Art of Fighting 3

The game was ported to the Neo Geo AES and Neo Geo CD. Like its predecessors, the game was produced by Hiroshi Matsumoto and Takashi Nishiyama. It is often noted as having some of the best sprite work SNK has produced, as the company worked for the first time in motion capture to give the game a more three-dimensional style. While the gameplay remains faithful, there is a big focus on juggle moves that cannot be defended, as well as Desperation Moves that can automatically defeat the enemy. The game was released to mixed reviews, with praise for its improved visuals and mechanics and criticism for its small cast and balance issues. An updated re-release, The Path of the Warrior: Art of Fighting 3 R, which adds both King and Yuri Sakazaki is currently in development for Windows.

• Title — Art of Fighting 3: The Path of the Warrior • Developer — SNK • Publisher — Neo Geo CDNeo Geo do Brasil Ltda. • Director — Kimura Ken • Producer — Hiroshi Matsumoto Takashi Nishiyama • Programmer — YuritaRo • Artist — K. Miya Hori Pu Rolly-R • Composer — Masahiko Hataya Yasumasa Yamada • Series — Art of Fighting • Platforms — Arcade, Neo Geo AES, Neo Geo CD • Released — ArcadeMarch 12, 1996 Neo Geo AESApril 26, 1996 Neo Geo CD • Genre — Fighting • Modes — Single-player, multiplayer • Arcade System — Neo Geo MVS

The story switches focus from the Sakazakis to their other main character Robert Garcia. Robert disappears to search for an old childhood friend, Freia Lawrence, and he tracks her to Glasshill Valley, Mexico. Freia is wanted by the game's main antagonist, Tom Wyler, to complete a powerful elixir originally developed by their fathers. The drug affects users granting them supernatural strength. In Robert's case he is aware of this and wishes to save her and Wyler by himself, raising contention towards Ryo and others concerned for taking on this task alone. Meanwhile, other characters like Kasumi Todoh have different goals like defeating Ryo Sakazaki to avenge her missing father Ryuhaku.

• Illustration — Gameplay screenshot showcasing a match between Kasumi Todoh and Rody Birts The game is a fighting game like previous games but with changes and things remaining the games. The gameplay retains the "Desperation moves" from previous games, taunting, back dashing, dashing, and the ki meters. However, the ability to perform stronger punches and kicks by holding a button down has been removed. The game emulates 3D gameplay while remaining true to the 2D roots. Characters are given the ability move forward while attacking in order to create combo strategies. The combo system is similar to those from 3D fighters, and mostly consists of juggle combos that are executed by simply pushing a few consecutive attack buttons. There is a major emphasis on juggle combos despite how uncommon they are used in 2D games. Pushing kick or punch while holding the joystick in a specific direction will sometimes perform a different attack than if the joystick is in neutral. These attacks can decide the flow of the rounds and how to end them. Jump and attack your opponent are effective with enemies on the ground. Desperation moves performed on weak enemies on the first round result on an Ultimate Knock Out which automatically ends the battle.

