Art of Fighting Is Coming Back?

Out of the blue, it seems like SNK might have just shadow dropped an announcement for what might be a sequel to Art of Fighting. This news comes from the Famitsu article that asked dozens of game developers about their plans for 2024.

Several of SNK developers voiced rather expected and mild expectations. The general sentiment is that the new Garou game is going to be revealed this year, and you can be damn sure that everyone at SNK wants that game to live up to the legacy and to make fans happy, after all, their titles are known for targeting the hardcore fans first and foremost. Their team expanded significantly in 2023, and it seems like they are still actively recruiting new devs to expand the development.

However, Yasuyuki Oda was a lot more forthcoming. His statement for 2024 mentions that at their new office in Shin-Osaka, they have other projects running as well, including 龍虎の拳, otherwise known as Ryūko no Ken, or Fist of Dragon and Tiger, or Art of Fighting (Like a Dragon and Biohazard send their regards.)

This is a very welcome surprise for any SNK fans. Art of Fighting is not the most well known series at this point, and even on release it didn't always get the best reviews, but you can deny its ambition. The first two games put a heavy emphasis on presentation, and AoF3 is still one of the smoothest games SNK ever animation, not to mention how it's basically a 2D Tekken.

Personally, now I'm looking forward to 2024 even more, we're bound to hear more about Garou, and I hope that Art of Fighting news are not far off either.