Remember when wrestling games were great?

I do. Truth be told ive never considered the likes of Smackdown, Smackdown vs Raw etc, in the same league as some of the titles from years back.

In my opinion you have to go really far back to the last great wrestling game and even then you have a choice depending on your taste. You have either the THQ WcW/NWO Revenge or WWF No Mercy for the N64, NJPW's Touken Retsuden on the Playstation or AJPW's Giant Gram game on the Dreamcast which used match momentum really well, and had a fantastic x-ray style bone break effect.

Considering how long ago those games were made I cant believe in all those years no developer has came close to creating a realistic portrayal of wrestling.

Im just hoping that the VC will release one of the THQ games soon. They were some of the best sellers for Nintendo which means they are candidates, but with the WWF logo licensing and so on, it could be a problem. I cant see any llicensing probs with any of the WCW titles though.

I remember only one great wrestling game:

It was all downhill from there!

I do. Truth be told ive never considered the likes of Smackdown, Smackdown vs Raw etc, in the same league as some of the titles from years back.

In my opinion you have to go really far back to the last great wrestling game and even then you have a choice depending on your taste. You have either the THQ WcW/NWO Revenge or WWF No Mercy for the N64, NJPW's Touken Retsuden on the Playstation or AJPW's Giant Gram game on the Dreamcast which used match momentum really well, and had a fantastic x-ray style bone break effect.

Considering how long ago those games were made I cant believe in all those years no developer has came close to creating a realistic portrayal of wrestling.

Im just hoping that the VC will release one of the THQ games soon. They were some of the best sellers for Nintendo which means they are candidates, but with the WWF logo licensing and so on, it could be a problem. I cant see any llicensing probs with any of the WCW titles though.

porntogo

Agreed. I'm not sure what happened. I haven't been much of a wrestling fan in over 10 years but those Aki wrestling games on the N64 were easily some of the most fun games I ever played on the system.

I definitely liked the N64 AKI games more, but I was pretty big fan of the Smackdown series. That is, until SvR 2006(where I thought the series was heading downhill), and the abysmal(IMO) SvR2007. I hope that they can turn it around in 2008, but I'm not holding my breath(at least shorten those stupid loading times...!). I was looking forward to the TNA game, but I've lost interest since their actual wrestling product is terrible.

Maybe I should figure out a way to run Japanese wrestling games on my PS2 -- I've heard that they have some gems.

By far the greatest wrestling game was WWF Superstars, released in 1989

they were never great so no, i dont remeberPegLegTimArg

Yes, thank you for that well thought out post. If I were you id read a few reviews for these games as you are in the minority. No Mercy for instance is widely regarded as the greatest wrestling game ever.

@Robio_basic. Truth be told ive always seen the Acclaim games slated. They were nothing like wrestling and played more like rubbish beat em ups. However, cause of this they appealed to the casual fan and as a result most of the game critic review scores are higher. With actual wrestling fans though it was the opposite way around(the scores in gamespot reviews confirm this).Acclaim lost the licence cause of poor quality and went on to make a cack ECW gamewhile THQ started developing the WWE games. Truth be told the THQ smackdown games are much closer to No mercy and Wreslemania 2000 than WWE atitude.

When Acclaim had the WWF license, they made some truly great wrestling games. Even if you weren't a wrestling fan War Zone and Attitude on the N64 were just fantastic games. Then THQ came in and dumbed the WWF games and they all went downhill from there.Robio_basic

Really? I absolutely hated those games. Left, right, left, up, b...awesome, I did a DDT! Let's do it again. GAH! Hammerlock. Again? Another hammerlock. :cry:

I definately miss the old days of the AKI WWF games on the N64. Those were among the most fun games I ever played, at least at the time. Every monday I'd have friends over, watch RAW, and then play WM2K then later No Mercy until 1 or so in the morning. The Endurance round Royal Rumbles were the best!

