This is the 2021 definitive edition of one of the most musically ambitious Neo Geo soundtracks ever made. Art of Fighting 3 broke the mold for fighting game music back in 1996 with its genre-hopping approach, and this reissue collects the full spread in all its glory.
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"GET HIGH," Ryo Sakazaki's theme, appears in four wildly different versions, from the funky original to a full-on goa trance remix that sounds like it wandered in from an Ibiza club circa 1995. Robert Garcia's "MOJO" gets the same treatment, with boogie and ramble variations that lean hard into jazz and soul.
The character themes here aren't just background loops, they're statements. "STONE IN SANTANA" is a bass-driven groover that lives up to its subtitle, "CIHCO DE MAYO" brings Latin percussion heat, and "MIZUKA JUNGLE" drops into this dense, layered world music territory that no other fighting game was touching at the time.
Composer Yasuaki Fujita (also known for his Mega Man work at Capcom) and the SNK sound team were clearly given free rein to experiment. The definitive soundtrack format means you get preludes leading into main themes, giving everything a cinematic album flow rather than just an arcade dump.
"LIBERATION HALLUCINATION" closes the set with the kind of atmospheric weight that makes you realize this was never just a fighting game soundtrack. It was a genre showcase disguised as one.