$20 GOTW & Lost Classics Special: Off the Turnbuckle Edition Part 1

Hope everyone’s had a merry Christmas. Hopefully you digested all that Christmas dinner, because it’s time to hit the squared circle. That’s right, Powet is gonna take you ringside for a look at wrestling gaming. In the first part of our special, we’ll take a look back at some of the best (and worst) that wrestling gaming had to offer up to and including the Playstation and Nintendo 64 years. Part 2, coming this weekend, will feature a look at some of the more recent wrestling games, including WWE Raw vs Smackdown 2008 and Fire Pro Wrestling Returns. So grab a folded-up chair (or whatever other weapon that strikes your fancy), a 6-pack of your favorite alcoholic beverage, a luchador mask, and a homemade cardboard sign, and (in the voice of Michael Buffer) LETS GET READY TO RUMBLEEEEEEEEEEE!

Oh, and watch out for thumbtacks, florescent lights, and exploding barbwire.

Pro Wrestling (NES)
This game was pretty advanced for its time. It had the honor of being the first wrestling game on the Nintendo Entertainment System, and it was one of the first wrestling games to feature an in-ring referee. He had some pretty decent AI for a mid 80’s game. He had to get by the wrestlers to make a 3-count. As you can see here, the game also featured a ring side cameraman. You had your choice of 6 wrestlers, such as Starman, the “Super space-traveler” from Mexico, The Amazon, the “Half-human, half-piranha”, and King Corn Karn, the “ultimate karate weapon” from Korea (Yes, these are actual quotes from the game. As you can see, the translation is a bit off). Your goal was to gain the Video Wrestling Association championship from King Slender, then defend it successfully until you gain the Video Wrestling Federation title from the Great Puma. There was a decent selection of moves, and it’s pretty much what you’d expect from an early NES game. It should be showing up as a Wii Virtual Console game sometime in the near future. In fact, I’m surprised that it hasn’t already.

Acclaim’s early WWF games (SNES, Genesis, 32X, Sega CD, Game Boy)
Acclaim had one of the longest runs with the WWF license. They produced WWF Wrestlemania for the NES, which was one of the first wrestling games with a license. Sometimes under the names LJN, Arena, and Flying Edge, they went on to produce several other NES WWF games, such as Wrestlemania Challenge and King of the Ring. When the 16-bit era hit, Acclaim bought the WWF to the new generation of systems. WWF Super Wrestlemania was the first, followed by WWF Royal Rumble and WWF Raw. They featured digitized graphics, nearly accurate re-creations of wrestlers’ theme music, and a variety of play modes such as the Survivor Series and Royal Rumble. The limitations of the consoles, a low variety of attacks, (with many wrestlers having the same punches, dropkicks, and body slams) and some control issues held the games back, but for many fans it was enough to be able to play as their favorite superstars.

The Mortal Kombat Wrestling Federation (SNES, Genesis, Saturn, Playstation, PC, 32X)
Midway, in a ‘what the heck were they thinking moment’ decided to make the WWF into Mortal Kombat with Wrestlemania: The Arcade game. The idea seemed okay on paper, but was lacking when put into practice. Featuring digitized graphics, over-the-top attacks (featuring fireballs and weapons) and the fatality like ‘pin him’. To its credit, the game was fast paced and was fun while it lasted. Acclaim published the home versions, and followed it up with WWF In Your House, which was received even worse.

Acclaim’s Attitude era (N64, Playstation, Dreamcast)
In the late 90s, during the WWF’s Attitude era, Acclaim went on to produce WWF Warzone for PS1 and N64. Warzone laid the foundation for everything that players expect from wrestling titles today. It featured color commentary (from Jim Ross and Vince McMahon), player-specific introductions, high resolution motion captured polygonal models, wrestler voices, and most important of all: create-a-wrestler. With this feature, it was possible to pit yourself against the WWF’s finest, create your favorite wrestler from a rival organization, do a little copyright infringement, or create your favorite wrestler that was left out of the case. That last one was especially important, as the selection list was small, and it was out of date. In fact, Bret Hart, The British Bulldog, and Ahmed Johnson are featured in the cast, despite the first two having been featured on WCW television for month’s prior to this game’s release and the third having been in wrestling limbo for just as long. Thankfully, Acclaim realized this and followed up with WWF Attitude. It had even more play modes, more wrestlers, more unlockables, and an even deeper create-a-wrestler mode.

The Competition (Playstation, Nintendo 64)
WCW had less recognition than the WWF, and it had even less of a presence gamewise. There were quite a few lackluster NES and SNES games, although when THQ gained the license in the mid 90s, WCW gaming would see a renaissance of sorts just as WCW television would enter its golden age with the NWO storyline and teh “Monday Night Wars” with the WWF. The first game spinning out of this was the Playstation’s WCW vs the World. This game is actually the American port of Japan’s Virtual Pro Wrestling, and it would be first Aki-developed game to be released in the United States. THQ added the WCW license. Not only did you square off against WCW’s finest (including Dean Malenko and Ric Flair), you also faced off against wrestlers from several other organizations, many of which are from Japan. Aki was destined for great things in wrestling gaming, although you couldn’t tell from the game’s bland polygons and floaty play control.

