Nostalgia Trip: WWF Wrestlefest (Arcade)

[Guest Man Of 1,004 Modes]

WWF Wrestlefest (Arcade)

 

Again, skipping the introductions here. Wrestlefest, short and simple, is probably the arcade game I've played the most over the years. Debuting sometime around early 1991 (judging by the roster in the game), it show-cases a sort of Tag Team gauntlet, where you select two wrestlers for a team, and beat all the others, ending with the SECRET BOSS TAG TEAM Championship Match.

 

Also, the game introduces the Royal Rumble Mode. Not quite like the real rumble, a match starts with 6 wrestlers at once. If you're pinned or thrown out of the ring, you lose. In a side note, the last time I played this game was back in 1997, where I played a Rumble for over 20:00, having trouble beating Road Warrior Animal. I ran out of quarters, the match ended in a DRAW, and Wrestlefest would no longer be to my access again.

 

The Roster, for those who cared, featured the who's who of World Wrestling Federation. Hulk Hogan, The Ultimate Warrior, Jake Roberts, Ted Dibiase, The Earhquake, Sgt. Slaughter, Mr. Perfect, and Demolition Smash & Crush (along with some other guy) were the selectable grapplers. The Legion Of Doom were the team/wrestlers you were never able to use in the game, which sucked because they ruled damn it.

 

The game's graphics pretty much blew away ANYTHING WWF ever did, and probably would do until the Playstation era, as the wrestlers were designed fairly well, and cartoony, but not so cartoony that it would make it feel like a joke game. Each wrestler had their own move-set if I recall, as well as their finishing moves. I'm not sure if the first WWF Arcade gamer (Superstars of Wrestling) had this feature, but I'll still say it was the first to include finishers for ALL Wrestlers. (Wrestlemania Challenge for NES had select finishers for half the roster, but the game still sucked)

 

For months, I've tried to download this game, but for some reason, I can NOT figure out how to use MAME, and thus gave up. Maybe one day, I can play this game without feeding quarters every ten minutes.

 

Now to discuss...who was everyone's favorite wrestler(s) to use in the game? What tag team duos did you like to form/use, and what are some funny match stories to be told?

 

For me, I almost always used Hulk Hogan, and usually teamed him with Ultimate Warrior. If not them, I was a Demolition fan so draw your own conclussion. I mentioned a little match story earlier, but it wasn't great or anything because it was sooooo long since then.

 

 

Final Question: What wrestler am I forgetting? I wanna say Big Boss Man, but I honestly don't remember.

[Guest Fook]

Yeah, Boss Man is the one you're missing.

 

I use Jake or Perfect.

 

It was annoying how your wrestlers didn't heal between the tag matches, and how you only had a certain amount of time to win, but this game remains one of my favourite childhood games because it was so damn fun.

[Internet Warfare 0]

I played it once at the flee market as Sgt. Slaughter I think. It was damn hard. I was young, everything was hard.

[1234-5678 0]

At some point, I will buy this and NBA Jam and put em in my basement.

[USC Wuz Robbed! 0]

I was Jake and Perfect. That game ruled for old-school wrestling gaming.

[BUTT 0]

Remember the crappy fake voices they had for Okerlund and the LOD?

[Ted the Poster 0]

BBCW: Use the "Raine" emulator with the rom. Works perfectly.

 

I love this game, and like most people I use Jake and Perfect. Unfortunately the only arcade close to me that has it is at Ocean Isle Beach, so I only get to play twice a year. Yeah, I've used an emulator, but the experience just isn't the same. Although you CAN play as the LOD with a Raine emulator.

[Perfxion 0]

I was Demolition and I owned that game, I even did the Decapation a few times too. But for the Rumble, Warrior was the best, so bad ass to play as.

[Lil' Bitch 0]

I could never figure out how to do the God damn finishers, always pissed me off since I would happen to bust them out accidentally.

 

Needless to say being my age at the time, I would always pick Hogan. I have to admit how fucking cool it was to have Hulk Hogan & The Ultimate Warrior go against The Legion of Doom.

 

Thankfully, you can find the fuill arcade set being sold on E-Bay from time to time from $200 - $500, ah if I was only rich, lol.

[DangerousDamon 0]

I usually play as Demolition(Crush busting out the deadly SUPLEX OF DOOM~!) or as Perfect and DiBiase.

 

I remember the first time I played the game, way back in 1991 or 92, I beat my brother in the Royal Rumble. I was Mr. Perfect, I think, and I just busted out the PerfectPlex on my brother and he got so pissed. I jumped up and down on the stool they had for the short kids or little kids who wanted to play the game. Then Smash walked up to me and promptly gave me the backbreaker.

[Kahran Ramsus 0]

I would play as Perfect & Dibiase in tag team mode (with Roberts subbing in occasionally for one of them) and Earthquake in Royal Rumble. I love using the Earthquake Splash in that game. He even jumps around the ring before he does it.

[Guest Coffey]

I still play Wrestlefest on MAME. I found out how to do submission moves like Jake Robers has a figurefour leglock.

