Art of Fighting 3: The Path of the Warrior

1996 · Fighting · Neo Geo

About Art of Fighting 3: The Path of the Warrior

Art of Fighting 3: The Path of the Warrior (1996) is SNK's motion-captured fighter, following Robert Garcia to Mexico with a nearly all-new cast and 3D-style juggle combos.

Art of Fighting 3: The Path of the Warrior in Depth

The story shifts from the Sakazakis to Robert Garcia, who disappears in search of his childhood friend Freia Lawrence and tracks her to Glasshill Valley, Mexico. The villain Tom Wyler wants her to complete a powerful elixir, begun by their fathers, that grants users supernatural strength, and Robert's wish to save her alone causes friction with Ryo and others. Ryo and Robert are the only returning fighters. Newcomers include Jin Fu-Ha, a traitorous former disciple of Eiji Kisaragi who tests himself against Ryo before going after Eiji; Karman Cole, the Garcia family's loyal employee sent to bring Robert home; Kasumi Todoh, who seeks to avenge her father Ryuhaku's defeat by Ryo; and private investigator Lenny Creston.

Desperation moves, taunts, dashes, back-dashes and ki meters remain, but holding a button for stronger punches and kicks is gone. The game emulates 3D fighters while staying 2D: characters can move forward while attacking to build combos, which are mostly juggles performed by pressing a few attack buttons in sequence, an unusual emphasis for a 2D game, and directional inputs change attacks. Desperation moves used against weakened opponents in the first round cause an Ultimate Knock Out that ends the match outright. Electronic Gaming Monthly gave it five out of ten, criticising the easy, unblockable, hugely damaging Ultra-Cool Attacks and its lack of originality, while Hardcore Gaming 101 compared its play to Virtua Fighter and Tekken.

Making Art of Fighting 3: The Path of the Warrior

Produced by Hiroshi Matsumoto and Takashi Nishiyama like its predecessors, it was built around motion capture: each character's captured movements were turned into pixel art, and designer Nobuyuki Kuroki said that although the data lost its original form when refined, he still achieved smooth animation. The process brought several difficulties and limited the number of characters. The Neo Geo CD version sold 20,877 copies in its first week. Reviews were mixed, praising the visuals and mechanics but criticising the small cast and balance; Next Generation saw no balance problem but found it "too similar to every other 2D fighting game on the market", and Nintendo Life later gave it seven out of ten.

Art of Fighting 3: The Path of the Warrior Trivia

It was the first SNK fighting game animated with motion capture.
Motion capture was recorded in the United States over one to two months, as SNK lacked the technology.
SNK developed it on Microsoft Windows instead of its own Artbox tool.
It is often noted for some of SNK's best sprite work.
An updated Art of Fighting 3 R adding King and Yuri Sakazaki is in development for Windows.