To say Street Fighter II "inspired" World Heroes is to say comedian Dane Cook "borrows" material from other comics – it's closer to outright theft. Released one year after Capcom's landmark title, SNK's fighter features some similar looking characters, an identical format, and a control scheme that uses the same joystick motions for special moves. Yet World Heroes isn't a pure Street Fighter II clone, as it introduced several twists to the genre. PS2 owners can check out all four iterations of the series on one single disc.

The Whole World in Your Hands

The hook of World Heroes is the ability to play as legendary fighters from different eras of history, or let's say fighters loosely based on history. We're pretty sure Rasputin couldn't actually enlarge his hands and feet at will to monstrous sizes. If he could, he probably would have chosen another body part. Janne D'Arc is patterned after Jeanne D'Arc, only here she has long flowing hair and doesn't appear affected by voices inside her head. Rounding out the eight-character roster are a Hulk Hogan clone, a dead ringer for M. Bison, and the Ryu-like Hanzo Hattori.

World Heroes 2 adds six more characters to the lineup and a few new wrinkles to the fighting system. Some of the standout fighters include Captain Kidd, whose over-the-top special moves involve sharks and pirate ships, and the strange native Mudman, who wears a giant grinning mask. Players can perform reversals after being grabbed by an opponent, allowing them a chance to avoid being body slammed to the ground. Another change is the ability to deflect projectiles back at rivals by performing a guard the moment before they hit. A deadly game of tennis can then ensue as rivals attempt to bat the projectiles back and forth.

Need for Speed

World Heroes 2 Jet is essentially the "turbo" version of the series, which was sorely needed, since the previous games played slower than grandma during bingo night. Only two characters have been added, a Jack the Ripper-inspired fighter and a feudal Chinese warrior named Ryofo. The controls now let players perform front and back dashes by double tapping the directional pad right or left, respectively. A fake faint has also been added, allowing players to pretend they were knocked out to quickly take opponents by surprise. The drawback to World Heroes 2 Jet is the removal of the death match option found in the two previous games, which introduced electrified rings and spiked walls for extra damage.

World Heroes Perfect, the final game in the series, is the most ambitious in terms of fighting system tweaks. The three-button controls from the previous versions have been ditched in favor of a six-button layout. Light, medium, and strong punches and kicks are now mapped to individual buttons. Also new are character-specific "extra" attacks, the ability to guard against aerial attacks, and the option to perform guard breaker attacks to momentarily stun rivals. Projectiles can be destroyed instead of batted back, and a horizontal meter called the "hero gauge" lets players unleash powerful new ultimate moves once filled.

Beauty is in the Eyes of the Beholder 

World Heroes Anthology features authentic versions of all four arcade games with the same visuals, sound effects, music, and controls. The problem with any compilation like this, however, is that it's hard to play earlier versions when they are improved upon with each subsequent release. If SNK created a separate mode for achievements or milestones to shoot for in each game, there would be a greater incentive to play the original World Heroes and World Heroes 2. The only "new" features are the ability to edit a character's colors, choose from normal or arranged background music, and the ability to save data to memory card.

Those who enjoyed World Heroes in the arcades, all twenty of you, will adore this collection from SNK. The conversions are as close as you'll get without owning a Neo Geo and several hundred dollars worth of cartridges. Yet the titles here are far from classics, especially considering SNK's extensive library of 2D fighting games. World Heroes Anthology is well worth a purchase for those who enjoy 1) 2D arcade games, 2) goofy special moves, 3) outlandish characters, and 4) Street Fighter II-style controls. Everyone else will want to hold out for SNK Arcade Classics, Vol.1, which offers a more diverse sampling of the publisher's portfolio.

Review by: Scott Alan Marriott