Wrestling games

Robert Nairac

I think the only good wrestling game I ever played was WWF Smackdown on PS1. I never played any of the N64 or PS2 games.

What wrestling games have you enjoyed over the years and why? Do they still hold up well?

BoardsBottler

i'd have to say "smackdown shut your mouth" and "smackdown here comes the pain". Both for ps2. Alot of back stage areas and alot of different moves and possibilies. those games were ahead of their time. Still fun today

Spooch

No Mercy on the N64 was my GOAT as a youngin. My cartridge was faulty and kept losing my save data which caused me many nights of pain

Optimus Prime

WWF wrestlefest the arcade game back in the old days was brilliant at the time. There’s something cool looking about it I think even today , it might just be the nostalgia kicking in though. Love the music, sound effects , look of it etc.

I was a big fan of WWF Royal Rumble on the Super Nintendo. Played it to death. Also have fond memory’s of WWF super wrestlemania , it was a terrible game but it was one of the first games I played on the SNES when it was released along with Mario etc.

Quigs Snr

I poured a lot of 10p coins into Mat Mania aka Exciting Hour in my local arcade in the eighties. But that's a fair bit less sophisticated than what has been mentioned so far. I must spin it up on the emulator and see if my nemesis, the "wouldn't get away with it these days" named, Coco Savage is still a massive difficult spike halfway through the 5 fighter roster.

Retr0gamer

Smackdown was kind of the best you had on PS1, the N64 wrestling games all blew it out of the water. I quite enjoyed Wrestlefest in the arcade and the Midway Wrestlemania game even though it felt more like Wrestlemania through the lens of NBA Jam.

Penn

I had WWF Attitude on PS1 and kind of had a grudge against Smackdown when it first came out just because I'd loved Attitude so much, but once I played it for a while I couldn't deny it was by far the superior game. Smackdown 2 made it even better and I put a hell of a lot of hours into it.

Just Bring It was a good start for the PS2 era but also felt like a bit of a step back in some regards. Shut Your Mouth was brilliant though. After that I mostly fell away from the games. Think the last one I played was one of the Smackdown Vs Raw games but no idea which one. Haven't played any of the 2K series.

o1s1n

Back in the day, my cousin bought an import cart of Kinnikuman: Dirty Challenger. (Or just 'Dirty Challenger' as we used to call it as Kinnikuman was written in Japanese)

We brought it home expecting a Street Fighter 2 type experience and got some shock. Hadn't a clue how to play it at all. I actually still have the same cartridge to this day and still haven't a bean how to play it 😃

Inviere

Wrestling games are more of a competition than wrestling on TV...

/runs

Mr.Saturn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121664070#Comment_121664070

You're safe, I don't think that one dude in Alabama that still thinks it's real posts here.

The N64 games have aged terribly, though they were by far the best for their time. There's a massive mod scene out there for the likes of No Mercy that spruce it up with modern bells and whistles. Here Comes the Pain on PS2 still holds up decently, though AKI's best run of wrestling games on the PS2 aren't even technically wrestling games at all; The early Def Jam stuff still has a big fan base and seems to grow by the years with more people getting a chance to check them out. It probably helps that Def Jam let them flex their design chops as the wrestling audience seemed to demand the games move away from more arcade-y experiences into something resembling sports-sims, so the licensed stuff shifted its focus away from stuff like game feel and whatnot. Obviously the Def Jam series fell off a cliff after EA took it in-house and, well, did what EA do in these kind of situations.

The new AEW game seems to harken back to a AKI's glory days, but haven't had a chance to check it out as of yet.

Optimus Prime

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121664070#Comment_121664070

Im not a huge wrestling fan and this is kind of off topic but a friend of mine is big into it and I’ve gone to a few of the Irish one OTT the last few years and it’s great craic if anyone is into wrestling they should check it out, they had a royal rumble in tallaght last week, full bar at it too.

Mr.Saturn

Had a suspicion pro-wrestling wasn't on the up-and-up after seeing the below video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LApVz53Spw

As you can see, the blow-up doll isn't wearing regulation-standard boots.

Inviere

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121666519#Comment_121666519

Ah yeah I'm just poking fun really. No doubt the lads themselves are tough as nails, and well able for all that goes with it... it's the WWE type scripted fighting I just rolleye at.

Optimus Prime

Ah I know , as I said I’m not a huge wrestling fan , I mainly went for a few pints haha but once you accept that it’s over exaggerated and kind of taking the piss out of itself it’s a good show to go to. Plus I found the Irish guys doing OTT where way more athletic and bouncing all over the place than any of the wwf shows I went to in the point as a kid. Those lads came over here and didn’t want to get injured so just bounced off the ropes a few times I think.

Jack burton

I was playing the TNA impact wrestling game the other night on a whim for the PS2. Its a buggy mess but I always found wrestling games really fun and a good party game. Havent played many since the PS2 days but i did play a PS3 arcade style one with all 80s wrestlers and it was pretty fun.

I'm friends with a professional wrestler from Holland, hes a cool dude. Loves gaming too!

Dr Bob

A mate of a mate of mine ended up in the WWE , to be fair he got a lot of slagging for the wrestling training but fair play to him .

Also best wrestling game art ..nay best game art of all :

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/29/Sms_pro_wrestling_box.jpg

Inviere

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121734432#Comment_121734432

The real question is though, is what does chatgpt think of it?

KkomradeWarrior

The latest game in the 2k series is pretty good. More precisely, it is a little less buggy. Overall it's fun to play alone and with friends so I'm not complaining. You can also find wrestling games on playhop.