World Heroes 2

"A great fighter for the SNES."

Man I just loved this game in the arcades in fact I love the World Heroes games in general. In fact when I saw this game at a local video game store I stanched it in a heart beat. Well anyway this is the sequel to the original one and if you may remember the original has been hailed as the most blatant Street Fighter knock off since Fighter's History. After seeing the lack of originality in the last game ADK made the sequel a little more original. There are 6 new characters joining the party and they are the viking Erik,the pirate Captain Kidd,the cute Japanese girl Ryoko,the witchdoctor Mudman(Those guys were made famous from that Chipmunks song),the kickboxer Shura who just screams out Joe Higashi,and my favorite of the new characters the football player J. Maximum(I happen to have this thing with sports fighters in fighting games). Well anyway I covered what I needed in the original so let us get to the review fellow gamers.

Gameplay
Like the last game you can pick between Normal and Death Match mode. In case you don't know Normal mode is the standard one on one match while in Death Match mode you are put in an arena with some hazards like mines and spiked walls. Also now in the Death Match mode you and your opponent have a seesaw life meter that you share and whoever runs out of life get a count to 10 to see if they could get up and if it runs out then the other person wins. There is also a way to get normal life meters in Death Match and you can also have seesaw meters in the Normal mode by going to the option menu. This game is just simple old school fun and the gameplay is very good.

Graphics
On par with the arcade version. Everyone looks good and I should also say that Muscle Power does not look too much like a Hulk Hogan knock off like he did in the original game. The background were good like J. Maximum's street stage or Erik's viking ship. Unlike the arcade version each character only has one victory pose instead of two which is okay I guess since the rest of the graphics were done great.

Control
The control where there are was a punch button and a kick button and by either tapping it or hitting it hardly gets you a weak attack or a strong attack is here from the arcade. Didn't like the control set up well guess what there is an option to have the control set up differently with two punch buttons and two kick buttons so that helped out a lot. Special move commands are a little on the weird side like Erik's projectile wave has you pressing back then down forward. The control is good however.

Sound
The sounds of the character voices are well done with the possible exception of Muscle Power's voice in which he says ''Number One'' and I thought he said ''Linda Wow''. The stage music is good too like Fuuma's stage for example. The sound category is good I'll say that.

Replay
Heck yeah. There is enough replay value in this game that will make you and your friends come back for more much more. Really the replay value here is high and you will play this game til the cows come home(Of course if the cows do come home then what the hell keep on playing it).

Final Word
World Heroes 2 for the SNES is a good fighting for the system and is almost as good as its arcade counterpart. Not convinced yet then let me just say you don't know what you are missing. A well done effort indeed.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 04/24/01, Updated 04/24/01