The early '90's are what I like to refer to as the Pro-Wrestling video game boom in Japan. Just about every major promotion had their own
Wrestling titles on the 16-bit Super Famicom system. From the newly-formed WAR, to the hardcore style of FMW and even titles inspired by
the rising success of Joshi Pro-Wrestling in Japan.
Of all the Japanese promotions however, no company had more licensed titles than New Japan and All Japan Pro-Wrestling.
Many people regard Zen Nippon 2-3:4 Budokan as one of the best titles on the Super Famicom. Zen Nippon Pro-Wrestling and Dash (which came before
Budokan) were also fine Wrestling titles in their own right. The former inspiring a localized port known as Natsume Championship Wrestling on the SNES.
But, Masaya also released a 4th Zen Nippon title:
Zen Nippon Pro-Wrestling Fight da Pon!Known in Japan as: 全日本プロレスファイトだポン!
Year: 1994
Platform: Super Famicom
Developer: Masaya
Released in 1994, Fight da Pon is the third game in the Zen Nippon Pro-Wrestling series on the Super Famicom. It's also the only game in the series
that functions like a card battling board game.
The title "Fight da Pon" is somewhat confusing. "Pon" is a form of onomatopoeia, and according to Japanese slang, is meant to resemble the sound of a
slap, boom or pop. This title is reminiscent of the 1984 Arcade Wrestling title "Appoooh!" which is another form of onomatopoeia. With da/the being a
connector in the title, we can loosely translate Fight da Pon as "Fight Pop/boom".
The roster is as followed:
Giant Baba
Jumbo Tsuruta
Mitsuharu Misawa
Stan Hansen. The white, pupil-less eyes that Hansen has is another piece of Japanese animation/gaming/manga culture meant to represent a powerful character.
Other characters that incorporate this art style include Street Fighter's Sagat, Gen, Oni, Rolento as well as Broly from Dragon Ball.
Coincidentally, the pupil-less effect is also noticeable with heels/villains, for which Hansen played quite well.
One half of the Holy Demon Army Tag Team: Akira Taue.
You'd be forgiven if you thought the character portrait looks more like a young Masahiro Chono from NJPW.
Actually, it's Toshiaki Kawada. The second half of AJPW's Holy Demon Army Tag Team.
Another popular tag team in Japan was the Miracle Violence Connection. The name of which is a nod to the Miracle Power Combination
which comprised of Stan Hansen and Bruiser Brody in the 1980's.
The first member of the MVC is Terry Gordy.
The second half of the MVC is "Dr. Death" Steve Williams.
Masanobu Fuchi.
All Japan's underdog Kenta Kobashi.
Who played the big brother in tag matches to...
"Fireball" Tsuyoshi Kikuchi.
The Patriot. Though, Patriot's tag partner "Eagle" is strangely missing.
Rookie sensation Jun Akiyama.
"The Demon of the mic" Rusher Kimura.
Promotion veteran Haruka Eigen.
And lastly Jun Izumida; making his only appearance in a Zen Nippon game on the Super Famicom.
Abdullah The Butcher also makes a cameo appearance during the opening sequence of Scenario mode. As to my knowledge, Abdullah
is unplayable (yet, was under license to AJPW in 1994 as Abdullah was teaming with Giant Kimala II).
Zako next to The Destroyer as he appeared in Super Fire Pro-Wrestling III Final Bout.Another non-playable character is known as "Zako". Zako seems to be a masked Wrestler who looks almost identical to AJPW veteran
The Destroyer. Specifically Zako's ring gear.
Another unplayable character is known as Jikuu. I'm told "Jikuu" translates to "space-time" which sounds fitting since this character is
essentially a Wrestling clock!
Instead of filling the roster with recognizable AJPW heels (The Sheik, Bruiser Brody, Tiger Jeet Singh, etc), da Pon took another
route and developed their own cast of wacky opponents.
The above example is a group of kumas. Strangely, they seem to be wearing the colours of the Road Warriors.
The only other factions I can think of from the era would have to be the Strong Machines or NJPW stable Heisei Ishingun
(whom were comprised of 7 members that shifted back and forth between the WAR promotion at the time).
The next unplayable character is Tutan. Based on Egyptian Pharaoh King Tut and another character recycled from Zako.
In one specific scenario (there's a few different stories to play through), I noticed Giant Baba took on a Zebra-like appearance.
This is most likely a reference to Giant Zebra, a masked character from the Tiger Mask Anime/Manga who himself was inspired by Giant Baba.
Towards the end of Scenario #4, we're gifted with an additional masked character as the next opponent. This character is called USA Mask.
USA Mask (which predates Hulk Hogan's Mr. America gimmick by about a decade) is a palette swap of the Bear enemies.
The blue and black ring gear plus animal-styled mask reminds me of Tiger Mask. But, I'm probably overreaching with my imagination
here.
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The final boss fight is against "Mechababa" - who is a parody of Mecha Godzilla. The caped crab-like character to the right is the main antagonist of the final
(and unlockable) scenario.
I don't remember the exact year but around 2010 or so, Jason Blackhart found Fight da Pon and Appoohhh and introduced a few of us to them. The community went absolutely nuts for them 😄 They look like such fun games that take a humorous, light-hearted approach to the wrestlers. A number of community boards, like this one, carried the legacy of the PON with the emojis.
