Jet plays too similar to the previous games in the series (1 Punch, 1 Kick, and a Throw/Taunt button of all things) to hold my interest for any length of time. Perfect on the other hand is a complete revelation, the numerous upgrades to that game (3 strength attack system, ABC, Hero, Supers, etc. etc.) make it completely unlike any other game in the series, which is definitely for the better.
Just to give you a little history from my perspective, when the WH games were originally released all those years ago, I played WH 1 & 2 quite a bit but never got the chance to play Jet or Perfect; I only read about them in magazines like Gamefan. WH 1 & 2 were in arcades all over the place in my area (even if no one really played them), and the SNES ports actually might have done more for the popularity of the series than the arcade.
I know I played the crap out of WH2 on my SNES. The characters were ridiculous, but they also had this weird kind of charm that held my interest longer than Fighters History, Art of Fighting or any of those other colorless SF2 knockoffs. The game even inspired me to start learning Japanese, I went down to Little Tokyo and picked up the WH2 Gamest guide, then bought a couple of translation books and started studying up.
I don’t think anyone really took the series seriously back then, at least not from what I remember. After all, every arcade that had a World Heroes game in their NeoGeo cabinet also had a CE or HF cab in the vicinity, and why drive a Honda when you’ve got a Ferrari sitting in the garage? As a result, maybe a lot of arcade operators didn’t get big returns on their WH 1/2 investments and decided to skip on Jet and Perfect. Or maybe I just lost interest and never bothered seeking those games out… it’s all a blur to me now.
In any case, when I finally got the chance to play WHP via this collection, I was blown away at the difference in quality, it’s almost as though ADK kept the characters and the title, but threw everything else out the window and started from scratch. Too bad some people will see the words “World Heroes” in the title and laugh it off, WHP deserves better.
You may not believe this, but there’s a little arcade next to the movie theater near my house that STILL has a NeoGeo cabinet with WH2. At least it was there the last time I checked, maybe a year or so ago. I think I need to take some time this weekend to go down there and start tossing boats and sharks at fools, just like the old days.:wgrin: