Old Wrestling Video Games Topic

[BigBombB]

I got the idea for this topic after reading through comments on Amazon and wanting to share. I would say anything from the Dreamcast era and before counts as being worth talking about in this thread. To get some discussion going, here is a compilation of the feedback from Amazon to help bring back some nostalgia (in kind of chronological order)...

WWF Super WrestleMania

- "I wish I could rate it with negative stars."

WWF Royal Rumble

- "my friends love this game. well, used to like 20 years ago. It kind of is super dated, and I think most of the characters in this game are actually dead in real life. Which kind of bums me out when I play so I then I turn it off and play Michael Jackson's Moonwalker."

WWF In Your House

- "this game is educational in that it teaches you how to defend yourself, like it tought me"

WCW Vs. The World

- "when I first pulled off the Scorpion Death drop I almost wet my pants"

WCW Nitro

- "the playibility is horrible and performing a single regular move like a suplex is immpossible"

WWF Warzone

- "with the millions of moves, I suggest getting the strategy guide."

WWF Attitude

- "I created a player I made him so fat, but still the computer picked him up easily and threw him, as if he was skinny."

WCW/NWO Thunder

- "This is one of the most boring wrestling games I've ever played in my life."

WCW/NWO Revenge

- "REVENGE"S SOUND SUCKED!!!!!! No entrance themes or commentary!!! What the hell is that??"

WWF No Mercy

- "I love all the different weapons, like the cheese, the rocks book, the beer can, and the title belts."

ECW Hardcore Revolution

- "They should sell this game for a dollar thats how bad it is."

WWF Smackdown

- "you can be a special guestref! what more do i need to say."

WCW Mayhem

- "The Create A Wrestler mode is so basic you won't be able to make any of your favourite wrestlers not in the game already. You can, however, make a knight in armour.."

WWF Smackdown 2: Know Your Role

- "I haven't played the game yet but come this November, it'll be the only thing that I'm playing." <--- gave the game a 5 star review, never played it

ECW Anarchy Rulez

- "Anarchy Rulz is nothing more than an updated version of the Hardcore Revolution game, which was a re-hash of WWF Attitude (1999) and WWF Warzone (1998)"

WWF Royal Rumble (2000)

- "Limited fun for the single player."

WCW Backstage Assault

- "Any wrestling game, even on Atari, if they have a wrestling game for it, is better than WCW Backstage Assault."
- "The animations are very brutal to watch and the Moves are performed like glitches."
- "The graphics would look better if you cracked the television screen with a hammer. WCW Nitro is better than this game."

And I break my own rule to share feedback on one other game...

TNA Impact!

- "I have nothing good to say about this pathetic exscuse for a video game.It's just all around terrible.The graphics make you wanna vomit,the controls will make your thumbs sore,the game modes all suck and the horrible repetative music makes you go nuts.Stay far far away from this nightmare of a game.Even if it's a buck! "

All I can say is, we really did have lower standards growing up in the 90s lol

 

[KitsuneDreamer]

Aw, man. to this day My Top 5 classic wrestling games are:

Nes: Pro Wrestling
Arcade:Wrestlemania The Arcade Game
N64:Wrestlemania 2000
n64:No Mercy
and GB: WCW Main Event


Some classic gameplay there, I burnt out my Fire Orange N64 playing No Mercy with friends in my middle school years man, that game had such a lasting appeal for me, (Bazookas!)

Pro Wrestling I have on my Wii VC and stiill love to jam on it today, but I find I am not as good as I once was! lol (Stop Spamming Hayabusa!!!)

What i loved most about No Mercy was the customization(and cardboard faces!, remember when you took kane's mask off it was a burnt crisp! lol).

Everyone had 4 attires and you could customize it at will. have 4 different wrestlers on each space. And weapon variety was great, not to mention the seamless fighting from the stage to the back.

Edit: also when playing on the hardest difficulty, some matches seemed impossible. i had a 3 1/2 Hour Steel Cage match with Mankind, I just couldnt put him away. That is a memory i will treasure forever.

And WCW Main Event, that damn game was always so hard for me, totally rewarding when you won a match.

 

[Catacomb]

ill never forget playing wrestlefest in the early 90s, what a great game, no game since had been able to produce a rumble as fun and despite the ps3 capabilities wrestlefest had more players in the ring at the same time

 

[Rip]

I'd say top 5 (all time, sorry) are:

Fire Pro Wrestling Returns (PS2)
WWF No Mercy (N64)
Smackdown! Here Comes The Pain (PS2)
wCw vs. nWo Revenge (N64)
Smackdown! vs. Raw series as a whole (PS2, PS3, Xbox 360)

 

[KitsuneDreamer]

Fire Pro Wrestling Returns (PS2)

Oh, man I own that as well on the PS2, and that is an incredibly deep game, and you could play for hundreds of hours and not even scratch the surface, I would have included that on my list, but never was able to get anyone else to play it due to it's steep learning curve, and people's inabilities to stop mashing buttons!

