Ahhh yes, those our old times when wrestling was used to be so awesome where bunch of wrestlers starts beating the shit out of each other with grappling move, make them tap out, whack them with steel chairs and barbwire, throw them away from the cell, and make their head bleed wide open, that's what you call a wrestling. I remember first watching WCW on TNT channel when I was a kid, so there are lot of memorable rosters such as Hollywood Hulk Hogan, Scott Hall, Sting, Ric Flair, and Macho Man Randy Savage that made the match so amazing, but there's one of the wrestling programme that WWF caught my attention was WWF Smackdown and Raw is War during the Attitude era. They have Stone Cold Steve Austin, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Kane, Undertaker, Mick Foley, Kurt Angle, and many of badass roster which offers lot of the best matches, serious segments, greatest PPV events, and holy shit moments that made WWF very entertaining to watch. I also liked the WWE's Ruthless Aggression era which are also good, but until the WWE went absolute shit with PG era which made me stopped watching wrestling these days.
The success of wrestling sports has spread with many of merchandises, magazines, DVD's collections and of course video games based on wrestling franchises. Today, I'm now focusing to pick which wrestling game titles that I've enjoyed playing a lot, so they also shared quite few of the bad wrestling titles which I'm not going to include it on my list because I'm talking about my best wrestling game that I really liked the most due to well executed controls, fluid graphics, addictive multiplayer battle, and great selection of playable rosters.
Here is my top 5 favourite wrestling games of all time.
5 - WWF Raw (SEGA Genesis/Megadrive)
WWF Raw is a wrestling game based on WWF for SNES, Genesis/Megadrive, 32X, Game Gear, and Game Boy was bought by Acclaim Entertainment or LJN.
I have this game for the Genesis/Megadrive when I've bought both the game console and game bundled from the Ebay online stores year and half ago. This game was surprising me well for 16-bit system which offers cool opening intro at the start of the game, great selection of matches such as One-on-One, Tag Team, Bedlam, Survivor Series, Royal Rumble, or a Raw Endurance Match, several of playable wrestlers such as Razor Ramon, Bret "Hitman" Hart, Shawn Michaels, The Undertaker, Bam Bam Bigelow, and others.
This game is also multi-tap compatible where you can able to play up to 4-players matches. I really liked the button-mashing controls for grappling moves which worked well in the game and the graphics are quite acceptable for 16-bit wrestling titles giving a realistic look on wrestlers, the stage ring and the crowds are looked quite impressive. It was a huge improvement over the LJN's previous titles such as WWF Royal Rumble and WWF Super Wrestlemania, so if you want to have a experienced 16-bit wrestling gaming then this game is worth for give a go.
4 - WWF Wrestlemania: The Arcade Game (Arcade)
Speaking of having experienced 16-bit wrestling gaming, there are WWF Wrestlemania: The Arcade Game for various of console platform was created by Midway, a same team behind Mortal Kombat series. It is arcade-style wrestling game where you get to play as your eight favourite roster to complete with two championship modes.
It featured digitised characters animation with arcadey style effects which was inspired by Midway's Mortal Kombat and NBA Jam games. It has variety of crazy moves from the wrestlers such as Doink the Clown pulling out a mallet out of thin air, Razor Ramon's arm transforming into a blade and Bam Bam Bigelow's fists catching on fire that made the game so special. It has classy commentary which was provided by Vince McMahon and Jerry Lawler, who also appear in the game sitting at the announcer's table next to the ring. The game also features two-player modes such as head to head mode is a one on one match between two players and cooperative is where both players teamed up in tag team must defeat every wrestler in the game.
The gameplay is very fast-paced which takes sometime to get used too, but it is addictive and fun at the same time. The graphics is very fluid looking arcade game for wrestling titles and it also has amazing use of sound effects in the game. While the SNES and SEGA Genesis ports are considered fairly, but not just good as the original arcade version, so if you want a arcade perfect console ports then PS1 and Saturn is way to go.
3 - WWE Day of Reckoning (Gamecube)
Back in the early 2000's where Yuke's made a such masterpiece wrestling titles for the Playstation platforms behind WWF/WWE Smackdown! series.
