Developer: ADK Publisher: SNK Release: 08/09/96 Genre: Fighting
Next to Eternal Champions World Heroes has one of the best concepts in the fighting game genre. A mad scientist brings together the greatest figures in history to see who the best warrior of all time is. The possibilities for new characters are endless! Sadly the series was not. World Heroes was never the most popular game on the block and the final installment less so. It did not help that outside the Neo Geo the only other version in the west is for the….Gameboy. Yeah. In Japan however World Heroes Perfect received a perfect (see what I did there?) port on the Saturn enabling the series to go out with its head held high.
A year has passed since the conclusion of the World Heroes Battle Fest. Dr. Brown has sent invitations to 16 fighters for one last World Heroes Tournament to finally settle who is the greatest fighter in history once and for all. While the heroes prepare Zeus plots revenge for his defeat in the last tournament. He is completely unaware someone else plans to crash the party however…..
World Heroes Perfect released around the time arcades began to disappear in my area. While popular enough to warrant multiple sequels World Heroes never reached the level of Fatal Fury or King of Fighters. The 2nd game had a brief stay in my local arcade before disappearing forever. Most of my time with that game came from the SNES version. Even if arcades were still present in my town I doubt any would have gotten this game or its prequel. This Saturn port is pretty much arcade perfect and only suffers from being a bit barebones compared to other fighting games released at the time.Goku
It is always interesting to see which literary or historical figure SNK will pull from to create new fighters. Sadly World Heroes Perfect uses the same roster from World Heroes Jet and only has one new character Son Goku. Honestly Goku does not need a history lesson at this point. If you do not know who he is read a damn book. While Goku is new he is not initially playable. You must complete a ridiculous set of requirements before you can fight him and he becomes playable. At least the 2 final bosses are playable bringing the total roster to 19 characters. This is about even with the rest of the market at the time.
Mechanically World Heroes Perfect has a lot going on under the hood. Its numerous subsystems rival the later Street Fighter games and makes for cerebral matches. The reflecting system from the prior games has been expanded significantly. Shot breaks are normal attacks that destroy projectiles while others guard crush and leave the opponent vulnerable. Air blocking and back dashes give you more defensive options but there are new offensive techniques too. ABC special moves differ per character; Dragon can alpha counter while blocking while Jack can dig underground to avoid attacks. The Hero Gauge is the super meter. Once full you can either empower a special move or pull off a crazy death blow. Good luck with that last one, the button combos are the epitome of SNK bullshit.
In terms of the conversion the Saturn version is good. World Heroes Perfect is not the most graphically intensive Neo Geo game so there are only slight animation cuts. After the character select load times are lightning fast at a second or less. This is a far cry from the awful Neo Geo CD version. There is not much in terms of extras. This version uses the arranged soundtrack from the Neo Geo CD release although I never found the music memorable to begin with. There are character files that give information on every character, an expert manual that explains the game’s mechanics and an art gallery that spans the entire series. Unfortunately it is all in Japanese as this release never left Japan. I cannot help but expect more considering other fighting games at the time had practice modes and such. This is a barebones release.
In Closing
Like all of the games in this series World Heroes Perfect is solid. These games never excelled in any one area but were good second tier fighting games. They are good enough to provide hours of fun but not over the top games in their genre. The Saturn version is perfect but has stiff competition on the platform. The Saturn has one of the greatest fighting game libraries, both in arcade ports and original titles. You have to be exceptional to stand out and this game, while enjoyable, does not.