A true classic! The Maker of the Game just died if i am not mistaken.

 

[Soulblazed]

Damn this is a great topic&#8230;Here's a few of my favorite games in no particular order

WWF Wrestlemania: The Arcade Game-This game for an arcade game in the mid 90s was fun as hell! I remember playing this at Pier 39 growing up in San Francisco, usually using Undertaker or Razor Ramon.

WWF Monday Night Raw for SNES-This game will always be a true classic! You could knock out the ref, use weapons and fight outside the ring! Those options are taken for granted today but in the early 90s playing against friends you damn certainly relished those options!

WWF No Mercy, Wrestlemania 2000, WCW vs nWo World Tour/Revenge-All these games were much more fun to play than the Smackdown series..For example, in any of the Smackdown games today, if you get knocked out, your character just lies on the canvas like he's dead. Back in any of these 4 games listed above, if you picked knockout as a match stipulation, you'd have to tap the buttons as much as possible and your character would struggle like fuck just to get up! Now that was an option that I'm surprised isn't being used in the Smackdown games today&#8230;

WWF Superstars-I remember playing this timeless arcade game many a time..For anyone who grew up in the 80s playing wrestling arcade games, you know precisely what I'm talking about.

WWF Steel Cage Challenge-Damn good early 90s arcade game.

 

[Bookerkingston]

Most of those reviews are funny as hell. I always wonder what kinda people write these reviews and I don't think they're even trying to be intentionally funny.

To this day when my buddy comes to visit from outta town, we might sit and play WWF No Mercy from 7 pm to 1 am. Amazing game. I can create so many characters. We will play the tag team ladder match for 30 to 45 minutes and just beat the shit out the guys before we even try to win. I always drag the guy outside the ring beat him unconscious, lay him on the announce table, climb the ladder and then jump on him through it. When we beat them unconscious we just leave them outside the ring and do running dives or jump off the ladder on them.

WCW/NWO Revenge-Kinda strange in some ways but still very fun. One time we kept beating the guys up and they weren't doing anything. But for some reason the more we beat them up, the higher their power levels got until they got their specials then they beat the shit out of us and we lost.

Wrestlemania The Arcade Game- Man that takes me wayyy back. Loved that game. Had all the guys from before the Attitude Era. Lex Luger, Undertaker, Razor Ramon, Shawn Michaels, Doink, Yokozuna, Bret Hart. Thinking about these guys now makes me too sad to even play it anymore.

 

[BigBombB]

Yeah, I have tons of memories to share in this thread when I have more time, but Pro Wrestling really brings me back. Its one of the first games I can remember dreaming about as a kid. The Amazon absolutely fascinated me for so many reasons. I mean, just looking at him gave a WTF kind of reaction but then trying to figure out why there was a HALF PIRANHA character in a wrestling game was just too much for my little brain to comprehend.

The game was terrible and yet I absolutely adored it. I think it was a lot because I wanted to play a game that my older brother was pretty good at but mainly I was taken in by the spectacle of it all. Really, I think this was the reason I ever became a wrestling fan to begin with. Wow, I never thought about that before but it may actually be true lol

 

[Kris Benwa]

That TNA game sucked. Well the story was decent but everything else was horrid. I love the story on Here Comes the Pain though. I played once with Ultimo Dragon but didn't make the WM card LOL then I played as Jericho and was on the WrestleMania as both the WHC and IC champion. I also played as John Cena and made him come into WrestleMania like HBK did at WM 12 and it looked goofy as hell.

Two more of my favorite stories, it's more like one story arc I guess, is the Day of Reckoning games for Gamcecube. I don't know how many of you guys played this but you on 1 you make a guy and go through developmental then get to pick what brand you go to and if it's RAW you join Evolution and if it's Smackdown you join a group led by the Undertaker with Booker T and Charlie Haas in it or some shit. There's a rival faction on both shows and basically the group you're in eventually jerks Batista on RAW or Haas (?) on Smackdown around and kicks them out the group and they eventually win the midcard belts. You get a shot at the belt but you have to hit them with a Sledgehammer. Next thing you know the guy you first win the tag titles with Orton on RAW and whoever on Smackdown gets a shot at the mid card belt and wins it. You get pissed and kicked out the group. I can't remember if you end up winning that title but I believe you do in the end you challenge the leader of whatever stable for their world title at Mania which you win.

