WWF Wrestlemania Challenge

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Zack Burner
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WWF Wrestlemania Challenge

Postby Zack Burner » June 23rd, 2020, 8:48 am

Released 1 year after the lame first Wrestlemania, the group LJN learned from their mistakes and surprisingly made a much better game, though not perfect. For a start, the game is played on an isometric perspective, with a somewhat lively audience. You get a roster of 8 famous wrestlers from WWE's golden years: Hulk Hogan, Ultimate Warrior (personal favorite in this game), Andre the Giant (2nd favorite), Macho Man Randy Savage, Hacksaw Jim Duggan (3rd favorite and I even had the honor of meeting a few years ago!), Ravishing Rick Rude, Big Bossman, and Brutus Beefcake. More moves are in this game rather than just punches and kicks, you get slams and a few signature/finishing moves per wrestler, though they messed up Hogan, Savage, and Bossman. My Favorite, Ultimate Warrior has his press slam which can even through an opponent out of the ring! Andre has a choke and headbutt that drains health, Jim Duggan has his 3 point stance, charge and clothesline finisher which is cool if you time it right. Brutus has his sleeperhold, and Rick Rude does his Rude awakening neck breaker. There are many modes to play, one on one, tag team and survivor series. There's even an option to play as "Yourself" a shrimpy rookie with a few decent moves such as body slam, atomic drop and missle dropkick. The graphics are much better, even the portrait of the Warrior looks awesome in 8-bit glory. Once again the music is the highlight with each wrestlers themes. Overall, this one is worth checking out if your a wrestling fan.

lynchie137
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Re: WWF Wrestlemania Challenge

Postby lynchie137 » June 23rd, 2020, 8:07 pm

No doubt about it, this is a pretty decent little game for the NES. And a massive improvement over the first WWF themed game released for the console. However, it has one major flaw that nearly ruins it for me. And that flaw is, is that you cannot win the title with any of the wrestlers featured in the game. Sure, you can use any wrestler for the tag team and six man survivor series modes as well as singles exhibition matches against the computer or friend. But if you want to play in tournament mode and try to win the title with someone like Andre or Hogan or any of the other characters in the game, you are just straight outta luck. No, instead you have to use the generic character. Which really sucks and for a guy like me who likes to try to beat wrestling games and fighting games with every character, reduces the replay value of this game significantly. A shame too, since the game does so many other things right...

Zack Burner
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Re: WWF Wrestlemania Challenge

Postby Zack Burner » June 23rd, 2020, 9:15 pm

Yes, they could have done that and LJN would have pulled themselves into decent territory. Maybe they just wanted the player to actually feel what it would have been like to try going for the championship themselves if they could do it in real life, though I seriously doubt anyone would have done that in real life considering the moves they give to "yourself". Hogan does an elbow drop instead of a leg drop, Savage does what looks more like a bionic forearm rather than the elbow drop, and Bossman? He does this goofy belly attack and a flying headbutt, even though that's Bam Bam Bigelow's move. Oh Well, at least the other five have theirs' and it's always fun to throw opponents out with the Warrior, or choke the living daylights out of your victim with Andre. I'd give this game a B+ whereas the first would get a C- or even a D+.

lynchie137
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Re: WWF Wrestlemania Challenge

Postby lynchie137 » June 24th, 2020, 2:25 pm

Zack Burner wrote:Yes, they could have done that and LJN would have pulled themselves into decent territory. Maybe they just wanted the player to actually feel what it would have been like to try going for the championship themselves if they could do it in real life, though I seriously doubt anyone would have done that in real life considering the moves they give to "yourself". Hogan does an elbow drop instead of a leg drop, Savage does what looks more like a bionic forearm rather than the elbow drop, and Bossman? He does this goofy belly attack and a flying headbutt, even though that's Bam Bam Bigelow's move. Oh Well, at least the other five have theirs' and it's always fun to throw opponents out with the Warrior, or choke the living daylights out of your victim with Andre. I'd give this game a B+ whereas the first would get a C- or even a D+.


I'd probably give the game a slightly lower grade. Something like a C perhaps. As said, they did a lot of things right with this game. The graphics are decent, the music and sound FX are for the most part pretty solid, and I like how they at least attempted to give the characters slightly different move sets to add a little variety. However, like I also said, not being able to play as any of the other characters in single player tourney mode was a big mistake. And for me, that drags the overall grade down.

lynchie137
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Re: WWF Wrestlemania Challenge

Postby lynchie137 » June 28th, 2020, 8:28 pm

Zack, i have to ask you. Have you ever played WCW World Championship Wrestling for the NES? That one came out roughly around the same time as WWF Wrestlemania Challenge. It'd be nice to know what you think of that one...

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VideoGameCritic
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Re: WWF Wrestlemania Challenge

Postby VideoGameCritic » June 29th, 2020, 9:33 am

What was the best Wrestling video game ever made?

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Retro STrife
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Re: WWF Wrestlemania Challenge

Postby Retro STrife » June 29th, 2020, 10:09 am

VideoGameCritic wrote:What was the best Wrestling video game ever made?


That's gonna be a tough question to answer. I don't think there's an easy consensus like there is with some other genres. I take it you're looking for some ideas of games to review?

For old school games, check out Pro Wrestling and Tecmo World Wrestling on the NES. Even as a non-fan of wrestling, you'd be impressed with those games.

The N64 was probably the peak of wrestling game popularity (and the peak of wrestling popularity in general). WCW/NWO Revenge was the pinnacle of wrestling games when it came out. I was not a fan of wrestling, but still loved playing that game back in the day. And it's great with 4 players too. WWF No Mercy is also highly regarded on the N64 - many lists have it at #1 as the best wrestling game ever. I haven't played No Mercy much, but I know it's still a favorite among retro gamers today. I have not played any wrestling games since the N64, so I can't weigh in after that.

For other ideas, Rockofhysteria used to do an excellent job reviewing tons of wrestling games in the reader reviews and he was really spot on. He's since disappeared but his thread is worth a look: https://videogamecritic.com/forums/view ... 90&t=15045

Zack Burner
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Joined: May 3rd, 2019, 6:01 pm

Re: WWF Wrestlemania Challenge

Postby Zack Burner » June 29th, 2020, 10:19 am

Retro STrife wrote:
VideoGameCritic wrote:What was the best Wrestling video game ever made?


That's gonna be a tough question to answer. I don't think there's an easy consensus like there is with some other genres. I take it you're looking for some ideas of games to review?

For old school games, check out Pro Wrestling and Tecmo World Wrestling on the NES. Even as a non-fan of wrestling, you'd be impressed with those games.

The N64 was probably the peak of wrestling game popularity (and the peak popularity of wrestling in general). WCW/NWO Revenge was the pinnacle of wrestling games when it came out. I was not a fan of wrestling, but still loved playing that game back in the day. And it's great with 4 players too. WWF No Mercy is also highly regarded on the N64 - many lists have it at #1 as the best wrestling game ever. I haven't played No Mercy much, but I know it's still a favorite among retro gamers today. I have not played any wrestling games since the N64, so I can't weigh in after that.

For other ideas, Rockofhysteria used to do an excellent job reviewing tons of wrestling games in the reader reviews and he was really spot on. He's since disappeared but his thread is worth a look: https://videogamecritic.com/forums/view ... 90&t=15045


Oh yeah, thanks for bringing up WCW/NWO Revenge Retro Strife, I've done a review on that one. Yes it's the best Wrestling game I've played and does everything right for a long forgotten business that I still love to this day.


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