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Post by Shadow Master on May 31, 2022 15:26:51 GMT
In your opinion, what are some of the worst Wrestling games you've ever played? I'll start with a few obscure entries: 1) Shin Nippon Pro-Wrestling: Toukon Sanjuushi:
New Japan Pro-Wrestling's first officially-licensed videogame was released on the Game Boy back in 1991. As the title suggests, there are only three playable characters to choose from: Keiji Mutoh, Masahiro Chono and Shinya Hashimoto of the Toukon Sanjuushi (or "Three Fighting Musketeers" roughly translated).  The main detractor is the game's graphics. All six characters (including the non-playable bosses Tatsumi Fujinami, Hiroshi Hase and Riki Choshu) have indistinguishable sprites. Keep in mind, Toukon Sanjuushi was released the same year as WWF Superstars on the Game Boy. Astral Bout 2 - The Total Fighters:
The first sequel to RINGS' officially licensed Astral Bout Series added an improved grapple/counter engine and boy is it complicated.  If you like constant button mashing, aggressive CPU's and having no idea how to do anything, then Astral Bout 2 is the game for you. Atsushi Onita FMW:
In an era where every Japanese Wrestling promotion had their own video game, it was only a matter of time before FMW stepped into the ring. Mixing elements of 2D fighters and Pro-Wrestling games of the era (with Deathmatch overtones thrown in), FMW falls short on both fronts.  While there's plenty of hazards, wacky enemies, great music and the charm of chibified graphics, there's only four characters to choose from (five if you manage to play through 1P mode long enough to use Megumi Kudo for a match) and the overall gameplay leaves a lot to be desired. Atsushi Onita FMW isn't the worst Wrestling game ever created, but it was a major disappointment for me personally.
Tag Team Wrestling:
Arguably the very first Wrestling video game ever made. Tag Team Wrestling first hit arcades in Japan back in 1983. The NES console port came out three years later By 1983 standards when the norm for arcade games was simple one screen affairs such as Pac Man or Donkey Kong, Tag Team Wrestling was an ambitious title for it's time. However, by 1986 (and especially with the release of Pro-Wrestling on the NES), Tag Team Wrestling was beginning to show it's age.  Aggressive CPU, only two teams to choose from and a "rage" feature that granted the CPU momentary invincibility frustrated many players. |
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Post by Staubhold on May 31, 2022 20:08:51 GMT
Least favorite wrestling game I owned was WCW/nWo Thunder on the PSX.
It was so bad. Controlls was awefull, just like the gameplay. Many wrestlers had moves that they have never done... and the move set for every wrestler was almost the same.
Best part was the "Pick me" rants at the select screen.
Nashs rant was funny as hell...
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Post by BakFu on May 31, 2022 22:50:37 GMT
Thunder was trash, but the rants on the select screen were gold!
Power Moves Pro Wrestling was such a let down, I remember seeing pics of the Japanese version and reading about how good it was, but the unlicensed version released outside of Japan was hot garbage. I tried to like it, blaming myself for “not getting it yet”, but it was shit all around. Felt too floaty, and they went with a carnival presentation for part of it, I just wasn’t feeling it. I was hoping to get something not WWF that was really good, but I guess it was all lost in translation. I still get a bit pissed off when i see the game cover… 😂
The sad, abysmal pool of festering horse diarrhea that was “fire pro wrestling“ for the Xbox 360. Whoever was in charge of that sad nightmare should be slapped and pissed on. There was about as much fire pro about that game as there is Forza Horizon in the Crayola Scoot racing game. Blasphemy attaching the fire pro name to whatever that was.
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Post by Shadow Master on Jun 1, 2022 5:32:12 GMT
I'll throw in another title: Legends of Wrestlemania on PS3/XBOX.
WWE's first attempt at a game devoted solely to legends. With a story mode that allowed players to create classic matches from the golden age of WWF, plenty of recognizable faces and "arcade style
gameplay" sounded like a winning combination for old school Wrestling fans. However, there were two big problems:
1) The Wrestlers' muscle definition, by design, was overly exaggerated. Wrestlers looked like oiled up LJN action figures. It was strange, silly and downright cartoonish. Though, that didn't stop the WWE
from signing off for WWE All Stars a few years later...
2) The grapple engine. Instead of memorizing game mechanics on your own - with say - an instruction manual - grapple commands appeared on screen with button displays. Obviously geared towards an audience
unfamiliar with Wrestling games, but somewhat insulting to everyone else.