Sigh, the newer games like SvR and really the entire Smackdown line were never really my speed. I wonder if the AKI engine will ever make it back over here to the west. For that matter I wonder if it's even still in use in the east.

I remember only one great wrestling game:

It was all downhill from there!

Phantom_Leo

that's not funny looking at all

Oh, I played WcW/NWO on the 64. My buddy and I used to play it almost every day... it was so much fun, until we realized that you could get any pin by touching the analog stick :o It was still great afterwards too, but it ended up being all knockouts or the occasional submission.

I also really liked WWF Wrestlemania arcade, but it was more of a fighter than a wrestling game.

I remember playing WWF No Mercy for the N64. Choke slamming people through tables with the undertaker was awesome!

I don't know what made me like those games so much more than the newer ones though.

I think the pace was set just right, as in a wrestling pace. You could pick someone up, move them into position, slam them, and then hit a move off the top rope and hold a button to go straight into the pin. The Smackdown games just dont have that, they run at a much quicker pace. Its normally, slam opponent, opponent gets up, repeat to fade. Even when they are weak near the end of the mach, by the time your up the top rope, your opponent is back on his feet.

Multiplayer matches on the N64 games for instance were excellent, double team moves actually worked and required team work, no such thing in smackdown. In smackdown 2 guys just beat another player up. In WCW Revenge, one guy can take the opponent onto his shoulder for his tag partners flying clothesline, double suplexes etc,etc.

[QUOTE="Robio_basic"]When Acclaim had the WWF license, they made some truly great wrestling games. Even if you weren't a wrestling fan War Zone and Attitude on the N64 were just fantastic games. Then THQ came in and dumbed the WWF games and they all went downhill from there.JML897

Really? I absolutely hated those games. Left, right, left, up, b...awesome, I did a DDT! Let's do it again. GAH! Hammerlock. Again? Another hammerlock. :cry:

[QUOTE="JML897"]

[QUOTE="Robio_basic"]When Acclaim had the WWF license, they made some truly great wrestling games. Even if you weren't a wrestling fan War Zone and Attitude on the N64 were just fantastic games. Then THQ came in and dumbed the WWF games and they all went downhill from there.Robio_basic

Really? I absolutely hated those games. Left, right, left, up, b...awesome, I did a DDT! Let's do it again. GAH! Hammerlock. Again? Another hammerlock. :cry:

I know those games were probably overly tough, but I enjoyed the technique that the game required. The THQ ones were just so easy. They didn't require that much skill at all. They were much more pick-up and play and while that was funwhen playing against friends who weren't familiar with it, I just felt they lacked challenge.

Actually I agree with Robio, I loved those games too, I felt as if I actually had much more control over my moves than in the later easier titles...And that era of wrestling was the golden era of wrestling, Vince ruined everything, not only the "WWF" but also ECW and WCW...John Cena is the worst wrestler I've seen, and one of the most cheesiest which is a hard task to attain.

[QUOTE="JML897"]

[QUOTE="Robio_basic"]When Acclaim had the WWF license, they made some truly great wrestling games. Even if you weren't a wrestling fan War Zone and Attitude on the N64 were just fantastic games. Then THQ came in and dumbed the WWF games and they all went downhill from there.Robio_basic

Really? I absolutely hated those games. Left, right, left, up, b...awesome, I did a DDT! Let's do it again. GAH! Hammerlock. Again? Another hammerlock. :cry:

I know those games were probably overly tough, but I enjoyed the technique that the game required. The THQ ones were just so easy. They didn't require that much skill at all. They were much more pick-up and play and while that was funwhen playing against friends who weren't familiar with it, I just felt they lacked challenge.

I totally disagree. Even though the controls were simpler (which was a good thing IMO), the gameplay in the Aki games was much deeper. There was a lot more involved than just beating up a guy until his health is red.

I actually remember really enjoying WWF Royal Rumble on the snes, and I think RAW was an update of that game.

They were excellent as well, very similar to the WWF Superstars game the chap above mentions.