Nostalgia Trip: WWF Wrestlemania (NES)

[Guest Man Of 1,004 Modes]

I'll somewhat skip the introduction here because I'm not very good at them. Wrestlemania was released sometime around the spring of 1988, I say this because Ted Dibiase didn't actually wrestle until late 87/early 88, and so anytime sooner would've been out of place.

 

The game featured a grand total of SIX WWF Wrestlers, including the following: Hulk Hogan, "Macho Man" Randy Savage, Andre The Giant, The Honkytonk Man, Bam Bam Bigelow, and of course Ted Dibiase.

 

There was only one actual mode, which was a Tournament (or in better words, gauntlet) where you face everyone to become the WWF Champion. In 2 player mode, Hulk Hogan can even face himself!

 

The move-sets for each wrestler were as bland as possible, consisting of punching and kicking. In some cases, Bigelow could knock someone over with his cart-wheel, and...I think that's it. I thought there was a dropkick inserted in this game somewhere.

 

As for the match overall, you just kick/punch for about 3:00 until your opponent can't get up, and then, in the MOST CHALLENGING PART OF THE GAME , you must figure out how to fucking pin the person. Usually you'll just give up on this, pull off a miracle and hit a certain button to do it, or insert your foot in the T.V's #14.

 

The graphics were even worse than the gameplay. The ring is bland as hell, and way too fucking big considering Andre The Giant is about an inch big. That's a positive actually considering the other wrestlers are as true to life as possible since Bigelow is the shortest, and Andre dwarfs him.

 

This game started the trend of bad WWF games, while WCW a few years later produced possible the greatest wrestling game for the NES ever (simply titled World Championship wrestling).

 

My Final Grade after this Short Rant: D (It doesn't get an F because it started it all, just like the real WM gets a free pass even though it sucked)

 

 

What are other people's opinions of the game, or fun useless stories like the game glitching and having the wrestler waddle around with no or two heads. Also include favorite person to wrestle as, although it makes little difference because they are all pretty much the same.

[Jingus 0]

I tried playing this game as an emulated ROM a couple of times, and just gave up. The controls and hit collision are absolute crap, which is par for the course for an NES wrestling game, as they were almost all horrible.

 

Pro Wrestling (Starman~!) > Wrestlemania

[Guest slacklet]

I think the best WWF game for NES was Wrestlemania Challenge.

[Guest Man Of 1,004 Modes]

I think the best WWF game for NES was Wrestlemania Challenge.

I concur. I loved the Survivor Series format of the game, and it was nice and bright (the opposite of the dullness from Wrestlemania). Plus you could do (most) finishers for each guy anytime during the match.

 

I remember laughing maniacally playing as Andre against Hulk (played by my brother) and just sitting on him 10 or 11 times before making an easy pin.

[Slayer 0]

As for the match overall, you just kick/punch for about 3:00 until your opponent can't get off

Ouch...

[Guest Man Of 1,004 Modes]

As for the match overall, you just kick/punch for about 3:00 until your opponent can't get off

Ouch...

.....Oh Shit....I meant get up. God, damn thats a funny fuck up.

[Scroby 0]

You forgot about the items that would flot across the ring.

[Guest Salacious Crumb]

Pro Wrestling was the greatest NES wrestling game of them all.

 

Star Man owns.

[Skywarp! 0]

There was actually another mode when you added at least 3 people, with the maximum of 6. It's a round robin league, where everyone plays everyone once (if you have less than 6 people, you can skip CPU vs CPU matches). The guy with the best record (with best match time used as a tie-breaker) becomes the Champion. Actually very advanced for such an early game.

[EdwardKnoxII 0]

You forgot about the items that would flot across the ring.

Also I remember that while you couldn't jump off the top rope the computer could do it at anytime which pissed me off. I remember wanting to play this game so bad when it came out and when I borrowed it from a friend it barely had anyone in it and it was to hard to figure like you said.

[Guest MikeSC]

Pro Wrestling was the greatest NES wrestling game of them all.

 

Star Man owns.

Don't even go there. Fighter Hayabusa's "back brain kick" was unstoppable.

-=Mike

[Ripper 0]

Pro Wrestling was the greatest NES wrestling game of them all.

 

Star Man owns.

Don't even go there. Fighter Hayabusa's "back brain kick" was unstoppable.

-=Mike

when you could hit it.

 

He was the best in the game though. My back brain kick, piledriver, top rope splash was my 3 moves of DOOM~!

[Guest MikeSC]

Pro Wrestling was the greatest NES wrestling game of them all.

 

Star Man owns.

Don't even go there. Fighter Hayabusa's "back brain kick" was unstoppable.

-=Mike

when you could hit it.

