Ryo Sakazaki

In the first Art of Fighting, Ryo's sister, Yuri, is kidnapped by Mr. Big, a local criminal mastermind. With the help of his best friend, Robert Garcia, Ryo manages to confront Mr. Big, leading him to a karate dojo where a man named "Mr. Karate" challenges the two to a fight. When Ryo prevailes, Yuri appears, telling Ryo to stop, for Mr. Karate was their father. In the second game, Takuma reveals that the crime lord Geese Howard turned him into the assasain Mr. Karate. With the Sakazaki family reunited, they, along with Robert, focused on exacting their revenge on Geese, and providing justice to all others who were wronged by him. While entering into Geese's tournament, The King of Fighters, Ryo is able defeat Geese. However, Geese manages to escape with help from his assistants before Ryo could finish him.In the third Art of Fighting, Ryo acts as a supporting character to Robert, who the game is more focused.

Ryo is a member of the Art of Fighting Team in The King of Fighters '94, along with Robert, and Takuma. Developers from the game had problems with balancing Ryo with the other characters from the series without removing none of his special moves. However, Ryo was commented to be one of the strongest characters of the game. They also add that this game was created with the idea of having Ryo fighting against Terry Bogard, the lead character from the Fatal Fury series. In The King of Fighters '96, however, Takuma decides to retire from competitive fighting, and thus allows Yuri to join the Art of Fighting Team. Due to a new rule allowing teams of four in The King of Fighters '99, Takuma returns to the Art of Fighting Team.

By The King of Fighters 2000, Yuri participates in the Women Fighters Team once again, leaving King to replace her. However, as Robert has several issues with his company in The King of Fighters 2001, Yuri returns to the team to cheer him up. With the return of teams of three members in The King of Fighters 2003, the Art of Fighting Team is now composed by Robert, Yuri and Ryo. In The King of Fighters XI, Robert is unable to participate in the tournament, and King is asked to join them as Takuma appears to be ill. He is playable in The King of Fighters XII, but like each character, he does not have an official team.

In the games from The King of Fighters without storylines The King of Fighters 2002 and The King of Fighters Neowave the Art of Fighting Team remains as in '94, while in The King of Fighters '98 and The King of Fighters 2002: Unlimited Match, it appears with Yuri taking Takuma's place. In the two games for the Game Boy Advance titled EX: Neo Blood and EX2, King takes Robert's place in the Art of Fighting Team in the former, and Yuri in the latter. He also appears in the spin-off The King of Fighters Kyo, in which he helps the main character Kyo Kusanagi into finding his girlfriend Yuki. The spin-off games KOF: Maximum Impact and Maximum Impact 2 also feature a Ryo as a playable character, with the latter also featuring his "Mr. Karate" version as hidden character.

Ryo is also a central character in Buriki One, a game for the Hyper Neo Geo 64. In this game, he appears in his older persona, and fighting in a grappling tournament. He appears as the sub-boss in the single-player mode. More recently, in NeoGeo Battle Coliseum, Ryo goes by the name 2nd Mr. Karate, while his look is the one used for Buriki One. He also stars in the crossover video games SNK vs. Capcom series, without the Mr. Karate persona. Ryo also appears in Fatal Fury Special, an updated version of Fatal Fury 2. He appears as a hidden opponent at the end of the single player mode and is playable in the home versions. In the PlayStation version of Fatal Fury: Wild Ambition, Ryo uses the title of Mr. Karate, as an aged and more powerful Ryo. Although he has appeared in no other unrelated games, he is often referenced indirectly in Garou: Mark of the Wolves, he has his own student, Khushnood Butt.