When Legends of Wrestlemania was first released, I loved it. Today? I don't know what I was thinking...
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Post by OrochiGeese on Jun 5, 2022 9:14:32 GMT
I'll give my input on two different categories:
Worst I ever played:
This will mark the second mention of "Tag Team Wrestling" on NES in this thread. Really, it was abysmal. Zero replay value. The only wrestling game I ever felt truly cheated buying and playing.
The only positive thing (and it's very positive) that came out of it was the character of Strong Bad who the Homestar Runner team, well, ran with in their comics. But the team who created the game does not deserve any credit for that happy accident of creatively funny people spinning straw into gold.
Most disappointing I ever played:
Smackdown 2 on PSX.
I can't remember if it's Know your Role or Just Bring it. Ordinarily, I would look.
This game doesn't deserve a second of that effort. And why? It already took HOURS of my life.
For some context: I loved the first Smackdown game put out in early 2000. It felt really fun to play, had a good CAW, and I got hours of enjoyment from it. I had high hopes for the sequel.
When Smackdown 2 came out, I was crushed within one night. First off, the loading times were the worst I had ever seen from a PSX game. They were so bad. Making things worse was that the speed of the game itself and the pacing of the match was accelerated. The practical effect was that it took longer to load matches that went much quicker than the first game. They should have called it "Know Your Load" or "Just Bring Patience."
They also took away some features from the first game like the dodging which I loved. While there were more CAW options, it took forever to go through the edit mode. The game was a huge disappointment to me.
The only positive thing is that it's crash and burn caused me to direct my attention to another game released during that same month. November 2000 saw Smackdown 2 and No Mercy come out. After Smackdown 2 failed to ignite anything but my fury, I turned to No Mercy and it made all the pain go away...until the first data failure of course 😔
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Post by Deleted on Jun 6, 2022 1:33:09 GMT
I'm pretty sure Just Bring It was one of the early PS2 ones so Know Your Role must've been Smackdown 2's subtitle.
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Post by Shadow Master on Jun 8, 2022 3:36:26 GMT
It's been decades since I played Smackdown 2. Even then, I remembered the long load times but didn't know any better. Can't recall which Smackdown it was, but you could unlock different loading screens with some of the Divas like The Kat. I guess that softened the blow a little bit.
WWE WrestleFest: while there are plenty of worse Wrestling games out there, the treatment THQ gave the arcade classic is noteworthy in it's own right:
- The graphics look like screenshots of 3D models scaled down graphically with Photoshop's cutout tool.
- No commentary
- An over-abundance of modern Wrestlers where most fans of the original were looking for a replication of the original roster.
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Post by Nth on Jun 11, 2022 18:04:01 GMT
I've played a lot of bad wrestling games, but can't really complain about it since I didn't pay any money to play them.
However the two games I did pay money for that I absolutely regretted the minute I handed the cash over were WWF Wrestlemania The Arcade Game and Smackdown Just Bring It.
At least with Smackdown Just Bring It they let me exchange it for Half Life on PS2.
I always hated the Smackdown games and remember the big rivalry between Smackdown and AKI back in the day and still don't know how any self professed wrestling fan could think a Smackdown game was better than an AKI game.
When I realized AKI was done making wrestling games and before I discovered Fire Pro and Virtual Pro Wrestling 2, I bought into the Sanders Keel hype machine that Just Bring It would be a merging of the best gameplay of the AKI engine and the Smackdown engine into one. What a load of crap that turned out to be. Wrestlers performing the wrong selling animations for moves, commentary being completely random one liners and the same generic fast paced arcade matches I have loathed in the series were present. Even the 60 minute marathon Royal Rumbles I had loved in Wrestlemania 2000 and No Mercy were reduced to 10 to 15 minute spazfests in Just Bring It. That game went right back to the store and fortunately I knew the guy working the counter who said since it was opened he would just put it up as a rental copy and let me exchange it.
I don't know what I ever saw in Wrestlemania The Arcade Game. It was a fighting game with six wrestlers. I deserved to eat the loss on that one for being stupid enough to buy it, even after we had rented it first. I can't remember if I traded it in or if it's still kicking around some dark corner of my house only to be discovered again decades down the road.
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Post by OrochiGeese on Jun 14, 2022 5:40:33 GMT
Was Wrestlemania: The Arcade Game on Dreamcast? If so, I bought that too only to return it the very next day 🤦♂️ I knew I was taking a gamble on that so my expectations weren't that high. I just remember shrugging my shoulders and trading it in for a Strider remake.
