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Post by Shadow Master on Jul 10, 2023 18:05:14 GMT
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Post by Shadow Master on Jul 12, 2023 18:04:45 GMT
.png) .png) I just got around to removing the backgrounds of all of the SFPW2 Winning Strategy Special guidebook illustrations. You can find all of the cutout sketches at the bottom of this link: criticalclub.com/thread/1888/guidebook-scans-9-sfpw2?page=1&scrollTo=58664
 Going back to Pro-Wrestling on the NES/Famicom, I also removed the backgrounds of Pro-Wrestling's Japanese guidebook from 1986. Beyond the regular Wrestler illustrations, the guide also contained a selection of drawings that made me question whether other Wrestlers were planned to be featured in the game. Let's take a look at the extra Wrestler drawings together:  The first drawing depicts a Japanese-looking Wrestler performing a piledriver. While the Wrestler could be Fighter Hayabusa (Antonio Inoki), his longer hair and blue trunks makes me think of Jumbo Tsuruta or Akira Maeda. To add to the confusion, Hayabusa is often drawn in black ring trunks and matching boots.  The same Wrestler in the blue trunks is seen above performing an Irish Whip on Fighter Hayabusa. Who do you think this Japanese Wrestler could be? Personally, I'm leaning towards Akira Maeda, as Pro-Wrestling was developed by HUMAN founder Masato Masuda, who included Maeda as a staple character in just about every
Fire Pro-Wrestling title from Combination Tag onward.  This sketch looks close to Fighter Hayabusa - just in blue trunks. Confusing, right? The opponent looks to be Giant Panther (Hulk Hogan).  The last sketch features two generic Wrestlers. The Wrestler performing the Lariat is more-than-likely based on Stan Hansen. Similar hairstyle, hair colour, and physique. The generic Wrestler on the right is perhaps the most difficult to determine. Our good friend BakFu suggested the bearded Wrestler could be Earthquake John Tenta. Though, Pro-Wrestling was released back in 1986 in Japan. Earthquake wouldn't make his AJPW debut until 1987. After a bit of brainstorming, I think I solved who the mystery Wrestler could have been based off of:  Maurice 'Mad Dog' Vachon. Pictured here in 1986 with a similar black singlet. |
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Post by Shadow Master on Jul 14, 2023 6:34:14 GMT
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Post by Shadow Master on Jul 14, 2023 14:44:26 GMT
I got some Bad News for everyone:  Judo Jones is a nod to Bad News Brown's Judo background.  As a twitter throwback, the staff at 80's Mania Wrestling posted the above sprites, which were created several years ago 'for fun'. Among Cobra Commander, Lost Boys and Jason/Freddy references, there also appears to be nods to The Rockers Shawn Michaels and Marty Janetty.
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Post by Staubhold on Jul 14, 2023 23:01:20 GMT
As a twitter throwback, the staff at 80's Mania Wrestling posted the above sprites, which were created several years ago 'for fun'. Among Cobra Commander, Lost Boys and Jason/Freddy references, there also appears to be nods to The Rockers Shawn Michaels and Marty Janetty.
Those are the Neon Express, Chet Skye and Jessie Wild. I think they are a amalgamation of the Rock 'n' Roll Express and the Rockers.  I don't know who made this piece of art, but it's superb!  There is even a rivalry card for alt. versions of Chet Skye and Jessie Wild, called Shattered Neon.  So, Chet Sky(called the High Flyin Kid) is Shawn and Jessie Wild is the Marty Jannetty of the team... Was just thinking about the Insectoids, Mike Bugg and Mark Bugg.  The names reminds me so much of the Smoking Gunns, Billy Gunn and Bart Gunn.  Both teams "brothers", both teams have another notation of their names that make the tag team name. |
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Post by Shadow Master on Jul 15, 2023 0:39:57 GMT
Good save, Staubhold! And we just discussed the original 80's Mania Wrestling roster not too long ago. *shakes head* While I have a ton of guides on-hand that still need to be scanned, I felt I would use this space to let everyone know about some of the goodies that I have on the way.  The first batch are all Super Famicom guides. If you're starting to lose track, relax ....you're in good company. The guides are: Super Fire Pro-Wrestling X - By Fighting Studio
