World Heroes - Dio

I don't know how many people remember this guy. But this is a character who was introduced in the World Heroes series of 2D fighting games made by Neo-Geo back in the early 90s. His name is Dio, and he was first introduced as the final boss in World Heroes 2, the second of the World Heroes series which came back in 1993. Dio is most likely of extraterrestrial origin, and he was beyond any doubt, one of the toughest and most challenging final bosses ever introduced in a fighting game. His attacks do a great deal of damage to the opponent, and due to the difficult AI, predicting his attacks and delivering your own attacks onto him can be a real pain in the ass. Hell, I didn't forget when I first reached him, he kicked my ass big time. And believe me, it took me five years to finally beat him. By then, 3D games had taken over.

Dio was most likely inspired by an anime character named "Baoh" who shared a similar design, and even had some of the same powers. Dio can make two razor sharp blades protrude from his arms and legs, and can even form spikes with his hair. In his earliest appearances, two of his most devastating moves included a nuclear fire ball that can take away half your life while setting you on fire, and a spinning arial attack in which he forms his whole body into a razor blade that can inflict a great deal of damage to you. Dio's second appearance was in World Heroes Perfect, the fourth and final installment of the series which came back in 1995. In this game, he was renamed "Neo-Dio", and was once again cast as the final boss of the game. In this game, he was given a completely different color scheme, and he was twice as challenging as he was in World Heroes 2. Neo-Dio is very agile, moves extreamily fast, and has a large variety of devastating special and super attacks. Aside from retaining his devastating razor blade attacks and his nuclear fire ball, he also as an ice ball that can freeze you, and his hair can emit electricity in a similar fashion to Blanka of the Street Fighter fame. Dio also has a killer super attack in which he forms into either a dragon, or a wolf-like creature, knocks you into the air with a killer combo, and finishes you off with his spiked hair.

Dio's most recent appearance was in a game called "Neo-Geo Battle Coliseum" which puts together characters from various SNK fighting game franchises, and puts them against each other in a similar fashion to Capcom's crossover fighting game series. Like in the early Capcom crossover games, you are given the option to choose two characters, and you can switch players during a match. However, if either one of your characters or the CPU's characters are defeated, the match is over. In Capcom's games however, both characters must be defeated before a match is over. But that rule does not apply to this game for some odd reason. And also, the bosses in this game appear in a completely random pattern. In other words, you could end up fighting against Dio, Mizuchi, King Lion, or even Goodman. But like I said, the bosses appear in a completely random pattern so its impossible to predict which boss you'll be fighting against. But make no mistake, the bosses in this game will kick your ass unless you're an expert on fighting games. Dio is still as tough as ever, and he's got all his killer combos and super attacks intact. He also was given a much darker color scheme as opposed to his original color schemes from the World Heroes series. One interesting thing I noticed about Dio in this game is that in one of his victory poses, he says "Watashi wa mutekida!" which in Japanese means "I am invincible!"

Dio belongs to Neo-Geo and SNK Playmore.