SNK knows how to crank out its fighting compilations, since it's composed most of its classic Neo-Geo library out of them. The latest to come down the assembly line is World Heroes Anthology for the PlayStation 2, a repackaging of all four games from the series – World Heroes, World Heroes 2, World Heroes 2 Jet and World Heroes Perfect. Like Art of Fighting Anthology before it, time hasn't been kind to this game. In fact, it's been incredibly cruel.

The games are essentially Street Fighter cookie-cutter wannabes with an eclectic mix of characters. Some are blatant rip-offs from Capcom's series (Hanzou Hattori is a cheap version of Ryu), while others are almost completely out of place (such as the magician Rasputin). Later games in the series introduce more ridiculous characters, such as a demonic football player, an overweight Viking and a medicine man with a large tiki mask. Some of these match-ups are good for laughs, especially once you throw the blatant Hulk Hogan clone into the mix. You can almost hear the "Whatcha gonna do" jokes.

Jack Sparrow he ain't.

Cheesy character designs aside, the thing that the World Heroes games lack are precise controls. The gameplay is made up of half-processed Street Fighter maneuvers, most of which don't even perform right the first time you try. Throwing a ninja star should be as easy as doing the down, down-right, right and punch button. Here, you need to do it just a little bit slower before it executes. That doesn't make much sense when you have an incoming enemy ready to boot you in the face.

The first two games are afterthoughts, but Jet and Perfect fare a little better with additions such as dashing and more complex attacks. Unfortunately, all of the games look worn-out in this day and age. The animation appears half-finished, with characters only carrying a certain number of frames for each attack. It's almost as if they're running through an animation filter. The backgrounds show some sparks of originality, but they're sporadically drawn. As for the music and sound effects, forget 'em. The background tunes are pure noise at best, and the voice work is even worse. Rasputin's laugh sounds like something that came from a poorly made novelty item.

There are some humorous moments found in the World Heroes games, such as watching a Joan of Arc clone pound a piece of rock into a male statue in a matter of seconds or watching Rasputin grow gigantic hands to choke the life out of an opponent. For $15, it's certainly worth it to some people, particularly those who grew up with these Neo-Geo games. Everyone else, though, shouldn't bother. World Heroes Anthology just doesn't have the value, the gameplay or the essence to last more than a few minutes in your machine, unless corny fighting with the worst M. Bison clone ever conceived is your cup of noodles.

Related Links

World Heroes Anthology Game Guide

SNK Playmore

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