World Heroes

"ADK Gives World Heroes to the Arcade"

In 1992 Street Fighter II was on top of the gaming universe and the struggling Neo-Geo was looking for a killer game to compete. Art of Fighting added some new features to the fighting genre, like a 'zoom' effect, and Fatal Fury was released to compete as well. One of the other competitors was World Heroes, a clone of the SF series, in its attempt to compete World Heroes threw in colorful, cartoonish, huge characters, cool backgrounds, decent music and excellent sound effects. Add to this Death Matches and you have a solid all-in-one competitor. Where did World Heroes go wrong? What happened to this dime a dozen competitor? Well for one, it didn't include Ryu and Ken, but rather Hanzou and Fuuma. Fuuma---what? Muscle Power? What kind of name is that? Besides the crazy names and even crazier heroes, there was a few control nuances and some turtle-like speed to go with the package. Let's check it out.

(gameplay - 5)
Super slow speed makes for a game that suffers not from frenetic, furious, fast-paced button-mashing, but rather from when is my character going to come down from that jump and deliver a swift punch to the face of my opponent... kind of frustrating to most people. Add to this the lack of a combo engine, and awkward controls and you have a fighter that goes from contender to never-was status. Throw in some cheap manuevers like Brocken's duck and jab technique and you have a fighting game plagued by flaws. Too bad because this game was pretty enough to seriously take on Capcom's fighter.

(story - 8)
The World Heroes have gathered to defeat Neo Geegus who is a character that can morph into the fighters of the game and use their moves a la Shang Tsung from MK fame. Luckily WH came out before MK.

(graphics - 8, sound - 6)
The graphics in this game are colorful and bright, and also very big. The heroes are huge and very well detailed. The stages are nice, with lots of animation and cool scrolling effects. The special moves look special indeed, nothing is an eyesore in this game. They use a cartoonish look, and the death match stages are very unique and well-done. Huge spikes on the walls really hurt your player if you are knocked into them. Cool. The heroes are muscular and lively. Really the graphics are very good when compared to other games of 1992. The sound and music fell short of spectacular. It may be something that turns you off to this game, and unfortunately with Street Fighter II having a magnificient soundtrack, World Heroes really falls flat on its face in comparison.

(replayability - 6)
Only eight fighters are available in this game (hmm... sounds like SF2)... the Death Matches add some flavor to the game but really its your standard fighting fare with a weak fighting engine and some cheap opponents. Thankfully the graphics are cool enough to draw attention, but the fighting controls are weak in comparison to their main competitor. I remember playing this game in a grocery store and really disliking it. It is definately not the World Heroes game that started my love for the series.

(recommendations)
With three sequels World Heroes has much more to offer than most other franchises. This game just doesn't happen to be one of them. Really World Heroes 2 is leaps and bounds ahead of this game, and World Heroes 2: Jet and World Heroes Perfect are huge steps ahead of the original. With many other fighting games to contend with World Heroes failed to pull off the KO that ADK had hoped for. Fortunately ADK rectified the mistakes of the original with the sequels and if you are looking for some great fighting action, the World Heroes series is a great place to look. Just skip this version if you want the real meat and bones of the series.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 06/18/04