Wrestling Game Reviews by Rockofhysteria

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AtariToday
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Re: Wrestling Game Reviews by Rockofhysteria

Postby AtariToday » January 16th, 2017, 6:28 am

I vote for WCW Wrestling! I forgot about that one :mrgreen:

rockofhysteria
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Re: Wrestling Game Reviews by Rockofhysteria

Postby rockofhysteria » January 16th, 2017, 7:19 pm

Ok folks after a lengthy absence I promised to do a few reviews this week so here goes the first one. And with that I present a Stea Pile of Wrestling Crap without a doubt the WORST Licensed wrestling game of the not only the 8 bit era but I think of the entire decade of the 90's I Present WWF King Of The Ring for the NES

Image

This Game(and I use that term very loosely) was developed by Grey Matter Inc and Eastridge Technology and Distrubeted by LJN.

This game is obviously modeled after the WWF PPV of the same which debuted as a PPV in 1993(though the tournament itself goes back to the mid 80's) But anyways let's break this down brick by pittiful brick

Graphics-The Graphics on this game are utter s--t lol I would say it looks like a 3rd grader drew the graphics for this game but I honestly believe a 3rd grader could do a better job than the Developers did. The Wrestlers pics on the character selection screen look so bad it's comical the sprites in the matches look like total crap as well at least they got the costumes mostly right. The Ring looks like crap the backrounds look even worse.


Sound-Geez where do I start lol the sound on this game might be one of the worst in the history of the NES not just wrestling games the themes for the wrestlers sound so pittiful that even my description can't do it justice.


Gameplay-I don't know how they did it but the gameplay of this is somehow WORSE than WWF Wrestlemania in 1988 lol. Each wrestler all have the exact same move sets Punch,Kick,Dropkick(yes Yokuzuna can dropkick in this game) Elbow,Suplex,and Bodyslam. None of them have their finishers. Speaking of Bodyslams the animation used for this move is hilariously bad you basically pick your opponent up roll them in a ball spin them around a few times and put them down I wish I was joking about this but those who played this game can testify to this. As for game modes. You get your singles matches,Tag Team Matches and of course the King of the Ring Tournament basic modes here nothing that special.


Roster-This is the ONLY part of this game that is good the roster once again full of all time greats and making his return the greatest of all time YOU ;) You get Hulk Hogan,Bret Hart(who won the tournament on the first KOTR PPV in 1993) Shawn Michaels,Razor Ramon,Bam Bam Bigelow,Randy Savage,Mr.Perfect,Lex Luger in his Heel Narcissist gimmick And The Undertaker. Great Selection of all time greats here


Well folks that's it for this supposed game here is the breakdown


Graphics-F
Sound-F
Gameplay-F
Roster-A

Final Grade a big Steaming F.


That's it for this game next I will do WCW Wrestling fot the NES probably Wednesday.

Have A good day everyone

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Retro STrife
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Re: Wrestling Game Reviews by Rockofhysteria

Postby Retro STrife » January 18th, 2017, 2:16 pm

Thanks for these reviews. Just wanted to mention that I follow this thread and read the reviews. Just so you know that, even if you don't get a response, people are definitely reading.

rockofhysteria
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Re: Wrestling Game Reviews by Rockofhysteria

Postby rockofhysteria » January 18th, 2017, 9:57 pm

Ok folks as Promised my 2nd review for this week and by request I present to you WCW Wrestling for the NES


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This Game is the ONLY wrestling game to date made based on the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) and it was developed by Nichibutsu and Published by FCI Inc. Now this is actually a American Version of a Japanese Wrestling game called Superstar Pro Wrestling and I will touch a bit on that game here in this review but for now lets just focus on this game.


Graphics-The Graphics in this game are pretty good not the greatest on the system for wrestling games but a far cry from crap like WWF King of the Ring. The Wrestlers are accurately drawn and the Sprites have some detail to them and nicely sized on screen.The Presentation is nicely done as well the ring is bright and colorful as is the backrounds and the crowd. The Menu Screen is nicely drawn as well and you have no trouble at all telling which wrestler is which.

