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WorldHeroes

World Heroes (ワールドヒーローズ) is a fighting game series that was created by ADK for the Neo Geo, though some of the games in the series were also ported to the SEGA Saturn, Super Nintendo, SEGA Megadrive and Game Boy.

Story[]

The general premise was that a scientist, Dr. Brown, having perfected a time machine, organized a tournament for various fighters throughout all of history to combat each other. True to this plot, many of the fighters are based on actual historical figures.

Gameplay[]

World Heroes Cover

Main cover.

The game plays like many other fighting games, but instead of a 6-button layout, the original World Heroes uses only 3 of the standard 4 Neo Geo buttons: one for punching, another for kicking, and the last for throwing. The former two buttons can be held pressed longer in order to deliver stronger attacks which is similar to the first Street Fighter control scheme, only there are only 2 levels of strength here and it uses standard buttons instead of pneumatic buttons. In the SNES version (and later games, starting with World Heroes 2 Jet), it is possible to assign the 4 basic attacks to different buttons. In World Heroes Perfect, each character had a traditional four-button attack layout, but could also achieve stronger attacks by pushing down two respective punch or kick buttons at the same time.

In World Heroes Perfect, every character has an ABC Special Move that can be activated by pressing the A, B, and C buttons at the same time. Moves vary by character, though they all require strategic use and are easy to activate, allowing for more tactical battles. For example, the character Fuuma's ABC Special allows him to fake a special move; J. Max's ABC Special allows him to catch, hold onto, and throw back projectiles; and Kim Dragon's ABC Special allows him to perform counters while blocking.

Aside from the normal tournament mode, there is also a popular Deathmatch mode (which was removed in World Heroes 2 Jet and World Heroes Perfect). In it, the arenas are filled with different kinds of traps that can change conditions in the bouts or even damage the characters (such as spikes, bombs, greasy or sticky floors, etc.). Deathmatch mode might have been inspired by the growing popularity of deathmatch style professional wrestling in Japan at the time, mostly made famous by Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling.

Games[]

Originally released for Neo Geo. Also ported onto Sega Genesis and SNES by Sega and Sunsoft, respectively. The Neo Geo version has been released through Nintendo's Wii Virtual Console service, for SONY's PlayStation services, and for the modern consoles through Hamster Corporation.

Originally released for Neo Geo. Also ported onto SNES and TurboGrafx CD by Saurus and Hudson Soft, respectively. The Neo Geo version has been released through Nintendo's Wii Virtual Console service, for SONY's PlayStation services, for the modern consoles through Hamster Corporation and by Neo Geo Arcade Stick Pro.

Originally released for Neo Geo. Also ported onto Game Boy by Takara. The Neo Geo version has been released through Nintendo's Wii Virtual Console service, for SONY's PlayStation services, for the modern consoles through Hamster Corporation and by Neo Geo Arcade Stick Pro.

Originally released for Neo Geo. Also ported onto Sega Saturn. The Neo Geo version has been released through Nintendo's Wii Virtual Console service, for SONY's PlayStation services, for the modern consoles through Hamster Corporation and by Neo Geo Arcade Stick Pro.

A compilation for PlayStation 2/4, featuring all the four games of the series. It was released in Japan under the title World Heroes Gorgeous, and it's part of the Neo Geo Online Collection.

Characters[]

Introduced in World Heroes[]

Introduced in World Heroes 2[]

Introduced in World Heroes 2 Jet[]

Introduced in World Heroes Perfect[]

Characters' Participation[]

Participation of the characters in the mainline games of the series, either they canonical or not.

Note 1: The order of the tables are based on the appearances on the first mainline game of the series.
Note 2: About the colors in the table, they follow the logic below:
  • Yellow: for table titles.
  • Law Green & Red: for the characters' participation in the series.
  • Forest Green & Fire Brick: the first color indicates the characters who participated in all games of the series, and the second indicates the characters who were absent from, at least, one game in the series.
Character
WH 1
WH 2
WH 2 Jet
WH Perfect
Hanzo Hattori (WH)
Regular Character
Regular Character
Regular Character
Regular Character
Fuuma Kotaro
Regular Character
Regular Character
Regular Character
Regular Character
Kim Dragon
Regular Character
Regular Character
Regular Character
Regular Character
Jeanne D'Arc
Regular Character
Regular Character
Regular Character
Regular Character
J. Carn
Regular Character
Regular Character
Regular Character
Regular Character
Muscle Power
Regular Character
Regular Character
Regular Character
Regular Character
Brocken
Regular Character
Regular Character
Regular Character
Regular Character
Rasputin
Regular Character
Regular Character
Regular Character
Regular Character
Captain Kidd
Absent
Regular Character
Regular Character
Regular Character
Erick
Absent
Regular Character
Regular Character
Regular Character
Ryoko Izumo
Absent
Regular Character
Regular Character
Regular Character
Shura
Absent
Regular Character
Regular Character
Regular Character
Mudman
Absent
Regular Character
Regular Character
Regular Character
Johnny Maximum
Absent
Regular Character
Regular Character
Regular Character
Jack
Absent
Absent
Regular Character (Sub-Boss in Tournament Stages)
Regular Character
Ryofu
Absent
Absent
Regular Character (Sub-Boss in Tournament Stages)
Regular Character
Son Gokku
Absent
Absent
Absent
Mid-Boss (Hidden Character)
Geegus
Final Boss
Sub-Boss (as Neo Version)
Absent
Absent
Neo Dio
Absent
Final Boss (only as Dio)
Absent
Final Boss
Zeus
Absent
Absent
Final Boss
Sub-Boss

Trivia[]

  • All the games of the series were produced and released by former SNK and ADK.

External links[]

SNK games
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Minor series Micon KitIkari WarriorsAthenaBeast BustersBaseball StarsSengokuWorld HeroesArt of FightingSuper SidekicksTwinkle Star SpritesThe Last BladeNeoSNK vs. CapcomDragon GalDays of MemoriesSuper OtousanSky LoveSister QuestDoki MajoKamitamaSNK Gals Island
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