In the second one, it starts off as if you had picked RAW in the first one which I guess is okay. Long story short the title is vacated because Jericho and Triple H have a finish where Jericho is pinned at the same time Triple H is tapping out. The belt gets stolen while it's vacated and Triple H gets injured during this time as well. You end up winning the IC title in a hard ass fatal four way steel cage match HBK vs Kane vs Christian vs Yourself. Eventually you're framed for stealing the belt and get fired from RAW. Rey Mysterio needs a tag team partner for the titles on Smackdown and you're the surprise partner and you guys end up winning the titles. His original partner RVD comes back and whatever happens there. You end up beating Cena for the WWE title at I guess No Way Out and have to defend against the Rumble winner, the returning Triple h. Backstage at Mania you found out Edge, Orton, and Jericho stole the title so you beat them up and take it. You beat Triple H in the match but after it you bring out the WHC and you give it to Triple H and you guys hold up the belts or whatever.

Those two are definitely my favorites as far as storyline goes. There's a few difficult matches as well. Also thought WWF Attitude was hilarious as far as gameplay, commentary, graphics, etc. I was also a fan of Know Your Role

 

[lowandmighty]

WCW thunder was awesome man! It had the best over the top rope battle royal in a wrestling game to date.

 

[CrunKSinatrA]

No Mercy on N64 isn't just the best wrestling game ever... it's the best fighting game ever.

Its the best of the THQ/AKI games because it has ladder matches and run grapples. Without the run grapples, you already know to press R and block when someone runs at you.

I like the L/RvsA/B reversal system for the THQ/AKI engine games. Other wrestling games are reverse-a-thons when there is only one defense button for attacks and grapples. Also, No Mercy's slow pacing is fair enough to allow you to react on defense.

I know it has slow down issues when compared to Wrestlemania 2000. But its slow pace makes it the Risk of fighting games. A squash match still takes about 2 to 3 minutes. But a good one-on-one fight between two people who are good on defense can go 15 to 30 minutes. My friends and I have had tag team and triple threat ladder matches last 2 hours!

I know it's insane to play one match for that long. But you really don't want to lose after investing 10 minutes into one match... now imagine your drive to win and refuse to lose after 2 hours.

An awesome create-a-wrestler mode is a trademark of wrestling games. So this is not unique to No Mercy... but making move accurate Street Fighter characters with the best fighting engine is a plus.

Vega can have the mask, snake tattoo, do german suplexes, tumbling claw, and dive off of cages. Sagat can have the muay thai look with taped fists and feet, eye patch, scar, and does the tiger knee and tiger uppercut.

 

[Rocky84]

Awesome Thread!

Clearly, by looking at my sig you can see my vote for best wrestling game of all time. The only one that comes close is WWE 2k14.

The gameplay is the best to date. It was so easy to be in tune with each wrestler as the move sets/controls were easy to comprehend and execute. There were also so many moves assigned to each, but again, they were easy to remember unlike WWE 2k14. I still don't have a clue what grapple move I'm going to pull off when I grapple attack.

The characters were all 3-d cartoonish which was badass, and your created characters looked just like the regular characters already in the game. You didn't have real pictures of a wrestler and a cartoonish created wrestler next to each other on the matchup screen like you do now with WWE 2k14. Although, now you can render pictures...still difficult to do.

The created wrestler mode was so in depth you could literally create anybody past or present. Me and my buddies would create all the WCW guys and create PPV's the way it should've happened back in the Invasion days. Like Crunk said, you could have awesome matches with your friends for 15-30 mins easily. It was great.

Best match I ever had with one of my friends was Warrior vs Goldberg. The game was so innovative with the finishing moves and moves in general (Diamond Cutter from like 4 different ways for example) that it surprised you sometimes when you hit them. In this match after a long battle, we were both close to our finishers...we each bounced off the ropes and he went for the shoulder block with the Warrior and while in mid air I hit him with the spear. Best video game moment ever as we didn't know it could happen. Ironically I got my special immediately after and he put the controller down and let me hit the jackhammer because that's how nice a finish it was Lol.

My 3rd fav was WCW/NWO Revenge. Basically was No Mercy with WCW wrestlers. Didn't have the ladder matches or any other type of alternate match types, but at the time it didn't matter.

4th I'd say WCW/NWO Thunder. It was a step up from Nitro for sure. I LOVED the ability to re-create stables. Like putting Goldberg (I think his first game appearance btw) in the NWO if you wanted, or switching around the Wolfpac guys and the NWO black and white guys. I remember staying home from school just to play this haha.