Sound-The Sound in the game is ok nothing special I'd say typical for a 8 bit sports/wrestling title.

Gameplay-Now this is where I start to lose love for this game because the gameplay is frankly terrible again not nearly as bad as other wrestling games on the NES but it's just not good. First off the difficulty level on this game is blistering to say the least beating the cpu is nearly impossible most times. There are only two game play modes in this game for 1 or 2 players a singles match and a tag match bare bores for sure but it's for best considering how difficult this game is. One nifty idea in this game is when you select a wrestler say Sting you then are provided a list of wrestling moves to choose from each assigned to a direction on the D-Pad. If you want to win a match there is really only 2 ways to do it lol 1-play against a friend and 2-play with two controllers and just control one wrestler and beat up the 2nd player lol. In one player mode you can try to make your way through the roster to a title match against a guy named WCW Master who I'm told is modeled after Andre The Giant but I can't confirm it cause I've never gotten past the 1st match lol.


Roster-Once again this is a wrestling game filled to the brim with all time wrestling greats. You get Ric Flair,Lex Luger,Sting,Michael Hayes,Eddie GIlbert,Ricky Steamboat,The Group The Varsity Club consisting of Kevin Sullivan,Mike Rotundo,Dr.Death Steve Williams(The man who trained me for wrestling) and Rick Steiner and you also get The Road Warriors Hawk and Animal. What a HELL of a roster there for sure :)


Now as I said above this game is the American version of a Japanese Wrestling game called Superstar Pro Wrestling with the same animations,game modes,movesets and whatnot only a different roster that game features greats like Giant Baba,Antonio Inoki,Stan Hansen and Vader amongst others the two games only share two wrestlers Hawk and Animal The Road Warriors.

Well folks that's it for this game let's break it down

Graphics-B+
Sound-C
Gameplay-D
Roster-A+

That leaves a overall grade of around a C+/B-

I'm not sure what game I'll do next but I'm leaning toward WWF Royal Rumble for the Sega Genesis/Super Nintendo.

Have a nice night folks.

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VideoGameCritic
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Re: Wrestling Game Reviews by Rockofhysteria

Postby VideoGameCritic » January 21st, 2017, 11:35 am

I appreciate the honesty in these reviews. I can tell you're a big wrestling fan but you don't let it cloud your judgement.
That said, please do not use profanity (had to edit a word). Want to keep the boards family-friendly.
Thanks

rockofhysteria
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Re: Wrestling Game Reviews by Rockofhysteria

Postby rockofhysteria » February 9th, 2017, 12:49 am

Ok folks time for another review for this one I present a game that still holds a place in my heart and that I have on a SD card in my ATGAmes Portable Genesis I present WWF Royal Rumble for the Sega Genesis/Super Ninentdo. This game was Developed by Sculptured Software and was Published by LJN(SNES) and Fling Edge(Genesis)


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This was the first WWF wrestling game of the 16 bit era and IMO the best of the era. This was named after the WWF PPV of the same name that started with a USA Network TV special in 1988 and was made into a PPV for the first time in 1990. This PPV to this day continues to be a Hallmark of WWE and always one of the most anticipated events they have every year. There are few 16 bit games that I've played as much over the years as this game. And I still love it to this day. Let's break it down.


Graphics- As you would imagine the graphics in this game are a definate upgrade from the 8 bit era. I would even consider them almost beautiful. The Sprites have a lot of detail to them the costumes are 100% accurate. The wrestler selection screen is really nice looking with great pics of each wrestler. The Ring is presented in Great Detail of a WWF show from the era.The Backround crowd looks good and you even get little sprites of Vince Mcmahon and Bobby Heenan at a table.


Sound-As you would expect nothing really that special here for sound your basic crowd noise,Sounds of punches,kicks,and Slams, But the Theme Music in the wrestler selection screen does sound nice.



