Wrasslin' Games!

Today, I've decided to talk about my five favorite pro wrestling games from back in the day. A combination of watching dozens Botchamanias and watching WWE Raw has resparked my interest in the "sport." There's a part of me that realizes how ridiculous and stupid most of it is, but there's another part of me that enjoys the pure spectacle of it all that I can't ignore. Generally, I don't like wrestling games as much as your average fighting game. For starters, the licenses are usually in the hands of companies like LJN who couldn't sell a game without an attached license. Secondly, I feel like wrestling doesn't really lend itself well to a game format. There's a natural ebb and flow to a good wrestling match. Unless it's a squash match, momentum will flow back and forth between both wrestlers and it will seem like it's anyone's match. When they try to put this into games, it tends just to frustrate me that my opponent, whose butt I've been kicking suddenly breaks out of all my holds and counters my attacks. Finally, there's almost always a lot of button mashing, which I can't stand. Despite their flaws, wrestling games tend to be a lot of fun in multiplayer and they always are a total nostalgia trip with me. Without further ado, here's five wrestling games that I thought were totally awesome. I actually wanted to do a list of the crappiest wrestling games I ever played...but then I realized that would be a really, really long list.


WWF Wrestlefest Arcade, 1991



If there's one Technos Japan can do, it's create addicting brawlers. After all, they made Double Dragon and River City Ransom. The huge, colorful sprites pretty much beckoned to me whenever I was in an arcade.. Gameplay is pretty simple, with a punch and a kick button. Grapples are initiated when you're close, and the throws and submissions are more or less chosen randomly. Though you will pull of your finisher if your opponent is low on life. The roster is pretty much a collection of all the wrestlers from late in the WWF's Golden Era. You've got Hogan, Ultimate Warrior, Jake the Snake, Sgt. Slaughter, Earthquake and others. I always chose Hogan and Earthquake. There's only two modes, a tag team mode where you work your way up to challenge the Legion of Doom, and the Royal Rumble. I personally preferred the chaos of the Royal Rumble. With its sublime presentation, colorful graphics and simple gameplay, you'd be hard pressed to find a better wrestling game for the arcade format.

WWF Royal Rumble SNES, 1993



Okay, LJN did make almost universally terrible games based on licenses they acquired, but I have a total soft spot for this. I played this sucker to death during the summer of 1993. It's slow, stiff and clunky, but the roster is sizable enough, and the movelist isn't too bad either. The only thing that really does bother me about the game is that the presentation is really lackluster. I guess you get each Wrestler's theme on the selection screen, but there's no entrances, no trash talking, and everyone is about the same height for some reason. I'm probably asking too much from a game like this, but wouldn't have it been nice to see Tatanka do his stupid dances? Okay maybe not. Anyway, I think my favorite part of the game was how you could "accidentally" knock the ref out, which gave you the opportunity to use illegal eye gouges and chokes! This game came out during the WWF's New Generation era, when they were losing a lot of their old talent and had to bring a bunch of new guys in. It was a pretty lousy time for the company. When your main face is Lex freakin' Luger for a while, then you know you're in the pits. Also for some reason, most of the wrestlers had some sort of side job gimmick. There were wrestling stock car drivers, repo men, dentists and accountants...yeah I don't get it either. On the bright side, it introduced the world to some great talent like Bret Heart, Shawn Michaels and The Undertaker. Personally, I didn't mind it back then, but when you're an 8 year old mark, your standards are pretty low.

Saturday Night Slam Masters SNES, 1994




Normally, a lack of real wrestlers is the kiss of death for a wrestling game in America. After all, one of the biggest draws of these games is the ability to play as the same guys you see on TV. Still, when the game is made by Capcom, it's hard not to give it a chance. Overall, the gameplay is what happens when you combine Street Fighter, Final Fight and well...a wrestling game. There's a few wacky Street Fighter-esque moves here and there, but overall it's fast, simple and is pretty conducive to just button masher as well as more serious players. There's a typical 1 Vs. 1 mode and a 2 Vs. 2 team battle royale mode. The latter is pretty awesome, but the AI of your partner is pretty deplorable. The only character that you might recognize is Mike freaking Haggar from Final Fight. Yes the pro wrestling mayor with striking similarities to Jesse Ventura is the only Capcom alum to make the roster. That's okay though, because the rest of the cast was designed by Tetsuo Hara, the guy who drew First of the North Star, aka the manliest comic ever. Seriously, check out the incredible amounts of testosterone here. The presentation is great too! Each wrestler has their own entrance, theme music and victory poses. The simplicity and fun character design make this a game that's better for nonwrestling fans to play.

WWF Wrestlemania Arcade, 1995



In '95 Midway, the company famous for Mortal Kombat and NBA Jam got the WWF license. Honestly, given their past work, it's a pretty good match. The designers decided to go with a more over the top approach for this game, NBA Jam style. For some reason, your wrestlers develop weapons out of nowhere. Undertaker clobbers his opponents with a tombstone, Shawn Michaels gets a baseball bat, Doink gets a hammer, and for some reason, Razor Ramon's arms turn into blades. Fortunately, they didn't take this wackyness too far and let you lop off arms and spray blood everywhere. Rather, you "bleed" items. Bret Hart bleeds cartoony hearts and Yokozuna drops raw fish. Yeah. Unlike most wrestling games, it's very fast paced which may make it more appealing to some gamers. Just don't expect a pure grappling experience.

WCW/ nWo: Revenge N64, 1998



Developed by those geniuses at the Aki and Asmik, this is one of the best wrestling games of all time, and definitely my personal favorite. The grappling system in this game is incredibly simple, but also very versatile which makes it great for multiplayer. The game takes place at the height of the nWo era, a time that redefined pro wrestling and made WCW kick the WWF's ass in ratings for a year and a half. That is until poor storylines and mismanagement ran the WCW into the ground and forced it to be shut down just a couple years later. You have a whopping 63 wrestlers from all the stables at the time, including a few Japanese wrestlers for good measure. The presentation is fantastic, you can choose different venues, mostly based on different PPV events. Each wrestler has their own unique intro, moveset and mannerisms. Some of them even come out with their managers and valets, who you can beat on if you're so inclined. This game also has run-ins. But who runs in, and who they help is completely random. So you might have Perry Saturn running in to save Scott Hall from Raven or something dumb like that. Make up the story in your head I guess. The game's only real flaw is that like most N64 games, it looks like a blocky ugly mess nowadays. If you can get past that, you'll find it's one of the most enjoyable games in the genre. Aki and Asmik went on to make some WWF games after this one which are supposedly better, but I can't say I've ever played them.