World Heroes

World Heroes

Neo Geo - USA - 1st edition.

Developer Alpha Denshi Kogyo, Sega Midwest Development Division, Sun Electronics Corp. Publisher Alpha Denshi Kogyo, Sega of America, Inc., SNK Corporation of America, Sunsoft Published 1992-07-28 Platforms Arcade, Genesis, Neo Geo, Neo Geo CD, SNES Genres Fighting Themes Action, Martial arts, Time travel Series World Heroes Multiplayer Simultaneous co-op Distribution Commercial

World Heroes is a fighting video game developed and published by Alpha Denshi Kogyo for the Arcade on 1992-07-28. It was subsequently ported to several other platforms. The game is shamelessly based on Street Fighter II: The World Warrior with most of its fighter designs, controls, and special moves taken directly from Capcom's more famous title. It is the first game in the World Heroes series and was followed up by World Heroes 2.

In the game, a scientist has built a time machine to solve one of the most pressing and philosophically important questions of humanity: who was the best fighter in history? Contestants include a ninja, a similar ninja in a different colored gi, a Mongolian warlord, an über-Nazi-cyborg, a fencer who is allowed to use her sword for some reason, and a washed-up professional wrestler from the 1980s, you know, only the best. After you irreparably disrupt the time continuum, you have to defeat a shape-shifting space alien from the future, as one does.

Personal

Own?	No.
Won?	Yes. SNES - USA - Difficulty: 3 - Hanzo, Fuuma, J. Carn.
Finished	2024-09-06 - SNES - USA.

When a video rental store was liquidating its SNES titles around Christmas time in the mid-1990s, I saw this game sitting in the bin. I had never heard of the game before, but, at the time, I was still interested in fighting games, which I assumed it to be based on the cartridge art, so I bought it. Having already owned Street Fighter II: Turbo - Hyper Fighting, I immediately saw it as a cheap ripoff and wasn't very impressed by it. However, I still spent a fair amount of time playing it. Not yet familiar with how to game the AI, I kept getting frustrated that I couldn't beat the game. I only ever beat it on the lowest difficulty level without seeing any of the endings. At some point, I got rid of the game, possibly when I gave my SNES to a friend. In my 40s, I tried playing it again to see if I could beat it to get it on my list of beaten game. I found a decent strategy and beat the story mode at level 3 difficulty with Hanzo without much effort. Just to make sure it wasn't a fluke, I tried the fatal mode at level 3 difficulty and beat it with Fuuma.

Review

4	5	7	4	5

Best Version: ?

— This section contains spoilers! —

Good

• The graphics are well-drawn. Although, the style is largely "borrowed" from Capcom, so it's hard to go wrong.
• The death match game with hazardous arenas adds some interesting play style.
• I like the idea of pitting fighters throughout history against each other. too bad the game's story doesn't make any sense at all.

Bad

• I didn't find any of the background music to be enjoyable on its own and the voice acting all sounds a bit off.
• The game borrows the hold style special moves from Street Fighter II, which are the worst ones.
• On the SNES port, at difficulty level 3, the level needed to see the proper endings, you can mostly just throw your opponent over and over again to achieve victory.
• The game doesn't have any minibosses, and the final boss just shape-changes into the other fighters without any special moves of his own, so it's a boring way to end the game.
• Destructible background objects were removed from the SNES and Genesis ports.
• In the SNES port, difficulty is increased, not by making the AI better, but by having the player do less damage.

Ugly

• Because the game shamelessly rips-off Street Fighter II, you can't help but compare the two, and you'll notice that World Heroes does everything worse. The characters aren't as interesting (especially the final boss), the background scenes aren't as alluring, the bonus round isn't as fun, the endings aren't as enjoyable, etc.
• Just like with other fighting games of the time, it allows its AI to use hold style special moves without a delay creating cheating AI.
• The Genesis port has a pretty awful frame rate.

Media

Arcade Art

• 

  Instructions - USA.

Box Art

• 

  Neo Geo - Japan. Uses the same art as the arcade flyer.

• 

  Neo Geo - USA. Different graphic layout from Japanese release.

• 

  Neo Geo CD - Japan. Unique art. I love Rasputin in the back pulling a Marilyn Monroe.

• 

  Super Famicom - Japan. Unique art.

• 

  SNES - USA. Same pose as the arcade art, but completely redone for some reason.

• 

  SNES - Europe. Uses USA art, but Brocken has been de-Nazified.

• 

  Genesis - USA. Same as arcade art, but with a different logo.

Documentation

• 

  Manual - Neo Geo - Japan.

• 

  Manual - Super Famicom - Japan.

• 

  Manual - SNES - USA.

• 

  Manual - Genesis - USA.

• 

  Flyer - Arcade - Japan - Front.

• 

  Flyer - Arcade - Japan - Back.

Videos

Longplay - Arcade - Brocken - Max difficulty.

Longplay - Genesis - Hanzo - Max difficulty.

Longplay - Neo Geo - Hanzo - Normal difficulty.

Longplay - Neo Geo CD - Janne - Max difficulty.

Longplay - SNES - Dragon - Max difficulty.

Play Online

Arcade, Genesis, Mega Drive, SNES (Europe), SNES (USA), Super Famicom

Representation

Strong female character?	Pass	Janne is both strong and playable.
Bechdel test?	Fail	There is only a single woman.
Strong person of color character?	Pass	Hanzo, Fuuma, Dragon, and Carn are strong and playable people of color.
Queer character?	Fail	There are no queer characters.

Titles

Language	Native	Transliteration	Translation
English	World Heroes
Japanese	ワールドヒーローズ	Warudo Hirozu	World Heroes

• MAME code: wh1

Links