SNK and their influence in the burgeoning period of fighting games is a topic I've gone over while reviewing other tournament battlers, from their launches of Samurai Shodown, Fatal Fury, and Art of Fighting. Then it came time to make sequels, to see what the director and development staff learned from their previous offerings to shape potential franchises. The first Art of Fighting holds up gameplay-wise as well as watching a Jared Fogle Subway ad, but established some fundamental mechanics that still remain in their games as the years roll by. Art of Fighting 2 makes some healthy changes, even if it still lags behind SNK's other two pillars, Fatal Fury and SamSho.

Released in arcades and the Neo Geo AES, Art of Fighting 2 hit the public in 1994. SNK spent a year developing it, and despite introducing a number of new characters (Eiji Kisaragi, Temjin, Takuma and Yuri Sakazaki, and a young Geese Howard), the game is less focused on the narrative and more about adding more metaphorical punch to the game.

The Art of Fighting games serve as a prelude to the Fatal Fury storyline, taking place two years before Terry and Andy's adoptive father, Jeff Bogard is assassinated. In Art of Fighting 2, following the failed kidnapping and coercion of the Sakazaki family's Kyokugen Karate dojo from South Town boss Mr. Big, slum lord Geese Howard appears and summons 12 combatants to compete in the King of Fighters tournament, mostly to use as a recruitment tool for henchmen.

The plot follows one full year after the events of the first, and as mentioned, Yuri joins the roster as a student of Kyokugen martial arts. Initially against it, Takuma sees matters through a new light, following her harrowing experience, so she trains with big brother Ryo and boyfriend Robert Garcia. Yuri's "do-it-yourself martial arts" would sort of become one of the first across the bow shots Capcom would throw at SNK when they developed Street Fighter Alpha 2's Sakura Harano in their long-friendly rivalry.

It's no secret that in my reviews of SNK and Neo Geo games, I absolutely adore the sprite work from this era, so pardon me if this sounds almost verbatim from previous fighters. With no graphical clipping, screen tearing, or massive amounts of slowdown, Art of Fighting 2's detailed sprites showcase the Herculean might of the Neo Geo's arcade hardware. The character designs of AoF2 range from smaller athletic fighters like King and Lee Pai Long to hulking brutes like Temjin and Jack Turner, and while they might not be for everyone, I appreciate that they're all over the place. I've lobbied for villains like Jack to eventually make his way into the King of Fighters games, but alas. It's got cool stages that each reflect the fighter's personality and/or occupation, something that isn't quite as commonplace as it used to be.

The fighting engine is a little sharper and more improved over the first game, fine-tuning the effectiveness of Special Moves. The new "Rage Gauge" which is a tweaked version of the previous entry's Spirit System, still weakens special attacks. This time around, the completion of bonus stages where you chop down a tree in one punch can increase the Rage Meter. The other involves a gauntlet of backstreet hooligans to punch out within the time limit to increase your life bar.

Chaining attacks still feels awkward as all hell, and executing the Desperation Moves (powerful supers that could be initiated when your health bar is low) takes some skillful dexterity. Well, if there's one thing that's never changed from SNK, their strange marriage to stubborn and clunky inputs. And why in the damn hell is Art of Fighting the hardest fighting game series to consistently anti-air!? There's anti-air buttons, that much is certain, but either jumping in is far too good, or the proximity hitboxes on these normals are beyond garbage. 

Art of Fighting 2 is a much improved game, but it's still one that's way too early to withstand the passage of time, even in its own era. While each of the characters play fairly unique from each other and the engine is solid, the meta is way too simple and lacks a quality punch that keeps one engaged beyond a handful of minutes. As much of the fighting game connoissuer as I am, Art of Fighting 2 should mostly be indulged as an answer to a trivia question, but a really tough one to hop back into. It doesn't help that the CPU is a cheesy bastard and the damage scaling is all over the place. I find older SNK games play much better on stick, so hook up your Brooks converter and go to town. South Town!! HAHAHAHAHA...!!!

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I'll see myself out.