What also gets me about Smackdown 2 is that it had the potential to be better. It was clearly rushed out so they could make the holiday sales. Had they kept the Smackdown 1 engine, worked on loading times, and just put more effort into making the game fun (as opposed to looking good on a list of features), it could have worked. They had intriguing potential with the "create a faction/stable" and some other CAW modes that were half-baked at best.
I was so hyped to play it and so disappointed within a few hours about how much they didn't want me to actually play it. The ratio of "playing:waiting" time clearly indicates they had no interest in me playing it. I soon shared their sentiment and the trade in for No Mercy was the best wrestling game trade I ever made.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 15, 2022 4:16:22 GMT
Far as I know, the only two WWF games on Dreamcast were Royal Rumble and Attitude. Wrestlemania Arcade was the one from the mid-90s with digitized sprites and Razor Ramon. I enjoyed it myself but then I also enjoy Backstage Assault in an "entertainingly bad" way.
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Post by Shadow Master on Jun 15, 2022 23:44:58 GMT
As a seven year old, I didn't mind WWF the Arcade Game. It was a weekend rental that my brother and I enjoyed fondly for it's insane co-op mode. Cornering an opponent and dishing out Bret Hart's headbutts back and forth made for some pretty cheap victories. At the time, I was heavily into 1 on 1 tournament fighters, so, WWF the Arcade Game wasn't too far off from other games I was already playing.
All in all, the game was never intended to be a serious title. Just mindless fun trying to capitalize on the success of digitized graphics of the era. Heavily dated by today's standards, but back then? The graphics blew away any other WWF title we had on our SNES.
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Post by OrochiGeese on Jun 16, 2022 11:20:49 GMT
Far as I know, the only two WWF games on Dreamcast were Royal Rumble and Attitude. Wrestlemania Arcade was the one from the mid-90s with digitized sprites and Razor Ramon. I enjoyed it myself but then I also enjoy Backstage Assault in an "entertainingly bad" way. Yeah, it was Royal Rumble that I was talking about. I was so excited to get it but was immediately disappointed. I don't mind "arcade" style wrestler games but there was just no substance to it. Wrestle Fest was as "arcade" as they come and had so many layers and replayability to it. Royal Rumble on Dreamcast was meh. Royal Rumble on SNES was pretty damn good though at the time given that it was one of the first wrestling games with a battle royale. Also had some of my favorite wrestlers, their theme music, and finishers. |
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Post by Nth on Jun 16, 2022 18:38:58 GMT
Far as I know, the only two WWF games on Dreamcast were Royal Rumble and Attitude. Wrestlemania Arcade was the one from the mid-90s with digitized sprites and Razor Ramon. I enjoyed it myself but then I also enjoy Backstage Assault in an "entertainingly bad" way. Yeah, it was Royal Rumble that I was talking about. I was so excited to get it but was immediately disappointed. I don't mind "arcade" style wrestler games but there was just no substance to it. Wrestle Fest was as "arcade" as they come and had so many layers and replayability to it. Royal Rumble on Dreamcast was meh. Royal Rumble on SNES was pretty damn good though at the time given that it was one of the first wrestling games with a battle royale. Also had some of my favorite wrestlers, their theme music, and finishers. As limited as WWF Royal Rumble and RAW were on the SNES, I loved those games. Especially when the multitap came out for the SNES and you could have 4 player Royal Rumbles in RAW. I also like that the game kept track of who eliminated who and at what time. I wish current WWE games did that. Royal Rumble came out just as I was starting to get back into wrestling and having Bret Hart and Curt Hennig in a game together sold me. It also had more match types than the NES era of wrestling games as well so that kept the replayability high.
1993 was a good year for wrestling. I also remember constantly listening to these over and over again on a walkman going to school every morning.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 17, 2022 0:07:07 GMT
I've never owned a Dreamcast so I've never played it myself but I do remember hearing bad things about Royal Rumble. Mainly I remember the roster being so small that you couldn't even do the title match properly, which is a little embarrassing given the era.
The 16-bit Royal Rumble is a different story and gets a pass.
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Post by OrochiGeese on Jun 27, 2022 7:02:55 GMT
Royal Rumble on Dreamcast is so bad. SOOOO bad.
It just seems even worse in comparison to the awesome wrestling (and fighting) games on Dreamcast too.
It's like how can Royal Rumble exist in the same console world as Fire Pro D?
DOES NOT COMPUTE
🤯
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