although we would have enjoyed a
Gallery Mode brimming with old artwork and character
sketches.
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This document is ©NCSX 2006. All rights reserved. No
reproduction in whole or in part of this document
may be made without express written consent of
National Console Support, Inc.
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screenshots.soon. |
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