Fire Pro Joshi All Star Dream Slam - Fight Book Super Fire Pro-Wrestling III Final Bout - By Fighting Studio Super Fire Pro-Wrestling X - Edit Wrestler Guide  The next batch of guides I have coming are even more interesting. For starters, the very rare Fire Pro-Wrestling Encyclopedia - which is said to encompass a history of all of the Fire Pro titles up to Final Bout. Tekken - Perfect guidebook Fire Pro Wrestling 6 Men Scramble - Sega Saturn Winning Strategy Special Tekken - Perfect Guide Tekken - Gamest Mook Vol. 8. |
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Post by Shadow Master on Jul 16, 2023 21:11:57 GMT
For the most part, Wrestlers in Japan have been supportive of Fire Pro-Wrestling series. In past guides, Wrestlers such as The Great Sasuke, Tatsutoshi Gotoh, Koji Kitao, Minoru Suzuki, Aja Kong & Ultimo Dragon have praised Fire Pro-Wrestling's presence in the world of video games.  In upcoming guides, I will be posting sitdown interviews with Jushin Thunder Liger, who was interviewed in 1992 for the Fire Pro-Wrestling Retsuden guidebook, along with Manami Toyota, Takako and Kyoko Inoue, who were interviewed while playing Fire Pro Joshi All Star Dream Slam in 1994. The booklet of the Super Fire Pro-Wrestling Special Complete Collection also includes a 1995 interview with four members of the Fujiwara Gumi promotion:  Ring announcer Punch Tahara, Yushi Ishikawa, Funaki Katsuichi (yes, that WWE Funaki) & Yasunori Okuda. Sadly, Yoshiaki Fujiwara himself wasn't interviewed. Personally, it would have been nice to read what Fujiwara thought of his likeness being featured in so many Japanese Wrestling games at the time (Fire Pro, Gekitou Burning Pro-Wrestling, Astral Bout, Saikyou Takada, etc...). Speaking of Fujiwara...    I've scanned about 35 pages of the Fire Pro-Wrestling Retsuden guidebook from 1992. The background-free Wrestler illustrations have yet to be posted. Stay tuned! |
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Post by Shadow Master on Jul 18, 2023 7:31:17 GMT
Despite labelling myself as a Fire Pro Historian, there's still interesting pieces of information that even I wasn't aware of. Today, while browsing various Japanese auction sites, I came across three more Fire Pro-Wrestling soundtracks:  To the untrained eye, this first inclusion might just seem like the jewel case to Fire Pro-Wrestling Combination Tag, but upon further inspection ...it's actually an officially-licensed OST album, that was released by Columbia Records in Japan!  Released in 1989, the soundtrack to the first Fire Pro title featured 10 tracks, 8 of which were the theme songs of the playable tag teams: Track 2 - King Fighters (Akira Maeda & Antonio Inoki) Track 3 - Bakuraihou (Jumbo Tsuruta & Genichiro Tenryu) Track 4 - Midnight Revolution (Riki Choshu & Masa Saito) Track 5 - Devil Pirate (typo - supposed to be 'Devil Pirates' - the in-game Fire Pro rename of the Gaspar Brothers tag team) Track 6 - Violence Monsters (Stan Hansen & Bruiser Brody) Track 7 - Dimension Express (Mil Mascaras & Dos Caras) Track 8 - Crazy Barbarians (Tiger Jeet Singh & Bad News Brown) Track 9 - Urbane Blasters (noticeable typo for 'Urban Blasters'- the in-game name for The Road Warriors) Strangely, the theme song for the Legend Heroes (hidden bosses Karl Gotch and Lou Thesz) is missing. On top of the ten tracks, the packaging also contains three sticker sheets, featuring six of Combination Tag's roster: Stan Hansen, Bruiser Brody, Road Warrior Hawk, Road Warrior Animal, Akira Maeda and Antonio Inoki.  Fire Pro-Wrestling 2nd Bout would also receive it's own soundtrack.  This time around, the 2nd Bout soundtrack ups the ante with 17 tracks in total. 6 of which, are labelled as 'arranged versions', which really has piqued my interest. And, in case you're wondering - the torso holding the game is hardcore Wrestler Riki Fuji. As these soundtracks were produced in extremely-limited numbers 30+ years ago (and only in Japan), their prices on the secondary market can get rather steep. 2nd Bout's price at the moment now averages $170!
 My hunt for more Fire Pro-Wrestling grails started this morning with a purchase of the following soundtrack. Known as 'HUMAN Super F2', this 12 track oddity is a split compilation that combines original music from two of HUMAN's titles: Super Formation Soccer and Super Fire Pro-Wrestling - both released on the Super Famicom.  Only six tracks belong to Super Fire Pro-Wrestling, none of which are actual Wrestler themes, more along the lines of main menu, title screen and ending-type bgm's. A shame really, as SFPW1 really had some stellar Wrestler tracks - many of which would go on to become series staples, that are still appreciated to this day in Fire Pro World.
