Wrestling Games History

[Stone Cold 3:16 0]

Wrestling games, you like them or you hate them. If you are wrestling fan, you have played at least one wrestling game and even you wouldn?t be wrestling fan, I?m pretty sure you still have played one. They are really popular with fans and other people too. Wrestling games are the path to the wrestling world for so many new fans. But most of you don?t know or remember where they started. Well let me take you to the time when control pads only had 2 buttons, and games were pure gold?WWF Wrestlemania (NES) 1988Six wrestlers could take 1 on 1 either just in single match or in tournament mode! It must sound great. Well back then people didn?t know about better. This game is total cr*p. It?s more like really bad beat ?em up game (you can?t make good beat ?em up game to NES). Only thing you could do is just walk around the ring (and that looked stupid) punching and kicking your opponent. I have played this game many times and only cool thing ever happened is when Bam Bam (he looks like a barrel) managed to body slam me. And also there was some stuff flying across the ring but I can?t understand the meaning of them. We have to move on to the?WWF Wrestlemania Challenge (NES) 1991A new camera angle, tag team match (at last) and 3 vs.3 survivor series. Can you even imagine how much new this game brought! Oh I almost forgot there was one great new property, you could use a character called ?Yourself?.WCW: World Championship Wrestling (NES)This game was actually pretty fun to play. Well at least these wrestlers had some moves. And also almost amazing camera angle switch when wrestler got thrown out of the ring. Still, moves were pretty hard to do (even there was only those two buttons) and that made game really hard. But this one was much better than WWF Wrestlemania.WWE also had WWF: Steel Cage Challenge (which included first time ever? a steel cage match) and WWF: King Of The Ring and both of them were also made to Game Boy, but let?s skip those and move to the next (and almost the best) era of Wrestling games.Wrestle War (Sega Mega Drive) 1989, 1991I bought this game from local store yesterday and it only cost 2?. I first took this game as a joke but actually this was fun to play. There are many moves and they look cool. Well there aren?t any real wrestlers, but wrestlers somehow remind me of some wrestlers. Like Titan Morgan? guy in yellow pants and he is using leg drop? and one guy that looks like Road Warrior Hawk and he does Fist drops and Military Press.WCW: Super Brawl Wrestling (SNES)Well this one is pretty fast and some moves are even faster, but wrestlers had real wrestler shouting their famous lines. Also announcer was pretty good, even he only said few moves. But it?s better than nothing. This game just didn?t stand a change against WWF games.WWF: Super Wrestlemania (SNES) 1992First wrestling game I?ve played and wow! I just couldn?t get bored Hulk Hogan and dropkicks! (Unreal team). All those cool moves, great colors and wrestlers really looked real. But? every wrestler had same moves and there were only singles and tag team matches. So this was actually Wrestlemania with better graphics and more moves.WWF: Wrestlemania The Arcade GameNot even a wrestling game actually, this is more like beat ?em up, but pretty funny one. Well there were some wrestling elements like few wrestling moves and ring. But wrestlers could do some unreal moves like Undertaker had his flaming fists (if I remember right) and you lost the match when your life meter was empty. Wrestlers were animated from real persons like in Mortal Kombats.Then they came? maybe the greatest wrestling games ever created! WWF: Royal Rumble and WWF: RAW! Graphics were almost same as Super Wrestlemania, little better, but the game play was gold! When you grappled your opponent, a meter appeared and a ruthless button taping started. The player who got the meter on his side executed a grapple move. And in those games there were really many moves. And every wrestler had their own finisher. Also new matches like Royal Rumble, 4 vs.4 survivor series and couple other increased the game?s lifetime. You could also use weapons like chair and bucket. These games are really great and everyone should at least test these ones. But now, we will move to the next generation... the time of Playstation and Nintendo 64. This era really divides the opinions. You either love it from the bottom of your heart, or you hate it.WWF Attitude, WWF War Zone, WWF No Mercy, ECW Anarchy Rulez, WCW Mayhem, WCW Nitro, WCW vs. nWo Thunder, WWF In Your House: There Goes The