Aki really got the ball rolling on the Nintendo 64. Their first effort, 1997’s WCW Vs NWO World Tour, established Aki’s signature control scheme. It was quite simple. B and A were used for strikes and grapples respectively. Tapping either button will produce a weak attack, while holding them down produces a strong attack. Turnbuckle moves, holds, and even your wrestler’s signature moves were done with the greatest of ease. This was in sharp contrast to Acclaim’s WWF games, which used complicated control pad motions for even the simplest of maneuvers. Like WCW vs the World before it, World Tour is basically the American version of the Japanese only Virtual Pro Wrestling 64. As such, it features several characters not featured on WCW television, only this time, names and faces were changed due to copyright issues. A year later, the game was followed up by WCW/NWO Revenge, considered by many to be the best game featuring the WCW license. The game featured over 60 wrestlers, including pretty much every big name wrestler in WCW at the time as well as several mid-carders and non WCW international wrestlers. The game featured actual WCW pay-per-view arenas such as Starcade and Souled Out. The highlight of this game was the Royal-Rumble-esque battle royale mode, where up to four players can participate, even taking control of the replacement wrestler is their character was eliminated. Revenge featured better graphics, an improved grapple system, and a championship mode with unlockable wrestlers. Although it didn’t have a create-a-wrestler mode, it did allow you to change the names and costumes of existing wrestlers, a feature which came in handy when say, your favorite wrestler joined the NWO or switched to the Wolfpac. On a strange note, this game received an ESRB rating of ‘E’ although it featured scantily clad female valets who bled when struck with a weapon.

In late 1999, Acclaim’s WWF license rights expired, and they were picked up by THQ. Acclaim picked up ECW and released the lackluster Hardcore Revolution and Anarchy Rulz. EA scooped up the rights to WCW, releasing the barely-above-average WCW Mayhem for Playstation and N64. It had some shoddy collision detection, limited movesets, and a mediocre create-a-wrestler mode, but to its credit, it was the first game to feature backstage fighting and it had better commentary than Acclaim’s WWF games. EA released a sequel, Backstage Assault, which wasn’t very good. They planned to release an Aki-developed WCW Mayhem 2 for the Playstation 2 when the WWF bought out the WCW, canceling the contract that EA had with WCW. THQ meanwhile, released Wrestlemania 2000 and No Mercy, 2 of the finest N64 wrestling games to date. The Aki-developed games featured a deep create-a-wrestler, a large variety of characters, and a season mode complete with storylines. No Mercy in particular had branching story paths based on the outcomes of various matches.

THQ gave Playstation 1 gamers WWF Smackdown and WWF Smackdown 2: Know Your Role, which weren’t bad either. Although the physics and collision detection were a bit off, games had good graphics, a decent season mode, several match types, and a large list of playable wrestlers. The original Smackdown’s create-a-wrestler was criticized for basically being a mix-and-match and only allowing up to four new wrestlers to be created. What made things worse was that this would be the only way to access unlockable wrestlers, as instead of simply unlocking the wrestlers, you would simply unlock the parts that made them. Thankfully this would be overhauled in WWF Smackdown 2, in which the create-a-wrestler was now expanded to be on par with Acclaim’s WWF Attitude. The series continued on Playstation 2, although like many wrestling games of last generation, Smackdown began to lose its luster. When the Gamecube and Xbox were released, THQ continued with yearly releases of WWF/WWE games, with exclusives on each platform. Gamecube got the Wrestlemania series, (which ended up becoming Day of Reckoning) Xbox got WWE Raw, and Playstation kept WWE Smackdown (although it would change to Smackdown vs Raw in 2004). Eventually, THQ decided to make Smackdown vs Raw multiplatform, starting with 2006’s Smackdown vs Raw 2007, which was released to Xbox 360, marking the first time that Smackdown has debuted on a non-Sony console. Even though the games are good in thier own right, many agree that these games lack that certain something that made games like WWF Attitude and No Mercy so special.

It’s rumored that an updated version of No Mercy could be coming to the Nintendo WiiWare service sometime in 2008. Other than that, you’ll have to do some hunting to seek out most of the games mentioned in here as licensing issues and individual wrestler contracts prevent most of these games from seeing a re-release or any form. Midway is hard at work on TNA Impact, the first game featuring the Total Non-Stop Wrestling license. I know I left out a lot of games, so feel free to discuss them on our forum. Be back here later on for part 2, and remember kids, don’t try this at home!