Happy 25th anniversary to... WORLD HEROES!

[Steve]

That's right!

July 28, 1992, World Heroes hit arcades.

Today's July 28, 2017. It's been 25 years. Share your memories (and rants) here.

1. Where were you the first time you played it?
2. Did you like it then?
3. Has your opinion of the first WH game changed any today from 25 years ago?

Time to fire up the old Doc Brown time machine and relive me some World Heroes. Still my favorite franchise of all time (from a sentimental POV)

 

[oliverclaude]

Still my favorite franchise of all time (from a sentimental POV)

You must be very sentimental .

But sure, HBD! Thing I like best about the series is: it's from ADK, the SNK pariahs. Those guys rocked hard and at the end, they wagged the dog.

 

[ggallegos1]

I enjoyed the novelty of the characters and the death match fights in WH2

 

[gusmoney]

I didn't discover it until WH2 but it is my favorite fighting series.

It has the best execution of a Bruce Lee-esque character in Dragon and the most awesome racism in Mudman and super-mecha-hitler, Brocken.

The Death Match mode with the teeter-totter life bar is an overlooked gem of the fighting genre.

Finally, do Ryu/Ken imitators get any better than Hanzo/Fuuma?

 

[Ralfakick]

I didn't discover it until WH2 but it is my favorite fighting series.

Me too, my friends got me into it actually. There is a bowling alley called Sproul not too far from me and when we were in high school like 16-17 years old, we would go to a cheesesteak shop called the Hungry A next to the bowling alley, ogle the 18 year old girls that worked there, bowl a couple of games, and then play some World Heroes 2 on the MVS machine at the bowling alley. Good times.

 

[CrystalCore]

That's right!

July 28, 1992, World Heroes hit arcades.

Today's July 28, 2017. It's been 25 years. Share your memories (and rants) here.

1. Where were you the first time you played it?
2. Did you like it then?
3. Has your opinion of the first WH game changed any today from 25 years ago?

Time to fire up the old Doc Brown time machine and relive me some World Heroes. Still my favorite franchise of all time (from a sentimental POV)

I liked WH2 and its sequels, since they had the NFL Football player (Johnny Maximum) in them. As far as I can tell, those are the only fighting games with a character like that.

 

[Ralfakick]

I liked WH2 and its sequels, since they had the NFL Football player (Johnny Maximum) in them. As far as I can tell, those are the only fighting games with a character like that.

Brian Battler?

 

[Dr Shroom]

world heroes fucking sucks.

 

[madman]

world heroes fucking sucks.

I'm sure asid will be around shortly to tell you that you're an idiot, you don't know shit about games and you're too stupid to understand how great WH is.

 

[famicommander]

World Heroes 1 is a little rough but I dig 2, Jet, and Perfect. They have a lot of personality and the fighting system, while not super technical, is fairly unique at least as far as I have seen.

 

[DigitlSamurai]

I rented the SNES version years ago and thought it was good, but not great. I now own World Heroes 2 for MVS, but haven't played it yet.

 

[wyo]

WHP is legit af

 

[coreykun667]

I wasn't too fond of the first World Heroes, but I have yet to try the others. Got the Saturn port of WH Perfect though, so I'll give that a go and see if I like it.

 

[ChuChu Flamingo]

WHP is legit af

Agreed, it just really needed one more version to fine tune the game such as removing infinites and some character imbalances. A shame we never got a follow up as the music and presentation in WHP was awesome.

 

[andsuchisdeath]

Agreed, it just really needed one more version to fine tune the game such as removing infinites and some character imbalances. A shame we never got a follow up as the music and presentation in WHP was awesome.

Yeah but it's not like those infinites were brain dead (assuming you're referring to Hanzou and Kidd's hard punch/kick, ABC, dash). I don't think WHP is anymore imbalanced than your average neo fighting game.

The only thing I'd really change would be to make the combo counter prominently displayed as opposed to being a tiny little red thing under the health bar.

Anyways, to answer Steve's questions...

1. SNES port at a friends house
2. Yes
3. Yes it has changed. I stopped caring for WH1, and then years later I grew to like it more than when I first played it.

Happy Anniversary World Heroes, you're the best

 

[cyriades]

First played WH1 at a local deli arcade, the same place later got 2 and eventually WHJ. First one isn't great but playable and cool characters, but 2 is still one of my favorite fighters. I liked Jet and Perfect as well, though. The port of 2 for SNES wasn't so hot, hah... Anyone into older games that I show WH2 gets a kick out of Rasputin though

 

[davidjv]

Mudman my favorite

 

[Ip Man]

i played world heroes a lot on the snes. but moved on to other fighters by the time i got to the neo. happy belated birthday.

 

[xsq]

I need a NeoSD.

 

[BlackaneseNiNjA]

Happy belated WH. These games still get plenty of play from me these days. Dragon's Kenshiro hyakuretsuken-like attack made my day back then lol

 

[gusmoney]

Happy belated WH. These games still get plenty of play from me these days. Dragon's Kenshiro hyakuretsuken-like attack made my day back then lol

I think Dragon's Dragon Kick is the coolest special move in all of the fighting game pantheon.

 

[Neo Alec]

Godfather's Pizza. SF2 was all the rage then and there was a crowd of kids around the WH machine settling for it as a substitute, having the time of their lives.

 

[Ralfakick]

Mudman my favorite
View attachment 45952

Love him in NEO Geo Battle too

 

[Blur2040]

My first MVS game was WH2. I had just built my supergun, had an MVS pcb, but no game. I checked eBay and found one miraculously close to me out in the boonies. I won the it for $5 and arranged for local pickup.

I'm pretty sure the price pissed the guy off. He was nice to me but when I got back, the game didn't work. I think he dragged a screwdriver across the cart pins to spite me. I opened it up and the otherwise immaculate cart had a cut pin. I bridged the gap and it works to this day.

Also: I was mondo excited for the return of a few characters in NGBC.

 

[LoneSage]

My experience with World Heroes must have started with World Heroes 2 Jet or Perfect. I remember looking thru a Diehard Gamefan magazine and looking at all the pictures of the game, I must have been 7, maybe 8, and I thought Jack was really cool-looking. I wanted to play the game bad, but never did.

I must have rented World Heroes on the SNES at some point in time, but that memory has long since faded.

Then in high school I got a consolized MVS and World Heroes 1 and 2. Both of the games are objectively not great - there's a lot wrong with them, especially balance issues in the first game. But both of them are part of fuzzy memories in most Neo owners' minds, I'd like to think. Just one of those things that was good as a kid, and you grow up and see it wasn't even that good - and yet you can still appreciate it.

The only thing that bothers me now are nearly all the characters are based on real people, except for Johnny Maximum. People say he was based on Joe Montana but that's bullshit, he's just some ultra-generic football player in a fighting game.