Neighborhood, WCW vs. The World, WCW Backstage Assault, WCW vs. now World Tour, WCW vs. now Revenge, ECW Hardcore Revolution, WWF Wrestlemania 2000? list goes on and on. Wrestling fans really liked these games, but to the others these were just piece of dog cr*p in their collections. Why? Well to learn how to play these games took so much time, and if you weren?t wrestling fan, games just couldn?t keep you playing so long. Moves were executed like in normal beat ?em up which made some players choose an actual beat ?em up instead of these. Wrestling games were almost the worst games there was in normal gamer?s eyes. Until the new series began? WWF: SmackDown! A new handy grappling system and simply great game play. After SmackDown! 2 Know your Role and SmackDown! Just Bring It! the popularity of wrestling games touched the roof. These games drew some new fans to the wrestling and they were also great games to non wrestling fan. And WWF SmackDown! Shut Your Mouth didn?t let fans down either. But then the downfall began? and even today, wrestling fans don?t accept it.WWE SmackDown! Here Comes The Pain! Again, graphics were upgraded? well that?s almost all the new what this one offered. Season was great, new stiff looking moves added? but oh come on! That doesn?t make a new game. Well still, everyone kept saying that ?Yeah this is great? but actually? Shut Your Mouth was same game with worse graphics and better game play. Same mistake was made again? SmackDown vs. Raw. Again, better graphics, new moves, really bad season mode and also create a wrestler mode was just really poor. But still the fans couldn?t accept that this was Shut Your Mouth in new outfit.Same thing happened with Wrestlemania series. When the name changed to Day Of Reckoning? only thing that was better is graphics and season mode. But I still miss those funny revenge stages. I haven?t played RAW series so much, but I can say that the first one was bad.But in the shadows of those games there is actually pretty good game. Legends Of Wrestling or at least LoW II was pretty good. Well it has too fast animation and it?s not beautiful to watch but the game is way too underrated. When you know how to play it, it?s really entertaining. But it doesn?t stand a change against Smackdown or DoR series.Portable WrestlingLike I already mentioned King Of The Ring and Steel Cage challenge, there has been many great wrestling games to Game Boy, Game Boy Color and GBA. Like WWF RAW, which was like King of The Ring (really cr*py) maybe the only good wrestling game for Game Boy/GBC is Wrestlemania 2000 which was simple but fun for few hours. Other GB wrestling games just didn?t last longer than one match. But Game Boy Advance really has some great wrestling games.Road To Wrestlemania SeriesI?ve played the first one and then Road To Wrestlemania X8 and both were good games. Even in X8 opponents were way too easy but game play was just great. Well you had to play these in short episodes because it?s still the same in every match. Could there even be better wrestling game to GBA? Well there is one game that is also in my top 3 of wrestling games.Fire Pro Wrestling SeriesHard to get in but after that, pure gold. Lots of moves, was there like 200 wrestlers (not sure) around the world and better Create A Wrestler than in Smackdown versus Raw. You can also create your own federation (there is no use for that but its fun) well? it?s hard to write how good that game is. Go and play it.But what about future? Will the physics engines ever reach the wrestling games? Does PSP bring some new elements for portable wrestling gaming? Will TNA come up with new game? Is Pro Wrestling X a good game? Only thing we can do is just wait?So tell me did you like it or did you not like it. And should I write more?

[drenomus 0]

looks like you love the wrestling games, im not to familiar with the games i only now the smackdown series for the consoles of playstation but in your list your forgot a game named ECW; well i dont know to well about this, ?this is another league of wrestling?

[Dragonfly 0]

By the look of your post I can understand how much interest you have in wrestling. Though I'm not a big fan of wrestling, lately I've been watching Total Non-stop Action(TNA)which is also called the TNA and World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE)'s RAW and Smackdown. WWE is definitely more interesting than the TNA althought TNA looks more real but its all about entertainment. I also prefer WWE. Batista, John Cenah, Mysterio and few others are a joy to watch them playing in the ring with their opponents.