World Heroes 2 Jet

The second World Heroes game was a smash hit for developer ADK. While they saw a good return on investment with the first World Heroes game, the second brought numerous updates to the characters, mechanics, and gameplay tempo that made it a much more pleasing game to play. While a yearly release of popular fighting game franchises by 1994 was expected, ADK decided that instead of releasing a new numbered sequel in the series they would focus on updating the core of World Heroes 2 - much like Capcom's numerous updates to Street Fighter 2, or SNK's own Fatal Fury Special. 

World Heroes 2 Jet, like the second game, saw some success in the arcades but did not receive the same wide-spread treatment on home consoles. Whether this was due to timing of the game's release (many Neo-Geo games from 1994 didn't see a home console port of any kind due to the games being far too complex for 16-bit consoles), or just due to slower sales in the arcade, it's hard to judge without any hard sales data. Oddly enough, the only port of game was on the Gameboy, and it was much better than it had any right to be. Critics of the day praised the graphics, sound, and gameplay updates. That said, growing up in this period game journalist knew little about fighting games and reviews were hap-hazard at best. Still, World Heroes 2 Jet is a decent and approachable fighter for those not looking for anything too complex.

Adding to the roster of 14 characters from the second game, Jet introduces Jack the Ripper, Ryofu, and Zeus (boss). Most characters saw some retooling of hit boxes, tweaks to animation, and a few got new moves or new properties to their existing move sets. While it's nice to see some more Heroes enter the fray, I fear there was little balance testing done to ensure the game is somewhat fair across the board. Besides some jankiness in hit detection with hurt-boxes often disappearing or just not being present on some frames of animation, the new characters are a mess of impressive looking moves that are entirely too good compared to the rest of the cast. Ryofu is the main culprit here, due to his extra long spear that can hit the opponent at full screen distance to score a hard knock-down and is completely safe on block. His jumping HK can be used like a dive kick, and just hangs in the air for the entirely of the jump arch - which is also relatively safe on block and is almost impossible to anti-air. He's something, that's for sure. 

The core gameplay element remains unchanged with a three button, pressure sensitive set up: A is punch, B is kick, and C is taunt with A and B being the pressure sensitive buttons. A light tap will produce a light attack, and holding the button on press will produce a heavy attack. What has changed is the tempo of the battles due to the new dash mechanic. Every character has a back dash, while forward dashes work differently depending on the character. Some characters, like Hanzou, have a short forward dash, while others like Janne can break into a full run. Other than that, the game is not much different than the prior year's release. I recommend to read that review for some more details on the game's fighting mechanics. 

While the gameplay only saw incremental updates, the big change to Jet is the exclusion of both the story and deathmatch modes. Instead, the main mode of Jet is a new tournament mode. Rather than facing off against opponents in a best 2 out of 3 match, you are pitted against three characters in a tournament bracket. You get only one round against each opponent, but you must win at least two out of the three matches to advance to the next bracket. Because of the quick succession of battles, the tournament mode only has a hand full of backgrounds as each set of three characters all share one background rather than their own unique stage (kind of like Real Bout Fatal Fury). Character stages from World Heroes 2 are still in the game, but they are in the game's second mode, single battle. 

In the single battle mode you select your fighter and who you want to fight against. This is more traditional fighting game fare with a best 2 out of 3 rounds against a single opponent. The characters retain their unique stages from World Heroes 2 but lose the unique music score that accompanied that stage. Individual stage music was replaced with a garbage track that plays on all stages regardless of whom you select. This is really obnoxious if you play this game two player as even if the backgrounds change, the music is always the same. It's a baffling choice to be sure, as World Heroes 2 has some great music. Additionally, once you have beaten your opponent, you are taken back to the select screen to choose your mode again rather than continuing on like most arcade modes would have you do. 

If you've played World Heroes 2 you know what to expect out of the graphics. There have been no meaningful updates to returning character sprites, but new characters' sprites are drawn to match the returning cast. The backgrounds from World Heroes 2 remain unchanged, and the handful of new backgrounds for tournament mode are attractive enough and full of color. That said, character portraits on the select screen are just ugly as sin. This game won't blow you away with its visual presentation, but it's solid enough for the day I suppose. 

As I mentioned before, the best music from the second game is replaced with a horribly produced track that permeates every battle in single mode. That said, each of the stages in tournament mode does have a unique track that is marginally better than the single mode track. Jet easily has the worst soundtrack in the series, which is a bummer as the rest of the games have pretty decent music - especially World Heroes Perfect. Sound effects are the same as in the prior game, as well as the voices.

World Heroes 2 Jet isn't a bad game, but it has many baffling design decisions that hold it back from being recommended above vanilla 2. It's not very well balanced, the presentation is middling at best, the music is horrible, and the gameplay modes are less than engaging overall. If the other games in the series were not so affordable, I might recommend this game more, but as it stands you are better off playing either the second game proper, or the follow up World Heroes Perfect.

The World Heroes series is one of the most affordable and approachable on the Neo-Geo hardware on all platforms. You can score a complete Japanese AES copy of Jet for $75 or so, making it one of the most affordable games on the AES hardware. What's more, the US version will only set you back about $250. Of course you can also pick up the MVS version or Neo CD version for a fraction of the AES cost. You can check this game out on Hamster's Arcade Archives series on modern platforms for $8, or check out the World Heroes Anthology on PS2 for the complete collection. There is also the cute and decent Gameboy port if you want an interesting curio in your collection. 

For what it's worth, World Heroes 2 Jet is a solid choice if you want to begin building an AES library. But I seriously caution to get the second game proper over Jet due to better balance, music, and variety. Even then, for $75 you should first get Fatal Fury Special, Samurai Shodown 2 or King of Fighters 95 if you don't already have a copy of these must-own titles. World Heroes Perfect, my recommended game in the series, is quite a bit more expensive - around $350 or so in the current market. That said, if you want your World Heroes fix and don't want to break the bank, get vanilla 2 and call it a day.