World Heroes

World Heroes (ワールドヒーローズ, Wārudo Hīrōzu) is a series of four fighting games created originally by ADK with assistance from SNK for the Neo Geo family of arcade and home consoles.

Over the years, the games have been ported to various non-SNK platforms as well including the Super NES and Sega Saturn. A fifth title World Heroes Pocket was announced for release on the Neo Geo Pocket around 1999 but later canceled.

Gameplay – World Heroes

The series plays similar to 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 down longer in order to deliver stronger attacks, similar to the first Street Fighter control scheme, with only two levels of strength and using 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 the popular “Death Match” 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 spiked walls, landmines, burning ropes, slick floors, etc.). The “Death Match” modes of the first two titles in the series may 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.

Story – World Heroes

The general premise is that a scientist, Dr. Brown, having perfected a time machine, organized a tournament for various “World Heroes” throughout all of history to engage in combat with each other. True to this plot, many of the fighters are based on actual historical figures, while some are fictional ones.

List of games in the series – World Heroes

Other/canceled games – World Heroes

Related releases – World Heroes

Fuuma Kotaro appears as a playable character in the 1994 fighting game Aggressors of Dark Kombat, which was also created by ADK. However, some of his moves from the World Heroes series were removed to make him fair enough to fight. Every character from the World Heroes series as well as some characters from other ADK games were featured in the Neo Geo CD-exclusive title, ADK World.

Since World Heroes Perfect and ADK World, and during the Neo Geo Pocket era, ADK suffered enough financial difficulties to file for bankruptcy; however, all intellectual properties and copyrights to their video game and character library were bought by SNK Playmore. Due to the World Heroes series being entirely originally released for the Neo-Geo platform, some characters from the franchise returned in the fighting game NeoGeo Battle Coliseum and the card game SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters DS as a result, as well as SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy.

Characters – World Heroes

This section lists the characters in the original game, and characters added or removed in subsequent releases.

World Heroes – World Heroes

•  Dr. BrownThis unplayable character, and his involvement with the concept of time travel, serves as an apparent homage to Doc Brown from the Back to the Future film trilogy (he became fully known as “Dr. Brown Sugar” with the release of Neo Geo Heroes: Ultimate Shooting). Dr. Brown has been also responsible for bringing and helping Nakoruru, Love Heart, and Mui Mui in the event of The King of Fighters XIV.
•  Hattori HanzōHanzo is the protagonist of the series and uses many moves and commands similar to Ryu from the Street Fighter series, a common occurrence in fighting games of the time. However, in later titles of the series, Hanzo became slightly less comparable to Ryu. Hanzo also appears in NeoGeo Battle Coliseum as a playable character. He is based on the historical ninja of the same name.
•  Fūma KotarōHe is considered the rival of the main character Hanzo Hattori and as such they both share many similar moves (albeit using different names) in a similar fashion to Ken from the Street Fighter series. Fūma also appears in both Aggressors of Dark Kombat and NeoGeo Battle Coliseum as a playable character. He is based on the actual Fūma Kotarō, who allegedly killed the real Hanzo. In the ADK universe, Fūma is portrayed as a fun-loving bandit who is willing to adopt new ideas. Sometimes, he will stay in the modern era after time-traveling, which happens in Aggressors of Dark Kombat.
•  RasputinA philosopher of 13th century Russia, was also a known alchemist and sorcerer. He discovered a way to expand his fists and feet so he could fight from a distance. He accepted the chance to fight Geegus because he sees Geegus as a fallen angel. He keeps pleading that loving one another is important and will not give into people who do not listen to his constant persuasion. He is based loosely on Grigori Rasputin.
•  Janne D’ArcShe is a 15th-century feminist, who protects the circus that raised her and has proven to be one of the toughest fencers of her time. She accepted the invitation to defeat Geegus, only to prove that women are tougher than men. She puts all her worries about getting married into her blows. She enters the later tournaments to try to seek a husband, but finds out that men are intimidated by her strength as a fighter. She is loosely based on Joan of Arc. She is also a downloadable playable in The King of Fighters mainline-based tie-in crossover title, SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy, where she was dragged into Kukri’s pocket dream dimension alongside some other girls who participated previous KOF, with one of them are male fighters who are transformed into females in that dimension.
•  Jenghis/Julius CarnHe is fierce and merciless in hand-to-hand combat. J. Carn joined the World Heroes tournament to fight Geegus out of boredom. He has become a tyrant and wants to be victorious by hurling his raw brawn. He and Ryofu respect each other’s power. He is loosely based on the actual Genghis Khan, but his look and fighting style share some similarities to Uighur the Warden from Fist of the North Star.
•  BrockenBrocken is an android, and his moveset contains techniques involving mechanically-extended limbs and missile ‘fists’. He is loosely based on Rudolph von Stroheim from the JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure manga franchise. Some other parts of his look were also influenced by the titular character of the first two Terminator films, and (with his name) Brockenman or his son Brocken Jr. from the manga/anime series Kinnikuman. He later became the playable character of the side-scrolling shoot ’em up in the Japan-only, Neo Geo CD-exclusive title ADK World.
•  /  Kim DragonDragon is a famous martial artist and a star of martial arts films. Accused of lacking real skill, he accepted the invitation to fight against Geegus. He is based on real-life martial artist and actor Bruce Lee, but in the first game, his stage is set in China, whereas in World Heroes 2, his stage is set at Yongdusan Park in Busan, South Korea. He was possibly named after president of SNK’s then-Korean distributor Viccom, Kim Kap-Hwan (after whom the Fatal Fury character was also named), to avoid copyright infringement. His rapid punching moves share some similarities to Kenshiro from the manga/anime series Fist of the North Star. In the first game, his nationality is indicated as Chinese and the Chinese characters used to spell his name in World Heroes Perfect translate to “Gold Dragon”.
•  Muscle PowerAn American wrestler from the 21st century, he was the first competitor to win every Heavyweight Championship from every wrestling association. He accepted Doc Brown’s invitation to fight Geegus because he took Geegus as a challenger of his multiple belts. He is based on the wrestler Hulk Hogan. His looks were slightly altered in World Heroes 2 and subsequent titles to tone down the resemblance and avoid copyright infringement. Despite this, the first World Heroes has been re-released a few times without changing any parts of his look other than adding extra palettes in World Heroes Anthology.
•  GeegusGeegus is a cyborg created by the secret organization called D.A.M.D.; he can shapeshift into any of the eight fighters and use their moves at will, similar to Shang Tsung from the Mortal Kombat series. Geegus wants to destroy Earth; the World Heroes tournament was created to stop his evil plans. After all but one fighter have been eliminated, Geegus demands that the Champion fight him or he will destroy the entire planet. Geegus appears in World Heroes 2 as Neo Geegus, serving as the game’s sub-boss. In this game, he can only transform into any of the six new characters of this game: Kidd, Erick, Ryoko, Mudman, Shura and Johnny. Neo Geegus also cannot be harmed while shape shifting, unlike in the first game. Geegus’ design and abilities are, seemingly, a homage to the T-1000 liquid metal cyborg from Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Geegus makes a cameo appearance in NeoGeo Battle Coliseum as part of Neo Dio’s Geo-Geegus desperation move^{[clarification needed]}; he also appears as Geo Geegus in the game Neo Geo Heroes: Ultimate Shooting.

Brocken

Credits

Geegus

Muscle Power

Fatal Match