World Heroes

World Heroes is a 1992 fighting arcade game developed and published by Alpha Denshi (later known as ADK) with the assistance of SNK. It was originally released for the Neo Geo MVS arcade cabinet on July 28, 1992. It is ADK's first game in the fighting game genre, as well as their earliest attempt in the fighting game trend of the '90s that was popularized by Capcom's 1991 arcade-hit Street Fighter II. It was even the last game with the 'Alpha' logo labeled within the game before the developer became 'ADK'; however, the 'Alpha' logo was last used on one of the arcade flyers of its sequel. Due to its success in the market, World Heroes was followed by a sequel released less than a year later titled World Heroes 2.

In the distant future, Dr. Sugar Brown: a well-renowned and famous scientist is determined to figure out on who the strongest fighter of history is and has gone to great lengths in order to finally gain the answer of his own question. Through the use of a time machine that he had built, Dr. Brown has brought together eight fighters from the distant past (each of whom are based on actual historical figures) so that all of them can compete and take part in a fighting tournament that Dr. Brown has organized, the tournament itself being used as a way to determine on who the strongest fighter of history is. Little does Dr. Brown and the participating fighters know and realize that an unknown threat is secretly watching them during the progression of the tournament and that this unknown threat could easily endanger them and the rest of the world.

World Heroes is controlled with three of the four buttons ('A' to punch, 'B' to kick and 'C' to throw) used along with an 8-way joystick on the Neo Geo MVS arcade cabinet. The punches and kicks have two levels, weak and strong. In order to get each strength with just two buttons, the punch and kick buttons have to be pressed briefly for weak and longer for strong. This same mechanic even can be performed with special moves. The throw button C, if close enough to the opponent, grabs and throws the opponent across the stage; however, if holding the joystick in the opposite direction at the right time, the opponent would be tossed the opposite direction. Introduced in the fighting game genre by World Heroes are some abilities exclusive to some characters that were used in several later fighting games, such as multi-jumping using Hanzou and Fuuma, and shooting projectiles from the air using Rasputin.

There are eight playable characters in the roster and two different play modes for players to choose from: 'Normal Game' and 'Death Match'. In 'Normal Game', players have to defeat the other seven playable characters in a random order, followed by a battle against the final boss Geegus (misspelled as 'Gee Gus' in localized English versions), all by using the chosen character. If the player defeats an opponent, the player moves on to the next opponent. After the third battle, the player has a bonus round to carve a block of stone into a statue in ten seconds with repeated hits. After the sixth battle, the player has another bonus round to break falling pots in ten seconds before they hit the ground.

'Death Match' acts like Normal Mode with a difference. Players will fight in a ring with environmental hazards such as electrical barriers, spiked walls, oil puddles and others which players must avoid while fighting. Players also can force their opponents against the environmental hazards to their advantage. Also, unlike the normal game where battles take place in various locations, all death match battles take place in a closed boxing-esque arena setting, and take place in front of a live audience.