World Brawlers

"World Brawlers" is a side-scrolling beat 'em up released by Sega in 1992. The game is known as "Global Fight" in Japan. It is the first game of two games released for the Sega Genesis and later one on the Dreamcast World Brawlers 3D. It pitted masked wrestlers from 18 different nations from around the world against each other to determine who's the "World Master" . It was originally slated for release in the Sega Master System in 1988 but because of the systems limitations it was posponed until a more powerful system was developed.

Infobox VG
title = World Brawlers
developer = (Area 7)
publisher = Sega
released = 1992
genre = Beat 'em up
modes = Single player Arcade,Single player, Co-op Arcade,Co-op, Multiplayer
ratings = CERO: Mature (M) (Ages 18 and up) PEGI: 18+ (Virtual Console)
platforms = Sega Genesis, Sega Master System shelved
media = 16-megabit cartridge
input = game pad

Development, Postponement and Final Release

Development began on WB (World Brawlers) on February 3 1986 but after an Alpha run in late June of that year it appeared that the Master System just couldn't handle such a game. The size of the memory catch needed for the game to run smoothly was double that of the standard Master Systems and the cartridge capacity was near triple of what was currently used so the testing units were usually composed of 2 or 3 Master systems with their independent CPU's wired as one big CPU and used a double sized cart. It became obvious that Sega couldn't halt the Master System's productions just to make it compatible. So the game was shelved on January 1 of 1987 and Area 7 began work on a new project Arcade America (which would be picked up and released by their sister company Level 7 in 1994). So in 1989 when Sega released their next gen system, Area 7 quickly pulled World Brawlers from the shelve and began re-encoding the data for the new system. The Genesis proved to be more than adequate for World Brawlers so graphic and sound quality were increased greatly from the original pre-Genesis Alpha.

Graphics and Audio

World Brawlers was a revolutionary title at the time of its release for its use of real time rendered semi-3D environment's and high resolution textures and 3D Character design. The character models were some of the first to use 3D wire frame pre-rendering and live action motion capturing and for that reason the fighters are very similar in appearance to the fighters of the original Mortal Kombat series. After such well designed levels and characters Area 7 needed to make a sound track that could match up so they opted for live audio in the stead of smaller quicker midi tracks. The sound track was developed by Eric Potawski a musician from lead developed Adam Forbes Apartment building, it mixed the heavy metal thrashing of Eastern European heavy metal guitar and Western European techno. The high level of detail to the character models and backgrounds surpassed the expectations of the average gamer of the time coupled with the real audio score (not a midi sound score) made World Brawlers a top contender in the Fighting genre of 1992.

Levels

Soviet Union- Red Square (In front of the Kremlin and Lenin's Tomb)

United States- Washington D.C. (Washington Memorial in the reflecting pool)

Mexico- Tijuana (Donkey Show as labeled in manual)

China- Tienanmen Square (In front of Mao's Mausoleum)

Jamaica- Kingston

Canada- In the woods (some where)

Brazil- São Paulo (In front of Christ The Redeemer )

India- Agra (In front of the Taj Mahal)

Egypt- The Giza Platue (in front and atop the Great Pyramid)

Germany- *East Berlin (in front of the Reichstag)

Germany - *West Berlin (along the Berlin Wall)

England- London (Big Ben and Parliament in the background)

France- Paris (In front of the Arc de Triomphe)

Spain- Madrid

Holland- Amsterdam (on a Dyke some where)

Poland- Ghetto (A World War II reference)

* side note: Despite the games release in 1992 all the 1986 code went unaltered so remnants of the Cold War Remained (i.e. Comrade Steele representing the Soviet Union and East and West Berlin levels).

Characters

World brawlers characters