Ignition are about to release a flurry of retro games onto the market, all from the mighty and expensive powerhouse that was the Neo Geo. We have already reviewed the Fatal Fury Battle Archives Volume 1, now it’s the turn of the World Heroes series, but is it any better?

World Heroes is another 2D fighting game that never got out of Street Fighters shadow. It had all of the moves, characters and a few extras but it could not do better. At the time I had no idea why but after playing these games it is clear that the better game won.

World Heroes has you take control of 8 fighters who have been plucked from time by the crazy Professor Brown to find out which is the greatest fighter of all time. The controls are very basic with a punch, kick and body toss. The graphics are impressive for the time but very dated and the overall speed of the fight is very slow and laborious. World Heroes ace in the sleeve was its death match mode, here you have a one fall match and you share the same energy, you have half each and if you take a hit it goes on the their side, oh yeah and there are electrified walls on either side that you need to avoid.

World Heroes 2 has Professor Brown up to his time kidnapping again, this time you have 14 characters to choose from. Whilst the graphics are exactly the same as the previous game, the fighting mechanics are massively improved, you still have a punch and a kick but they are pressure sensitive, hold down each attack and you will perform a stronger version. Also included is a deflection, if you are about to receive the bad end of a projectile you can press guard just in time to send it flying back.

World Heroes 2 Jet has you pulled from time again for the “Super Hero Match”, a series of one fall battles over 5 days. Some old favourites return to the fray plus a few newcomers. There are two play modes here, the Super Hero Tournament Mode has you play 3 one fall games over 5 days, win enough fights and you go through to the finals that are over 3 rounds. This also opens up the story and explains who has organised this huge event. There is also the Warrior Training Mode which is more like the classic modes of the past few games.

World Heroes Perfect has you yet again take part in a tournament to prove who is the best. Not much has changed from Jet, there are a few extra players plus a Minimum Mode, where you can shrink your players. The fighting styles have had a massive improvement over the past games with an aerial guard and loads more combo styles. The fighting is much faster than the previous games but a bit too fast for me.

Just like Fatal Fury you are also able to customise your fighters with different colours, plus there is a good selection of difficulties to accommodate everyone.

The different fighting styles and modes are fun to play for a while but the aged graphics are hard to get past, unlike Fatal Fury where the final game is a massive improvement in the game-play and looks, Word Heroes keeps the same characters throughout the whole series, very rarely changing animation and looks.