Buriki One

Buriki One: World Grapple Tournament '99 in Tokyo
Developer(s)	SNK
Publisher(s)	SNK
Director(s)	Takashi Tsukamoto
Platform(s)	Hyper Neo Geo 64
Release	May 21, 1999 (JP)
Genre(s)	Versus Fighting
Mode(s)	Up to 2 players simultaneously
Arcade system	Hyper Neo Geo 64

Buriki One: World Grapple Tournament '99 in Tokyo, otherwise known simply as Buriki One, is a 3D competitive fighting game produced by SNK and released as a coin-operated arcade game in 1999. It is the seventh and final game developed for SNK's short-lived Hyper Neo Geo 64 hardware and like most games released for the platform, it has never been officially ported to home consoles. It was planned for release for the PS1 platform but was never officially released.

The control system uses two buttons for movement, keeping the player on a 2-D axis, despite the 3D arena. Pressing the left button moves the character in the left direction, pressing the right moves in that respective direction. Double tapping each button produces a dash in each corresponding direction for evasion and closing distance. Pressing both buttons makes the character block.

By using the joystick, the player can execute attacks of varying damage levels. By pressing in the forward direction, the player executes a medium attack, up forward a stronger attack, and down, forward is the weakest, but fastest attack. By combining various combinations of the movement of the stick, a special attack is performed for increased damage. Unlike the 2-D iterations, however, no ranged attacks are present, keeping the preferred fighting distance between players at close quarters.

A fighter can win by knocking out his opponent, forcing his opponent to surrender, or by winning a judgment by a panel of three judges if time runs out. The judges are allowed to cast ballots for either fighter or a tie ballot that does not contribute to the decision. A tie will force a player to either give up or buy a continue. Should a fighter fall outside of the ring, the fight is paused until both fighters are sent back into the ring to resume the fight.

It's Spring 1999... Fighters from across the world gather at the Tokyo Dome to compete in the World Grapple Tournament. Each contender has their own fighting discipline, ranging from the popular styles of boxing, karate and professional wrestling, to the lesser known arts of aikido, tai chi and Muay Thai. Finally, they have the chance to prove which martial art conquers all!^[1]

• Gai Tendo - The lead character, a 17-year-old fighter who uses a self-styled martial art (dubbed Total Fighting in the game). He has been training by himself at Okinawa ever since graduating middle school. CV:Nobuyuki Hiyama
• Rob Python - A 35-year-old super heavyweight boxer currently residing in LA. CV:Kōji Ishii
• Jacques Ducalis - A 32-year-old open-weight Gold medalist and current Director of the French judo Society. CV:Eiji Tsuda
• Seo Yong Song - An 18-year-old taekwondo master who was the Middleweight champion in the World Taekwondo Championship during the previous year. Currently attending college with a major in quantum physics. CV:Jun Hashimoto
• Takato Saionji - A 17-year-old private high school student from Kyoto who has thoroughly mastered aikido from his grandfather Takayuki. CV:Eiji Yano
• Payak Sitpitak (พยัคฆ์ สิทธิพิทักษ์) - A 40-year-old Muay Thai ranker who is the currently the Top Welterweight athlete in the Muay Thai circuit. CV:Atsushi Yamanishi
• Song Xuandao - A 70-year-old tai chi master who is well known within the Chinese fighting world. CV:Keiichiro Sakagi
• Patrick Van Heyting - A 37-year-old popular pro wrestler from the Netherlands. CV:Franky Nakamura
• Ivan Sokolov - A 27-year-old freestyle wrestler and an 87 kg class Gold Medalist. Despite his rough-like posture, he has won against his opponents due to his technical skills. CV:Hiroyuki Arita
• Akatsuki-Maru - A 28-year-old sumo wrestler who currently holds the title of Sekiwake.^[a] CV:Eiji Yano
• Ryo Sakazaki - The 32-year-old instructor of the Kyokugen School of karate. Originally the main character from the Art of Fighting series. CV:Masaki Usui
• Silber - The final boss in the game. A one-eyed martial artist from Germany who uses his own style of karate. His name means silver in German. Although Silber has never officially competed in a fighting tournament, he has been sight at numerous parts of the world over the past 30 years, fighting against numerous well known martial artists. Silber is a computer-only character initially and only becomes a controllable character after the computer-controlled Silber is defeated by the player with each of the other characters. CV:Hiroyuki Arita

In Japan, people were asked to vote for their top 5 "Fight Round girls". The winner of the vote would appear after a 2-Player battle.

• Hinako Tono (the winner)^[2]
• Nanami Sakai
• Shizue Sakurada
• Midori Marukame
• Hikaru Koda

Buriki One was the only title Hiroaki was involved in from the early stages of development to release while at SNK, and participated in a wide range of aspects, from design to motion capture actors. Several characters and settings were made before he joined into the making of the game following his inclusion, he was given free reign. However, Hiroaki still did several retakes in order to be faithful to their ideas. Hiroaki had to research Muay Thai and Sumo in order to be able to properly create the characters. As a first-year employee, he had much fun every day. At that time, a senior colleague told him to draw with speed to fit at SNK. He took it seriously and completed one poster illustration per day. Although Hiraoki was later told it was a joke, he still expressed satisfaction with his work. Ryo Sakazaki's redesign in his older persona was created by Hiroaki as he disliked the original orange gi and wanted to mix it more with black colors. Hiroaki was the model for the protagonist Gai Tendo.^[3]

In Japan, Game Machine listed Buriki One on their June 15, 1999 issue as being the most-successful arcade game of the month.^[4]

Ryo in Buriki One received this response especially with older gamers based on Falcoon's illustration of him of his black gi with the artist aiming to model after the black gi from the Netflix TV series Cobra Kai.^[5] Furthermore, Hardcore Gaming and GameRant regarded Ryo's older persona as one of the main reasons why SNK's game Buriki One is remembered by fans several years after its release as he highly stands out to fans of SNK's following cross-over NeoGeo Battle Coliseum.^[6][7] Hiroaki said he wanted Gai' in The King of Fighters which becomes true in The King of Fighters XI.^[8] In 2016, Watanabe said he wanted to make a new Buriki One, now that consoles come with two analog sticks. He thinks the game can be refined for more fun.^[9]

• Art of Fighting - The series from which Ryo Sakazaki originated.
• The King of Fighters - Gai Tendo has appeared in the console versions of The King of Fighters '99, as well as in The King of Fighters 2000 as an alternate "Striker" (a character who assists the player in combat). Gai and Silber later appeared as secret opponents in The King of Fighters XI.
• Fatal Fury: Wild Ambition - The PlayStation version features the older Ryo Sakazaki from Buriki One under the name of Mr. Karate.
• Neo Geo Battle Coliseum - Ryo Sakazaki appears as his Buriki One incarnation under the name of Mr. Karate.

• Buriki One at the old SNK homepage in Internet Archive
• Buriki One at NBC Museum of SNK Playmore
• Buriki One at the Killer List of Videogames