World Heroes

"Street Fighter II's younger sister...is easier necessarily better?"

At about the time 'Street Fighter II : Championship Edition' (SF II) was drawing huge crowds of Japanese boys to stand around arcade boxes wired together in Tournament Configurations, so they could lean around the machines and yell abuse at each other as they battled it out, there were a few of us standing on the outside. We either couldn't match it with our squarer-eyed Japanese peers at that game, or didn't feel like battling the crowds for our fun. So we had to look around the arcade at some of those other Yen-hungry machines, squatting there all alone, awaiting a ride. I'm very glad my local arcade had a NEO GEO box hooked up with 'King of Monsters' (for my bad mood, rock 'em sock 'em days) and 'World Heroes' for the days I felt like being a hero.

'World Heroes' (WH) always took flak for being a poorer second cousin of the behemoth SF II, and the criticism is valid. Borrowing the ring style, the basic fighting moves, the Bonus beat-em-up round and the tournament-type announcing, on the face of it all, it's a straight copy. But the game is (thankfully) a lot deeper and richer than those simple similarities. For a start, the characters in WH are almost as interesting as those of SF II. Though Chun Li is virtually a franchise unto herself, characters like WH's Janne stand up well beside her, with her giant D&D sword and flaming Special Arivana Bird moves. World Heroes character Rasputin is the sort of Russian idiot Blanka of the game, with his hilarious large bare feet being used to great effect. Brocken is a kind of mechanical German S.S. officer, with extendable robotic arms and legs and he has a really cool special move of Free Form flight (called a Flying Charge). OK, it's not exactly Vega's (M.Bison in the US version) Spinning Torpedo move, but you can actually control where on the screen he flys to, which hadn't really been seen before. Muscle Power (USA) is the most obvious Hulk Hogan ripoff I have ever seen, anywhere, and how SNK got away with out being sued by the WWF for royalties (remember this was 1991 and the companies wrestling rosters were very different), I'll never know! He does have some terrific special moves, if you learn how to control the big slow-poke (I actually find him the easiest to beat).

The two Ryu and Ken characters from SF II equal Hanzo and Fuuma in World Heroes. Fuuma has an enormous jumping uppercut (called a Serpentine Spiral) where he turns into an entwined orange python, plus the usual throwing stars and rotating blades (wait until they have COMPLETELY stopped spinning, or you'll take some damage). Hanzo gets pretty much the same and it's a pity they didn't differentiate these two a little more, although the obvious intention was to mimic SF II's Ryu/Ken for a basic two player match. Anyway, a small quibble.

My favorite has always been Dragon. He gets a Multi Punch (Ala fat boy from SF II's multi arm masher) that does some great damage and a couple of cool leg kicks. And he just feels more controllable (for my style of fighting). Usually the least favourite to use amongst WH players is Brocken because he moves so.... well..... mechanically! But I've taken him on, in a challenge to myself, many times and his long range attacks, with those giant telescoping legs and arms, can be put to very good use. He suffers against Hanzo and Fuuma though.

Overall, the game play choice is either straight Tournament (SF II style), or DeathMatch. This latter choice involves various cages of 'death' (ooooerrrhhhh!), where the walls or ring ropes etc are spiked, wired up, or somehow otherwise dangerous to the touch. If you're a close move fighter (like myself), you'll immensely enjoy the thought of grabbing Rasputin by his big stupid feet, dunking him head first into the canvas and then watching his pale green bouncing body careen into the waiting spiked wall for a sort of Deathmatch Combo!....Delicious fun!....

The control is as good, or better than SF II, depending on your chosen fighter (again, Brocken takes time to get used to). But during the hundreds of times I played World Heroes in an arcade, I never once felt I lost due to my characters lack of control. When I beat the game, I knew I had done it with skill, not luck. Surely that's the basis of any great arcade game. The feeling must be of achieving the outcome, not lucking into it.

Graphics overall were a grade or two down from SF II. Whereas the latter had near perfect shading, textures and coloring, World Heroes is much more noticeably Neo Geo in origin (and if you've ever played ANY Neo Geo title, you'll know what I mean). But, the overall effect is still pleasing and I never downgraded this game because it didn't look as good as Street Fighter II. I was happy that it allowed me a little more leeway in the gameplay, so I could actually beat the damn thing! ^_^

And I guess that's where my title analogy comes in. Yes, World Heroes is easier than SF II, but does that mean you're going to give up on the elder sibling for the simple delights of the younger girl everytime? Hmmm, best leave that one for you to ponder. Suffice to say, when you're bored of the SF II bun-fight at the arcade, World Heroes will provide some very satisfying simple pleasure.

7/10, because it's essentially a copy. Add one point if you don't care about that. Add another if you like younger women. ^_^

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 12/11/00, Updated 12/11/00