Taking place a year after the original game, Art of Combat 2 tells the tales of both the first king of the tournament of wrestlers and the rise of corrupt police commissioner Geese Howard to power as a criminal Southern. It is revealed that Mr. Big was working for Geese during the events of the original. Gusi threatened the lives of Takuma's children in order to force him to work for him. This resulted in Takuma disappearing and taking on the identity of Mr. Karate. Geese asked Takuma to kill martial artist Jeff Bogard and Takuma refused. While Goose was on a business trip, Mr. Big kidnapped Yuri to convince Takuma, leading to the events of the first game. Later, Geese kills Jeff Bogarde, which leads to the events of Fatal Fury. A much younger Geese actually appears in the game as a non-playable boss, with a different outfit and moveset than his other appearances.
Art of Combat 2 plays pretty much exactly like the original, but it's a little more polished and overall improved in just about every aspect. Todo is gone but still, along with a few more characters like Yuri, Kisaragi and temjin. Unlike the original, they are all available in single player mode. However, such control has been changed very little. A and B still punch and punch respectively, but if you hold A or b instead of just tapping them quickly, it will result in a more powerful punch or kick. This idea was later implemented in each of the SNK fighters for Neo Geo Pocket Color. Otherwise, the basic steps and commands are the same. Ever the advanced fighter in the series, there have been a couple of advanced technologies brought into the series. Several characters have been given air throws and can even recover from a throw by pressing B or C right after being thrown.
The graphics are even better this time around. There is another way, going in every background and everything looks great. Fights against large aircraft, boats and traffic, with large groups of spectators in the immediate context. This approach creates a sense of scale, which gives the levels a sense of scale - everything seems big, so much more, and everything little seems so much smaller. Especially noteworthy is the presence of fit thugs geese watching the work of the tournament in several levels. The king's T-shirt will still explode if she is hit by a fireball, but this time so is everyone else!
SNK Fighters is known for being bosses so ridiculously difficult that the phrase "SNK Boss Syndrome" was coined to describe nearly impossible video game bosses. Well, Art of Fighting 2 was easily one of the hardest single player fighting game modes ever. Almost all opponents are ruthless, blocking all your attacks and effortlessly countering your every move. It's like suffering from SNK Boss Syndrome for the whole game. When you have a huge amount of trouble just to get past the first CPU opponent, it can be a bit discouraging.
The difficulty in the single player mode might make it too unfriendly for most people to get into, but the Art of Combat 2 really stands out in the versus mode. With the challenge of balanced when playing against a man, his refinements to the original game make for an excellent two-player match. Its innovations become standard in 1994 and are no longer like the original, but with everything available in 1 player mode, a larger character roster, improved setup controls and a few useful gameplay changes, Art of Combat 2 serves as the ultimate polish of the original.
Among the "simple" 16-bit platforms, Art of Combat 2 was only ported over to the snes. This version is nothing short of a natural disaster, with monstrously inaccurate graphics, terrible controls, and slashed physics. Needless to say, this port is best avoided, although there is code that allows you to play as Geese. Like the original, in 2006 the game was ported with the rest of the trilogy as part of an art of combat anthology for the PlayStation 2.