 

[BigBombB]

Where to start...my first video game system that was MY video game system was a SEGA Genesis. I have quite a few memories of Phantasy Star II, Sword of Vermillion, Kid Chameleon, and the NHL Hockey games, but one of the games I always kept going back to was WWF Royal Rumble. It didn't matter that the moves were almost all the same and that quite a few of the finishing moves were inaccurate, I was hooked on being able to play as all of these larger than life characters. To this day, I find Lex Luger's 8-bit music theme to be one of the most hauntingly beautiful things I've ever heard.

[YOUTUBE]ivL1LPpnblc[/YOUTUBE]

This was back when the only storylines came from chance happenings during the matches. "IRS and Papa Shango are really after each other during this Royal Rumble match, they must really hate each other! Time for a feud!" Then you're in a tag team match and your partner accidentally starts choking you...Savage has turned on his partner! Or when you're playing a singles match and manage to lose, clearly your character needs retribution!

Years later my father became friends with a guy who had a card shop. I remember he randomly got a small box of loose Sega games but for me it ended up being the holy grail. At the very top was WWF Raw, a game I knew existed but had never found. When I brought it home I remember that I didn't play it much, it was too much like Royal Rumble and I had simply played that game to death. Still, I was super excited to find the game and can still feel that astonishment of finding it in such an unlikely place as if it was yesterday.

Then I finally got a Playstation, THE gaming system of it's day, and ended up with a copy of WWF In Your House. How much better would wrestling be in 3D!?!??! I was so excited!...and then, needless to say, I was super disappointed. It was ok for what it was, would probably still be kind of cool if I ever broke it out again, but that wasn't what I was looking for. So you can imagine how much I was marking out when I saw a review for WCW Vs. The World...

To Be Continued

 

[DarksideEric]

No Mercy on N64 isn't just the best wrestling game ever... it's the best fighting game ever.

Its the best of the THQ/AKI games because it has ladder matches and run grapples. Without the run grapples, you already know to press R and block when someone runs at you.

I like the L/RvsA/B reversal system for the THQ/AKI engine games. Other wrestling games are reverse-a-thons when there is only one defense button for attacks and grapples. Also, No Mercy's slow pacing is fair enough to allow you to react on defense.

I know it has slow down issues when compared to Wrestlemania 2000. But its slow pace makes it the Risk of fighting games. A squash match still takes about 2 to 3 minutes. But a good one-on-one fight between two people who are good on defense can go 15 to 30 minutes. My friends and I have had tag team and triple threat ladder matches last 2 hours!

I know it's insane to play one match for that long. But you really don't want to lose after investing 10 minutes into one match... now imagine your drive to win and refuse to lose after 2 hours.

An awesome create-a-wrestler mode is a trademark of wrestling games. So this is not unique to No Mercy... but making move accurate Street Fighter characters with the best fighting engine is a plus.

Vega can have the mask, snake tattoo, do german suplexes, tumbling claw, and dive off of cages. Sagat can have the muay thai look with taped fists and feet, eye patch, scar, and does the tiger knee and tiger uppercut.

While No Mercy was downright amazing, it's no where near the best fighting game ever. Best wrestling game? Very much so, but it doesn't touch "best fighting game."

 

[BigBombB]

In 1997 I was in my final year of grade school. I went to a small, private Catholic school and never really got along with most of my classmates. In other words, I spent a lot of time at home. I watched wrestling and played video games, at the time that was more than enough to fill an entire week with stuff to do. So when there was a chance to mix wrestling and video games together it was one of the few things that I had to look forward to. I had bought into the Playstation hype hook, line, and sinker. I saw Nintendo as the "old school" and Playstation being the way forward. I didn't get the system when it first came out but it was a much anticipated Christmas present and the games that "Santa" brought with the system were Crash Bandicoot 2 and WCW vs. The World.

For me, WCW vs. The World was the first 3D wrestling game I had ever seen and I was completely entranced. It was one step closer to being able to control realistic looking wrestlers and to be able to book them how I would want them to be booked! When I finally got the game and saw the huge roster I...was really confused. Who were all these other guys? Why did one of them have a picture portrait of the Disco Inferno? I understood that it fit with the concept of the game but it made me wish there were a lot more WCW guys in the game.

Still, there was a certain amount of charm to being able to wrestle as a bunch of guys that weren't real (at the time I didn't realize they were all based on real Japanese wrestlers and a few re-named legends). Wrestling through tournaments taking place in the fake promotions was fun simply because of how different each one was. One group was more technical, one was more hardcore, one was more cruiserweight inspired, and so on. In a way it was a breath of fresh air to be able to play as these other characters and, for the most part, the selection of top card WCW wrestlers was satisfying enough.

