"An amazing port of the SNK classic."

World Heroes was released during the summer of 1994 as a port of the arcade classic of
the same name. A version of World Heroes was released on the Super Nintendo during
the summer of 1993. Many fans of the series (myself included) wondered how a good
version of the original game (or the SNES version for that matter) could possibly be
ported over to the Genesis. Well, I don’t know how it was done, but it was, now on to
the review.

Graphics-7/10- The characters are large, nicely detailed, and animate fluidly. The normal
backgrounds are very colorful (for the Genesis) and feature numerous little touches. The
Death Match backgrounds come in a variety of shapes and sizes, from 2 walls of spikes, to
a flaming wrestling ring, they are all very unique and add some personality to the game.
The only serious downside to the graphics is the rather dark, somewhat drab look of the
game, some sacrifices had to be made and I assume the use of vibrant colors was one of
them.

Pros- Large, fluidly animating characters. Colorful backgrounds.
Cons- The game has a dark look overall.

Sound-6/10- The music is rather bland and uninspired. Thankfully, the game’s
namesound effects are nice and always fit the actions. The voice effects are a pleasant
surprise, they’re still grainy, but nowhere near as bad as other games.

Pros- The sound effects are great, and the voice effects aren’t too shabby either.

Cons- The music is bland. Voice effects are a grainy.

Story-2/10- A group of fighter fights to win a tournament sponsored by an evil madman ,
how original.

Pros- None
Cons- It’s been done in every fighting game since Street Fighter II and it never gets any
better, a little originality couldn’t hurt.

Gameplay-8/10- You can choose between Normal and Death Match modes. Normal is
the usual fight-until-you-beat-the-boss mode that’s in every fighting game. Death Match
is a very unique mode in which you fight opponents in unique arenas; an arena with walls
of spikes or on electrified wrestling ring are just two examples. The fighters in this game
are truly unique, Rasputin is one of the most original fighting game characters ever, there
are also the usual fighting game characters, the wrestler M. Power, the palette swaps;
Honzo and Fuuma, and an M. Bison look alike who plays like Inspector Gadget in
Brocken. The only downside is that the game does play a little slowly at times, a speed
setting wouldn’t have hurt.

Pros- Diverse cast of characters, very unique arenas.

Cons- The gameplay is a bit on the slow side. Those of you who love fast gameplay will
want to stay away.

Control-8/10- Most moves are easy to pull off thanks to the responsive control.
Unfortunately , others border on the realm of impossible because of it (you must hit the
commands perfectly, there is no margin for error.)

Pros- The tight control makes most moves a breeze to execute.
Cons- Unfortunately, it’s a bit too tight, harder moves are nearly impossible to pull off,
you must have pinpoint precision when attempting them.

Presentation-10/10- Excellent, the presentation is arcade-perfect.

Pros- It’s arcade-perfect.
Cons- If you didn’t like the presentation of the arcade version, you won’t like the
presentation in this version either.

Overall-8/10- This game combines great graphics, wonderful character design, good
sound, and for the most part, excellent control to make one of the most original fighting
games ever.

Final Thoughts- This is one amazing port of the arcade game. While the graphics, sound, and control suffered in the conversion; all of the gameplay is intact, and that’s what counts.

For Nomade Owners- Well, this game fares pretty well on the Nomad. The blurriness of the screen does tend to get in the way of things, particularly when tons of projectiles are
being thrown, but that’s the worst that it gets. The game’s sound is still a mixed bag, the same goes for the control All in all, this game runs pretty well on the Nomad, as long as you don’t get into too many projectile battles, you should be just fine.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 04/09/01, Updated 04/09/01