Ryo Sakazaki and Robert Garcia are the only returning characters in Art of Fighting 3, with all other playable characters being newcomers. The forthcoming 3 R release of the game will add two more returning characters, Yuri Sakazaki and King. • Jin Fu-Ha is a former disciple of Eiji Kisaragi, who betrayed him. He then decides to kill Eiji, testing himself by first attempting to defeat Eiji's sworn enemy Ryo Sakazaki. • Karman Cole is a long-time employee of the Garcia family, acting in a personal assistant-like role to Robert since he was a child. The Garcias send Karman to find their son after he disappeared to look for his old childhood friend Freia Lawrence, which has led him to Glasshill Valley. Karman is a loyal employee who seems very fond of Robert Garcia and lets him get away with much more than he should. • Kasumi Todoh is the daughter of Ryuhaku Todoh, who taught her the Todoh school of Aikido, Jujutsu and Kendo. As her family's sole heir, she does all she can to stand up for the Todoh way. When Ryuhaku left for South Town to settle an old score with Takuma Sakazaki, Kasumi remained waiting for her father's return. Months later, after learning Ryuhaku was defeated by Takuma's son Ryo, she decides to find and challenge him to avenge her father's defeat. • Lenny Creston is a private investigator who works with Rody Birts. She is a tough, straight-talking woman who wields a whip, but with a caring nature underneath. Though there seems to be some romantic tension between them, she and Rody are partners in a business sense only. They have been hired by Wyler to find and deliver Freia Lawrence to him. The two appear to have a bad reputation within their profession and Lenny sees their new assignment as their 'big chance'. • Rody Birts is a private investigator who works with Lenny Creston. Though she dominates him, their relationship is good-natured and there is even a hint of romantic tension. The two appear to have a bad reputation as private eyes. He goes to Glasshill Valley to search for Freia Lawrence on orders from Wyler. • Wang Koh-San (Chinese: 王覚山) is an artist entering a competition, and is also a friend of Lee Pai Long. He comes to Glasshill Valley for inspiration for the competition, but once there he learns of Wyler's Elixir and thinks that it will interest Lee. Wang travels with his pet pelican Hoeh-Hoeh. • Sinclair is Wyler's bodyguard. Though she pretends to encourage him in his experiments, she secretly wants him to stop them. She has a flashy sword fighting style reminiscent of Indian swordsmanship. • Tom Wyler is the final boss in Art of Fighting 3. He works on perfecting a powerful elixir that was originally developed by his father and Freia Lawrence's father. However, when their partnership fell part, Freia's father took the essential data needed to complete the elixir and left it with Freia. Wyler blames this action for his father becoming destitute and eventually dying, and begins seeking Freia so he can complete the elixir.

Like the first Art of Fighting and the sequel Art of Fighting 2, the third installment was produced by Hiroshi Matsumoto or Takashi Nishiyama. It was the first game in the series (and the first SNK fighting game) to use motion capture for its animation, The concept behind Art of Fighting 3 was to use motion capture, so instead of the company's own Artbox tool that had been used to develop MVS and Neo Geo games, SNK used Microsoft Windows. At the time, SNK did not have the technology for motion capture, so motion capture was recorded in the United States over a period of one to two months. After that, each character's movements were pixelated based on the motion capture. In an interview with Famitsu, designer Nobuyuki Kuroki, who was involved in the development of the series, said that while the captured data lost its original form as it was refined, he was still able to achieve smooth pixel art. The material was originally going to be used in the Fatal Fury installment Garou: Mark of the Wolves, but was left unfinished; eventually, SNK restarted development of that game as Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves. This led to several difficulties and SNK using few characters in general. In the development environment at the time, each person in charge would create the images and sounds using specialized development equipment, and the programmer would use those materials to create the game, but during development, they would actually burn the data onto ROMs, and then fit them one by one onto the board to check the results of the development. I think Windows was introduced with Art of Fighting 3. Some of the data was created for Metal Slug which the staff liked. The staff was young during development of the game and had to live together in the making of it. The basic approach was to divide the work. About a month before the master-up date when the game is completed, there is a deadline for the character data, called "character mask," and that is when the designers are "done." After that, they go home at the regular time. But everyone else still has a lot of work left to do... It was quite a sight to see. For Art of Fighting 3, Ryo was modified to feel more realistic to play. In retrospect, they felt that the only way to know Ryo's story was playing Art of Fighting as SNK kept developing KOF among other products where Ryo was playable but was not explored. In regards to the third Art of Figthting, the game was noted to be called "Gaiden" (lit. "alternative story") as a result of the story focusing now on Robert rather than Ryo. Art of Fighting 3 was ported to Neo Geo CD with the action with visual issues as a result of the sprites could not fit in the system's RAM. It also suffered long loading times in comparison to the original. The original trilogy were all released for the Neo Geo MVS arcade system, Neo Geo AES home console. The Neo Geo trilogy was compiled in Art of Fighting Anthology for the PlayStation 2, while the original game was also included as part of SNK Arcade Classics Vol. 1 and the NEOGEO Station service. The trilogy has also been digitally re-released via the Wii Virtual Console and the ACA Neo Geo series. At the 2026 Evolution Championship Series tournament, 30 years after the game's original release, SNK and Code Mystics announced The Path of the Warrior: Art of Fighting 3 R as part of their Neo Geo Premium Selection series of updated re-releases for PC. In addition to rebalancing the existing roster, 3 R will feature two additional characters from previous games, as well as a new training mode and support for local or online multiplayer with rollback netcode.