ACA NEOGEO World Heroes

Genre: Fighting Game

Players: 1-2 Competitive (Local), Online Leaderboards

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Review:

World Heroes is a Fighting Game originally released in 1992 in arcades and the NEOGEO home console, and in the years since it has been brought to numerous other consoles, with this ACA NEOGEO version releasing on Nintendo Switch in 2017.

World Heroes has a solid premise for a Fighting Game, with a roster of fighters comprised of legendary figures from throughout history, including the likes of Joan of Arc, Rasputin, and Hattori Hanzo. However, this game seems like too little, too late for a 1992 release.

For comparison’s sake, that same year saw the release of Street Fighter II: Champion Edition and Fatal Fury 2, both of which featured a larger cast of iconic, memorable characters, better controls, and better visuals. Unfortunately, instead we have only 8 fighters, slow gameplay, clunky unreliable controls for special moves, and a move system requiring you to time the length of button presses to get different attacks.

When it comes to unique features, World Heroes does have a “Death Match” mode, but this just replaces standard fighting arenas with arenas that have hazards that players must try to avoid or exploit to damage opponents. Given that 1992 was also the year that brought us the first Mortal Kombat game, calling this a “Death Match” seems rather quaint.

When it comes to the specific features of this port, players are given a decent array of options and features. The game features the Japanese original release, the English original release, and Caravan Mode, a 5 minute score challenge with Online leaderboards. Furthermore, in-game players can access display settings, save states, game settings, and a digital manual. It’s a decent selection of features, though sadly what’s missing is online play, and there’s no art or making-of content to speak of.

As a historical relic, World Heroes is interesting, but it can’t hold a candle to contemporary Fighting games it was competing against, and it certainly can’t compare to the great Fighting games we have access to today. Unless you’re a collector, I see little reason to bother with World Heroes.

tl;dr – World Heroes is a Fighting Game that has players taking the role of historical figures in battle, but that’s about all this game has going for it. Clunky controls, a limited roster, slow gameplay, unimpressive visuals, and an uninspired cast of fighters makes this a game that hasn’t been treated kind by history, and it wasn’t even competitive with games of its era. Skip it.

Grade: D-

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