Gameplay-This game ushered in a new gameplay mechanic call the Tug of War Grapple system and some people liked it some people hated it. Me?? I didn't mind it you just have to have extra stamina in your fingers lol. Every wrestler has moves they share like punches,kicks,Suplex,Bodyslam,Dives off the top rope and running drop kicks, But every wrestler also has their own Finishing move and for the first time they have their REAL finishers what a relief. The moves and moving around the ring are pretty easy to learn and pull off.Another cool thing in this game is you can hit the referee which is funny to do. And there is also a Steel Chair outside the ring you can pick up and use. You have a scale of difficulty settings for your matches from 0 to 10 which is nice. You also have the option of either selecting your opponent or opponents or having the cpu do it for you. As for game modes you have your standard Singles match, Tag Match, 6 man tag match,Brawl in singles and tag where you win by draining your opponent's health bar completely. And of course the Royal Rumble where you participate in a Over the Top Rope Royal Rumble match which is cool but tough to win. You also have a one player tournament mode to win a Championship Belt.



Roster-Now this is where things get Great IMO. One really cool thing they did here is each version of the game both SNES and Genesis had Exclusive Wrestlers. I really liked this concept. The games share the following wrestlers Bret Hart,The Undertaker,Shawn Michaels,Razor Ramon,Macho Man Randy Savage,Crush and The Narcissist Lex Luger.Pretty awesome roster by itself. But The SNES version also has Ric Flair,Mr.Perfect,Million Dollar Man Ted Dibiase,Yokozuna and Tatanka, And the Genesis Version has Hulk Hogan,IRS,The Model Rick Martel,Jim Duggan,and Papa Shango. All awesome selections for the time.



Well there you have it folks Royal Rumble for the Genesis/SNES here is the final grades,

Graphics-A
Sound-B
Gameplay-B+
Roster-A+

So the final grade is around a B+/A-



Up next I'm thingking of doing WWF Raw for Genesis/SNES but if there is something else you'd like me to review let me know.

Luigi & Peach
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Re: Wrestling Game Reviews by Rockofhysteria

Postby Luigi & Peach » February 9th, 2017, 7:39 pm

This game came out during a period where I really wasn't paying attention to the male soap opera known as wrestling, but I remember a friend getting this game and it being really enjoyable. I had forgotten about the intense thumb workout of the grapple meter! Trying to get each wrestler to perform their finishing moves was one of my favorite parts of this game.

I'd love to see some reviews of the n64 wrestling games at some point. I loved their controls.

rockofhysteria
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Re: Wrestling Game Reviews by Rockofhysteria

Postby rockofhysteria » February 9th, 2017, 11:34 pm

Luigi & Peach wrote:This game came out during a period where I really wasn't paying attention to the male soap opera known as wrestling, but I remember a friend getting this game and it being really enjoyable. I had forgotten about the intense thumb workout of the grapple meter! Trying to get each wrestler to perform their finishing moves was one of my favorite parts of this game.

I'd love to see some reviews of the n64 wrestling games at some point. I loved their controls.




I will definatley do the N64 wrestling games at some point :) I still love and Play WCW vs NWO Revenge and WWF No Mercy on a regular basis.

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velcrozombie
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Re: Wrestling Game Reviews by Rockofhysteria

Postby velcrozombie » February 11th, 2017, 12:49 pm

I realize this might take awhile (as you are currently in the 16-bit era) but I'd love to see you cover WWE All-Stars for either the PS3 or Xbox360. That's the most fun I've ever had with a licensed wrestling game and I don't think the game got the love that it deserved when it came out. I'd also like the Critic to take a look at it - he loves arcade-style action with colorful characters and exaggerated moves and I feel the game would really scratch that itch for him.

rockofhysteria
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Re: Wrestling Game Reviews by Rockofhysteria

Postby rockofhysteria » February 12th, 2017, 3:56 am

velcrozombie wrote:I realize this might take awhile (as you are currently in the 16-bit era) but I'd love to see you cover WWE All-Stars for either the PS3 or Xbox360. That's the most fun I've ever had with a licensed wrestling game and I don't think the game got the love that it deserved when it came out. I'd also like the Critic to take a look at it - he loves arcade-style action with colorful characters and exaggerated moves and I feel the game would really scratch that itch for him.



Well actually I'm not actually doing this in order of Gaming Era. I'm just doing them by what I feel like reviewing at the time. For you the next game I will review will be WWE All Stars. :)


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