World Heroes is controlled with three of the four buttons ("A" to punch, "B" to kick and "C" to throw) used along with an 8-way joystick on the Neo Geo MVS arcade cabinet. The punch and kick buttons are pressure-sensitive, so the harder the players press, the more powerful the punches or kicks become, while lighter taps can create weaker, but faster punches or kicks. The throw button C, if close enough to the opponent, grabs and throws the opponent across the stage; however, if standing near either side of a stage, the opponent would be tossed the opposite direction. Introduced in the fighting game genre by World Heroes are some abilities exclusive to some characters that were used in several later fighting games, such as multi-jumping using Hanzou and Fuuma, and shooting projectiles from the air using Rasputin.
There are two different play modes for players to choose from: "Normal Game" and "Death Match". In "Normal Game", players have to select one of the eight playable characters in the roster, and defeat the other seven playable characters in a random order, followed by a battle against the final boss Geegus (misspelled as "Gee Gus" in localized English versions), all by using the chosen character. If the player loses a battle, he or she will decide whether to continue (by inserting coin) or quit. If the player defeats an opponent, he or she will move on the the next opponent; however, if the player wins against the final boss Geegus, the game will show the ending of the player's chosen character, followed by the "game over" screen, and back to attract mode; however, if a player beats a high score, he or she will type in three letters or text symbols to record his or her record before the "game over" screen appears. In "Death Match", players will fight in a ring with environmental hazards such as electricity and fire surrounding it, which players must avoid while fighting. Players also can force their opponents against the environmental hazards using several moves.
Source: Wikipedia, "World Heroes (arcade game)", available under the CC-BY-SA License.