 

He was the best in the game though. My back brain kick, piledriver, top rope splash was my 3 moves of DOOM~!

Heck, when I finally got the timing down, I could just annihilate the last guy (was it Puma Man?). But, lord, getting the timing on that kick down was brutal.

-=Mike

[Guest Salacious Crumb]

I never really cared for Hayabusa. I usually stuck to Star Man and the guy that had the claw hold.

[thuganomics 0]

Pro Wrestling was the bomb, and I ALWAYS used Starman as well. He was a killing machine.

[Guest Dynamite Kido]

I never really cared for Hayabusa. I usually stuck to Star Man and the guy that had the claw hold.

I believe you are thinking of King Slender.....I could be wrong though

[Guest MikeSC]

I never really cared for Hayabusa. I usually stuck to Star Man and the guy that had the claw hold.

I always missed Star Man's moves.

-=Mike

[1234-5678 0]

Pro Wrestling was the greatest NES wrestling game of them all.

 

Star Man owns.

I always preferred Tecmo World Wrestling.

[Skywarp! 0]

You forgot about the items that would flot across the ring. 

Also I remember that while you couldn't jump off the top rope the computer could do it at anytime which pissed me off. I remember wanting to play this game so bad when it came out and when I borrowed it from a friend it barely had anyone in it and it was to hard to figure like you said.

You could jump off the bottom two turnbuckles. You ran at them and pressed both buttons when close. However, the move from the top occurred immediatly.

[teke184 0]

Want to hear something funny?

 

A player using Hogan can just keep hitting the kick button until his opponent is worn out.

 

Either someone at Acclaim had a sense of humor or it was a bug. Considering that it came out in late 88 / early 89 (I got it on April 1, 1989, the day of Wrestlemania 5), I don't think anyone was that smarkish yet.

[Guest Man Of 1,004 Modes]

Wow, never realized the game came out so late, which makes me wonder why Bam Bam was in it. I could've sworn he left about two months after Wrestlemania (IV).

[dubq 0]

Pro Wrestling was the greatest NES wrestling game of them all.

 

Star Man owns.

I always preferred Tecmo World Wrestling.

I second that.

 

Dr. Guildo was the shit!

[Guest MikeSC]

Wow, never realized the game came out so late, which makes me wonder why Bam Bam was in it. I could've sworn he left about two months after Wrestlemania (IV).

He did. I thought the game was released in late '97 --- but I'm probably wrong.

 

And WHAT was the name of the last guy on NES Pro Wrestling?

-=Mike

...Who's surprised they've never tried a remake of Saturday Night Slam Masters

[Use Your Illusion 0]

I am.

 

My fave was Scorpion, that dude was mega badass.

 

Oni was pretty awesome too.

 

UYI

[Guest The Notorious CRD]

I used to collect every wrestling game regardless of how good it was.

 

Anyone remember the generically-named Tag Team Wrestling? I always sorta liked it even though it was repetitive as hell.

 

Tecmo Pro Wrestling, World Championship Wrestling, and Pro Wrestling were the best though. The holy trinity of NES wrestling games.

[Downhome 0]

I couldn't count the hours that I spent on this game. I used to play it all of the time, I was addicted to it. I loved the theme music also.

[Guest Man Of 1,004 Modes]

Well at least this was better than the Super Wrestlemania on SNES, where stomping someone forced them to fart, and the finishing moves were....nothing. (damn Sega version~!)

[Skywarp! 0]

Yeah, "Super Wrestlemania" was probably the worst, with the exception of "Steel Cage Challenge" and "King of the Ring". Every moveset in SWM was exactly the same, so really when you were picking a character, the only differences were skins and midis of the themes.

 

Oh, and there was no point in tagging out during Survivor Series matches; energy meters didn't refill in that game.

[teke184 0]

Wow, never realized the game came out so late, which makes me wonder why Bam Bam was in it. I could've sworn he left about two months after Wrestlemania (IV).

I think the reason Bigelow was in the game was that this game had a LONG development period.

 

Between early 1988 and the game's release, Bigelow went from "Great Tattooed Hope" to a WCW JTTS, Honky Tonk Man went from IC champ to complete jobber and Andre The Giant went from semi-retired to 75% retired.

[Jingus 0]

I never really cared for Hayabusa.  I usually stuck to Star Man and the guy that had the claw hold.

I believe you are thinking of King Slender.....I could be wrong though

No, it was Giant Panther who had the clawhold, and headbutt. King Slender was the pale hippy dude who had the backbreaker. (Which was, by the way, the BEST move in the game, since it did so much damage and was so easy to hit. Hit ANYONE with six backbreakers in a row, and the pinfall becomes inevitable.)