Gamecube has also shared with great wrestling titles such as WWE Wrestlemania XIX and then they later improved the other wrestling titles was WWE Day of Reckoning which was bought by THQ. The game featuring the wrestlers from Ruthless Aggression era such as Triple H, Randy Orton, Dave Batista, Chris Benoit, Rey Mysterio and more playable rosters. It has playable stage events to select from such as Smackdown, Raw, Summer Slam, Survivor Series, Royal Rumble and Wrestlemania. It has several matches to play with such as Hardcore match, Steel Cage match, Hell in the Cell match, TLC match and Ironman match.
What really made this game awesome is the story mode where you get to play as the created wrestler through the ranks as a rookie and into main event stardom on either of WWE's brands RAW or SmackDown!.
The gameplay system is quite similar with their previous titles with better grappling attacks, strikes, and reverse moves which makes the game very responsive and easier to control. Most of the matches in the game is very entertaining to play especially most with hardcore, TLC and Hell in the Cell match which is great for both single-player exhibition mode and local four-player battles. It is always fun to create your own wrestlers to give you an options to customise your own moves, abilities, appearance, and entrance.
This game will not disappoint Gamecube owners with such high quality wrestling game like this and there are a sequel to this game are also gives them a new experience of wrestling gaming.
2 - WWF No Mercy (N64)
One of the best N64's game developer AKI Corperation was well known for past titles such as WCW vs NWO: Revenge and WWF Wrestlemania 2000. They made the last wrestling game before the end of N64's lifecycle was WWF No Mercy, which is the 1999's follow-up game to WWF Wrestlemania 2000.
This game features a classic wrestlers of Attitude era such as Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Triple H, Mick Foley, Edge, The Hardy Boys, Big Show and of course the playable womens wrestler such as Trish Status and Lita. This game is being notable for improving over the previous installiment such as much more extensive Create-a-Wrestler mode with more moves, more customizable body attributes, better-organized clothing options, and the ability to create female wrestlers. The game offers up to date graphics, the story mode has extensive Championship mode giving a more in-depth of the storyline, and various match types made their Nintendo 64 debut in this game, including ladder matches and special referee matches. Another notable feature that was added to the game is the "Smackdown! Mall" where you can able to earn the money from the story mode, so you can able to purchase unlockable characters, clothing, wrestling moves, props, tattoos, weapons, and venues.
What's really cool about this game is you can able to fight opponents through outside of the backstage environment such as locker room, bar/lounge room, and all others which I was surprised to see how the whole game is been crammed into the N64's game cartridge giving a overall magnificent results. The game also retains the same gameplay style as the previous titles which never gets too old due to fun local multiplayer modes, epic matches, and amazing single-player's championship mode.
Do you think you liked the WWE 2k games better? IT DOESN'T MATTER WHAT YOU THINK!!!
WWF No Mercy is the greatest WWF licensed game on the system, IF YOU'RE SMELL!!! WHAT THE ZEESH IS COOKIN!!!
1 - WCW vs NWO: Revenge (N64)
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WCW vs NWO: Revenge is by far one of the best wrestling game for N64's library. This game gains much critical praise by video game critics and fans alike and becoming tremendous commercial success as being one of the best-selling wrestling game on N64 console which sold 1.88 million copies in the US.
It features the large rosters in the game such as Hollywood Hulk Hogan, Bill Goldberg, Chris Jericho, Diamond Dollar Page, Sting, Raven and many more wrestlers. It was well known for addictive local multiplayer matches including tag team matches, handicap matches and battle royal matches which adds the nostalgia of wrestling gaming. It offers five epic single-player championship modes, newer wrestling moves, improved gameplay aspects, and more colourful graphics that keeps the game more refreshing and playable. The game has the badass opening intros with excellent presentation of WCW and NWO wrestling, and has really cool original N64's soundtrack that adds the overall excitement of the game.
This is definitely must own wrestling game for all wrestling fans out there who grew up watching the classic wrestling from the 90's and early 2000's.
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