 

I played with Earthquake & Hulk Hogan all the time back when our local Hills had the arcade machine for the game. I played with them because they were the only people whose finishers I could do.

[Kahran Ramsus 0]

BTW, how can you do a wrestlers taunt? The computer does it all the time, but I never could.

[Guest Fook]

I've never been able to figure that out. I think the taunt was one of those things that only the computer could do.

[razazteca 0]

Nothing could stop the awesome Ultimate Warrior Diving Lariat!

[Ted the Poster 0]

Got this from Gamefaqs, just in case anybody wanted to know...

 

Play as Legion of Doom on Raine Emulator

Enter Raine, load Wrestlefest and select:

Game Setup

-Action Replay

--New

Character Select (P1):

Addr : 001c0607

Data : xx

where 'xx' is one of the following:

00 Hulk Hogan

01 Jake Roberts

02 Ultimate Warrior

03 Big Boss Man

04 Hawk*

05 Animal*

06 Sgt Slaughter

07 Mr. Perfect

08 Earthquake

09 Ted DiBiase

0a Smash

0b Crush

 

Character Select (P2):

Addr : 001c0191

Data : xx

where 'xx' is from the list above.

 

*YES! They are finally selectable! With a couple of drawbacks...

 

Hawk's grapple movelist is:

Body Slam

Standing Dropkick

Back Breaker

Back Suplex

(Neckbreaker)

 

Animal:

Body Slam

Atomic Drop

Bear Hug

Gorilla Press

(Piledriver)

(Hoist)

 

The moves in brackets are performed by obtaining a headlock and then pressing K

(as opposed to P - the other characters are indifferent to your button presses).

Beware of Animal's 'Hoist' (the set-up to the Doomsday Device) - if you are

positioned incorrectly Hawk will not jump and you will effectively have to

reset. Animal will keep the opponent on shoulders indefinetly.

[dubq 0]

For Rumble mode, Ted DiBiase was always my first pick. Mr. Perfect was second. Or those two as a team if I was in the tag mode. Funny how lots of people in this thread also used that pairing. It just reeks of greatness.

[Guest Man Of 1,004 Modes]

It appears people were Smart Marks before that was even a term...I don't think I ever played as Dibiase or Perfect..

[AndrewTS 0]

It appears people were Smart Marks before that was even a term...I don't think I ever played as Dibiase or Perfect..

That doesn't surprise me, since I wasn't wise to the internet back in 95 but my faves were HBK and Hart. I could tell they had greater/cooler move variety, they worked harder, and their matches seemed more "real" than most of the other guys.

 

It's awesome than LoD actually had the Doomsday Device in this game. Although I don't think I played much of it.

 

It'd be awesome if more companies would release GBA compilations of classic arcade titles.

[razazteca 0]

It was hard to get far in game if you did use a wrestler who did not use a submission.

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

Always Bossman or Hogan (for Rumble), usually Hogan/Warrior or Bossman/Jake or something similar or a combination of that for the tag teams.

[Kahran Ramsus 0]

It appears people were Smart Marks before that was even a term...I don't think I ever played as Dibiase or Perfect..

Not completely because I did like Brutus Beefcake, but yeah I was a huge Mr. Perfect fan back then. I also liked Dibiase, Savage (even when he was a face he was nuts) & "Trust Me" Jake.

 

Wrestlemania Challenge was the other game I played a ton from that period. I would always pick Beefcake, Rude & yourself in that one.

 

In Royal Rumble I would always pick Perfect, Flair, Dibiase & Michaels.

 

In RAW I would pick Owen Hart.

[Rendclaw 0]

I always used DiBiase and Warrior. They meshed perfectly, and I played this game at the local arcade ALL the time, just like I did with Superstars two years before that. I culminated that game by beating it on one quarter.

 

I have it on MAME and it works perfectly, when I get nostalgic, I bust it out and have a blast. It has to be in my all-time top five of favorite games.

[NoCalMike 0]

If possible, you should add screenshots or at least links to screenshots of these retro reviews.

[The Tino Standard 0]

The tag team with which I had the most success was Ultimate Warrior/Sgt. Slaughter. I actually got a tag team title shot against LOD with this duo, but I lost on a Doomsday Device. Hell of a run, tho.

[Guest Man Of 1,004 Modes]

If possible, you should add screenshots or at least links to screenshots of these retro reviews.

That's a good idea...can add some comedy if the pictures look funny.

[Ced 0]

I always used Earthquake in the Royal Rumble and pissed off loads of people with the quick toss-out technique (get opponent into headlock near the ropes, face away from ropes, and buh-bye). And of course I marked out for *thumbs down, jumping* "Earthquake...VERTICAL SPLASH!"

 

Didn't do the SNME Tag Division too often, but Earthquake with either Mr.Perfect or Ted DiBiase usually fit the bill.

[Guest Man Of 1,004 Modes]

OK, I downloaded rainew-0[1].38.1, so now It's off to figure out how to use it.

[The Buzz 0]

Wasn't Andre in this game? I remember seeing him in one of the WWF arcade games so correct me if im wrong.

[Guest Sturgis]

No he was in the WWF Superstars game that proceeded this one.