“Good God Almighty! They’ve killed it!” 5 of the best wrestling games ever!
If you’re partial to unleashing your inner John Cena, Stone Cold Steve Austin or Undertaker, chances are you’ve stopped into the ring in at least a few wrestling games over the years. After all, very few things are as satisfying as powerbombing your AI opponent or best bud’s character through a table or laying the smackdown on your foes with a steel chair straight to the face.
Luckily for wrestling fans around the globe, the gaming world has provided us with a wealth of options to get your virtual wrestling fix over the years, some of which have been absolute stone cold (pun very much intended) stunners.
So, as WWE 2K23 hits the shelves and with Wrestlemania edging ever closer with each passing second, we thought what better time to look back at 5 of the best wrestling games to see the light of day.
Contents:
- Saturday Night Slam Masters
- WCW/nWo Revenge
- WWE All Stars
- Fire Pro Wrestling World
- Def Jam: Fight For NY
Saturday Night Slam Masters
Ding, ding, ding… we kick things off this week by taking a trip back to 1993 and Capcom’s only foray into the world of virtual wrestling to date, Saturday Night Slam Masters.
Whilst this title might not have featured household names like Hulk Hogan and Bret Hart, one of the strongest things about this game is its character roster. Whilst it’s clear which real-life wrestler each of the characters take inspiration from, there’s enough of a difference there to still make them feel like a different fighter.
What’s more, each character also has their own individual fighting style, which are completely different from one another, and their own personal movesets, which adds an air of unpredictability to proceedings.
Couple that with gripping single and tag-team players modes, as well as some frankly hilarious character names, such as Biff Slamkovich, Titanic Tim and El Stingray, and you’ve got the makings of an absolute slobberknocker of a game.
WCW/nWo Revenge
Sticking with the 90s theme, we now turn our attention to a game which was released at the tail end of the famous Monday Night Wars which almost put WWE out of business, WCW/nWo revenge.
Released on N64 in 1998, Revenge capitalised on the popularity of the nWo storyline, as well as the formidable roster of wrestlers, such as Diamond Dallas Page, Chris Jericho, Goldberg, Raven, and The Giant (who we now know as The Big Show), WCW titans Eric Bischoff and Ted Turner had assembled as they sought to take the world of wrestling by storm.
Needless to say, the resulting game more than lived up to the hype thanks to improved graphics, engaging, yet accessible gameplay, as well as a fiendishly addictive four-player mode, which allowed you and your best buds to knock lumps out of each other to your hearts’ content.
WWE All-Stars
This week’s third title, WWE All-Stars offered a fresh take on the classic WWE game formula by taking any semblance of realism and chokeslamming it all the way to hell. Consequently, the resulting game is even more delightfully absurd than The Undertaker’s seemingly bi-annual rises from the dead.
Featuring WWE legends old and new, WWE All-Stars has long been considered a cult classic due to its fast-paced, arcade-style combat mechanics that placed the emphasis on combos, off-the-wall presentation and hilariously over-the-top visuals.
How this game didn’t get a sequel, we’ll never know!
Fire Pro Wrestling World
If wrestling games are your thing, then you've probably tried your hand at one of the many Fire Pro Wrestling titles that have hit the shelves since this franchise first saw the light of day in the late 1980s.
2017’s Fire Pro Wrestling World saw this franchise return to its roots by bringing back the timing and strategy-based gameplay which it’s famous for. Whilst it may lack the glitz and glamour of WWE games, the emphasis on strategy separates this title from the competition and makes it the “thinking person’s” wrestling game.
What’s more, this is also the first Fire Pro Wrestling World game to feature an online multiplayer mode, which means you can ponder how to lay the smackdown on opponents from across the globe.
Def Jam: Fight For NY
We round things off this week by taking it to the streets with this week’s last game, Def Jam: Fight for NY, which combined hip-hop and pro-wrestling, to produce a game that was sweet chin music to wrestling fans’ ears (no, we don’t get paid by the pun!).
Although the basic premise of this game is enticing enough, i.e. clobber your opponents whilst controlling hip-hop legends such as Lil’ Kim, Snoop Dogg, Redman, Mobb Deep, Ludacris, Ice-T and Busta Rhymes, this game has far more to offer than just a star-studded cast.
With an array of combat options to choose from, as well as tight, responsive controls, Fight for NY employs a tweaked version of the gameplay engine which had served developer AKI so well in Virtual World Wrestling titles to devastating effect.
The end result is a game that is still widely regarded as one of the best wrestling games around now, 19 years after it was first released.