Ryuuko no Ken (PC Engine) Playthrough [English] - NintendoComplete
215A playthrough of Hudson Soft's 1994 versus-fighting game for the PC Engine Arcade CDROM², Ryuuko no Ken.
This video shows a playthrough of the story mode as Ryo.
At 19:53 I show "Daikon Cut," a mini-game that was exclusive to this version of the game. If you boot the game without the Arcade Card inserted, you'll see a scene telling you that you need it to continue. On the last screen with the green background, hit Select+Run to soft reset the system, let the scene play, and then soft-reset one more time. After watching the scene for the third time, Daikon Cut will start.
Ryuuko no Ken, or Art of Fighting as it was known internationally, was a hit for SNK's Neo Geo platform when it was released in 1992. Its cutting edge visuals and the innovations that it pioneered for 2D fighters made it a big deal in its time, despite the slightly clunky feel of the controls and the limited choice of characters playable in the story mode.
The big deal with this specific version, however, wasn't that it was a port of a then two-year-old Neo Geo game. The big deal was that it was a faithful reproduction of a still somewhat contemporary high-end arcade game running on an 8-bit console, and that it managed to outclass its SNES and Genesis counterparts in every conceivable way.
To be fair, it did require some extra hardware to pull off. The Arcade Card was a massive upgrade, boosting the system memory from 256K to 2MB. But, considering the base system's limitations, what was done here is nothing short of a miracle. Hudson had a lot of faith in the talents of Alfa System - remember the Ys series? - and Alfa had once again delivered a homerun with this next-gen-level conversion.
The graphics are the real star here. They've been scaled back a bit from those in the Neo Geo game, of course, but the sprites are huge, the backgrounds are faithfully detailed, there's no slowdown or flicker (save for the shadow effects), and the cutscenes are all but arcade-perfect. The most impressive aspect of the presentation, though, has to be way it dynamically shifts the screen resolution to approximate the zoom-in effect that the arcade version was so famous for. It's a little jarring at first, but your eyes will easily adjust to it once you've seen it a few times.
The sound is excellent, as well. The entire soundtrack has been improved with new arrangements for the CD format, and the digital effects are all here, too. Even though the sample rate for the voices has taken a clear hit, the screams and taunts are clear and lack the distortion that's often too readily apparent in the 16-bit versions.
The gameplay is similarly comparable to the Neo Geo game, for better or worse. The special move inputs are identical and the flow of the action feels similar, though I'd highly recommend playing with a 6-button pad. It's playable with a 2-button controller, but having to use the Run and Select buttons for taunts and throws isn't ideal. It works well enough, but the game feels much better when you aren't forced into finger gymnastics.
But as great as it is that the PC Engine version feels like the real McCoy, the game also inherits the original's most glaring flaws. The timing for special move commands is irritatingly strict, and every opponent from Mickey onward eagerly exploits the unfairly imbalanced attack priorities. It's not as demoralizing as the MVS game was at its default difficulty setting, but it's still a difficult game on the PCE. That last fight against "???" will have you grinding your teeth, I promise.
Overall, Ryuuko no Ken is a phenomenal port of a game that was pretty good on its original platform, and while the package might not be as compelling to some as the PC Engine's versions of Fatal Fury 2, Fatal Fury Special, and World Heroes 2, it's worth some attention if you have any interest in seeing the PC Engine savagely punching above its weight class. Far, far above.
If you're interested in seeing the other versions, here are a few links:
Neo Geo: https://youtu.be/6Jmt9gvSg-Q
Sega Genesis: https://youtu.be/G2IiJau0F78
Super Nintendo: https://youtu.be/FswQaxoBXmk
_____________
No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
NintendoComplete (http://www.nintendocomplete.com/) punches you in the face with in-depth reviews, screenshot archives, and music from classic 8-bit NES games!