I just want to establish something first and foremost: when I talk about a golden age, I’m not nearly talking strictly quality. There were amazing fighting games being made then, and there still are today. It represents an era when there was typically more than one or two options per publisher, where every trip to the local arcade, no matter how frequently I went, almost always led to discovering something brand new.
This age of discovery would often steal my quarters for hours. One of those surprise games was a cult classic known as World Heroes Perfect, and well, it’s here, in a perfect arcade port of one of SNK’s more obscure titles.
For those who may not know what World Heroes Perfect was, it was another quirky, unique SNK fighter that featured some really big character sprites for the time that really popped when you saw them in person. It never hit the popularity of other fighters at the time, but it was well-liked by just about everybody who was lucky enough to get their hands on it.
Its unique gimmick at the time was a cast of characters inspired by historical figures, some real, some fantasy, and they of course decided the best path forward was a one vs one martial arts tournament, because of course they did, and it was the 90’s.
This re-release includes all the trim and extras you’d expect, and the SNK features it has become very good at incorporating lately. Solid online modes, lobby support, a much-needed Practice Mode, and some stellar rollback netcode round out a package that is a great steal for those relegated to playing it on Fightcade all these years later.
As for the game itself, if you are a historian of the FGC like myself, you will already have your own opinions on the game’s quality and whether it’s your thing, but I would absolutely advise new players to jump in and give it a shot. It’s really unique, and again, whereas most fighting games of today have whittled down to a small subset of popular franchises, the golden age was the wild west. New fighting games would pop up all the time, but that also made them easy to miss.
World Heroes Perfect is by no means going to be remembered as an all-time legendary title in the history of the fighting game scene, but it doesn’t need to be. However, it’s a load of fun, and absolutely worth checking out for the lower price, as its unique mechanics, big character sprites, and animation are still a treat to take in for both veterans and especially newcomers alike.