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Post by Staubhold on Jul 19, 2023 8:26:31 GMT
Some quick voice work...
Samoa Joe in Telltale's Game of Thrones
Saints Row: The Third - Genkibowl VII
Color commentator Bobby is voiced by Rob Van Dam
Saints Row: The Third
Angel De LaMuerte, a masked luchador, who got unmasked by his jealous tag-team partner Killbane, is voiced by Hulk Hogan.
Cars Race O Rama - Macho Man Randy Savage as El Machismo
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Post by BakFu on Jul 19, 2023 16:29:35 GMT
Samoa Joe as Sweet Tooth… 🤡  |
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Post by Shadow Master on Jul 20, 2023 4:26:01 GMT
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Post by Shadow Master on Jul 23, 2023 18:22:58 GMT
One game in the SNK pantheon that has received mixed reviews over the years is a Wrestling game by the name of Fire Suplex (known as 3 Count Bount outside of Japan). Hardcore fans of the title with an extra couple bucks to burn
may be interested to learn that Fire Suplex/3 Count Bout has it's own Japanese card game expansion:
 I recently discovered these cards on eBay. The seller has listed the cards as 'Carddass', which is a generic term used to describe battle cards that were sold by Bandai and other manufacturers in the early 90's. Usually, when most people think of carddass, Dragon Ball Z's Carddass Barcode War set is the first product to come to mind. Myself, I remember owning a whole stack of Barcode Battler cards myself ...and even as a kid, were well aware of how cheesy they were. While we already covered the Fire Suplex/3 Count Bout roster on previous pages of this thread, it's interesting to see rare pieces of memorabilia created for more obscure games in SNK's library.  Speaking of obscure Wrestling games, it's time to talk about Takada Nobuhiko Saikyou The Pro-Wrestling again. In 1995, Saikyou was one of the first fighting games to offer player customization. When editing the colours of boss character Tiger Neo (Tiger Mask), players can select Neo's 7th colour option, which switches out Neo's grey mask for a yellow one, along with black tights that recreates a nod to the original Tiger Mask anime of the early 70's. Back when the titular character wore black and grey tights initially. |
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Post by Shadow Master on Jul 25, 2023 5:57:20 GMT
I'm just about finished scanning Fire Pro book #14, and thought I'd do something unusual. I'm going to let you guys decide which guide I'll be scanning next.
Reading through your emails and forum comments, it seems the Edit books are the most popular Fire Pro publications. So, your
choices are:
A) Super Fire Pro-Wrestling Special 'Edit Wrestler Book' (1995).
- 111 Pages. - 6 Wrestler illustrations and screenshots of every other edit.
- Formulas to create 69 custom Wrestlers.
- Interview with Suda51 and long-time Fire Pro staff member Kazuyuki Kumagai.
- All unlockable Edit mode moves listed.
B) Super Fire Pro-Wrestling X 'Edit Wrestler Guide' (1995)
- 95 pages.
- Formulas to create 57 custom Wrestlers. - Screenshots of every edit.
- Gameplay techniques such as Critical moves index.
- No interviews/Wrestler illustrations.
 Personally, I think the Special Edit Wrestler book is more interesting, but X is a game that has undeniably garnered a better reception over the years. Either way, let me know which one you'd like to see first.
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Post by fpwnet on Jul 25, 2023 6:58:43 GMT
Hello, Shadow Master.
Thank you as always!
I would like 'Super Fire Pro-Wrestling Special Edit Wrestler Book'.
By the way, I want these books.
'Fire Pro Wrestling 6 Men Scramble - Sega Saturn Winning Strategy Special'
'Tekken - Perfect guidebook'
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Post by Shadow Master on Jul 25, 2023 21:25:04 GMT
All 127 pages of the Fire Pro-Wrestling Retsuden guidebook from 1992 have just been scanned and uploaded! Features a comprehensive look at the first several Fire Pro titles with plenty of Wrestler illustrations, gameplay secrets, and TWO exclusive interviews with Jushin Thunder Liger, as well as Fire Pro creators Masato Masuda and game designer Daisuke Asako!
  You can read the full guidebook here: criticalclub.com/thread/1902/guidebook-scans-fire-wrestling-retsuden?page=1&scrollTo=58740 |
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