The gameplay left something to be desired for me. I liked the huge number of moves and pulling off a finisher was a huge deal because of how complex the system was, but I wanted a game that was faster with easier controls. I didn't have to wait long.

WCW. Vs The World was immediately followed by WCW Nitro, a game that had me envious. I bought THIS game when I could have THAT game? LOOK AT THOSE GUYS! It is hard to believe now but, for its time, WCW Nitro was a great looking game, far more realistic in presentation than WCW Vs. The World and exactly what we young tikes were looking to get a hold of.

We didn't know what a good wrestling game was like at the time, the "best" 2D wrestling games were arcade games, this was a huge step up in my world. Needless to say, WCW Nitro was frustrating and could make you feel a bit sick with the camera spinning around. That didn't stop me from playing it day in and day out, trying to unlock all the different guys (and girl with male grunts!) I was so into wrestling that I even had the strategy guide to this ridiculous game. I remember my first year in Junior High School a bunch of kids were talking about the game so I brought the strategy guide in and they ate it up. I learned there was an "unlock everything" code early on but I was determined to win the game legitimately and was one of the few people in the world to legitimately unlock EVERY SINGLE FREAKING WRESTLER. Only for my save to crash and to have to cheat to unlock them anyway.

WCW Nitro was terrible, deep down I knew it, but it gave just enough to keep me happy. The character rants were to me, as they were to most people, the best part of the game and I can remember loading the game up just to be able to listen to them. Talk about nostalgia.

[YOUTUBE]UaPn5YnoAzo[/YOUTUBE]

I wanted something better, I didn't know what, but there HAD to be something better out there. Then I saw an ad for WWF Warzone and it seemed all of my dreams were about to come true...

To Be Continued

 

[BigBombB]

For someone who never owned an N64, WWF Warzone was a masterpiece. The characters looked realistic (well, as realistic as it got at the time), the wrestlers all played differently, and they even had real entrances! (pyro, a taunt, and theme music was a big deal back then!) I can remember facing the Undertaker and wondering how I could possibly win because each character seemed as tough to beat as their real life counterpart.

The hardcore match where weapons were thrown into the ring, the cage match which was incredible for its time, and the limited but still fun tag matches, it was all so much better than the WCW games I had gotten used to. The unlockables were also awesome! The numerous faces of Foley, alternate outfits, fake characters that made perfect jobbers, and hilarious stuff like "ego mode" where the wrestlers heads grew huge, it was everything the other games I had played were and so much more!

I can't even begin to describe how hard I tried to make decent looking CAWs in Warzone. This was the first of its kind as far as I knew and endless ideas ran through my mind. It didn't take long for me to realize much of what I imagined wasn't turning out anything close to what I'd hoped...but it was something!

The challenge mode, to this day, is in the top three modes I most fondly remember from any wrestling game. Working your way up the ladder, the grudge matches, the video promos. Oh, the video promos! This took the little video clips from games like In Your House and buffed them up to epic proportions. I dare you not to mark out!

(Jump to 2:15 for 4th wall breaking and cue card reading nostalgia!)
[YOUTUBE]Myce9ku-bHA[/YOUTUBE]

When a sequel was announced and an article appeared in GamePro magazine, I nearly lost my mind. WWF Attitude looked even better, there would be more modes, more wrestlers, more EVERYTHING! The Create-A-Wrestler would be the greatest one ever! Suddenly all of those amazing games on N64 didn't matter, I was free to let my creativity take control with the best creative engine EVER!

And this game brought one other thing that past games always lacked. Com vs. Com. For those that wanted to create their own matches, have fantasy shows, or just watch a bunch of guys bludgeon each other with weapons, their dream had finally come true. I was one of these people and I spent endless hours creating wrestlers, working out creative match types, and sending everyone into crazy battles for my own personal amusement.

While Attitude was just more of the same in a lot of ways, it helped to tide us over. Especially when the best WCW was pumping out on the Playstation was WCW/NWO Thunder. Don't get me wrong, being able to assign all of the main characters to a different stable and see their in-game models change was awesome, but I didn't play the game enough for that to matter much. Although the battle royal, for as bad as the collision detection was, ended up providing a few hours of entertainment.

At this point my interest in wrestling was at an all time high and being able to immerse myself within the world was a dream come true. Even if it was only from the comfort of my own bedroom. As time went on, a lot of the old game engines were losing their luster, so many other games were churning out amazing graphics and were pushing the consoles to their limits. Suddenly the blocky, cut and paste looking wrestlers weren't so exciting. Then Yukes came into the picture and controversy sprang up around the video game wrestling world.

To Be Continued