All 16-Bit

Review #12140 WWF - Rage in the Cage You can't cage Hulk Hogan, apparently Sega CD 1993 Arena Fighting Fighting › Wrestling F 56 / 100 Not Bad, but Flawed Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 3 / 5 Gameplay Plays like all the cartridge WWF games. Same controls, but with good hit detection and speed. The grappling meter is here, so I think this a suped-up version o fWWF Royal Rumble. Boring, repetitive gameplay, but at least it performs well. 2 / 5 Level Design Wait, this can't be WWF Royal Rumble because the Battle royale mode is missing. Lame. In any case, The modes are One Fall (exhibition), Brawl, Cage Match, and Tournament. One Fall and Brawl are the same except Brawl ends when one of you runs out of health, like a 1v1 fighting game. The...

Review #8144 Tsuppari Oozumou - Heisei Ban Aren't buttons supposed to make something happen? PCE 1993 Naxat Soft Fighting Fighting › Wrestling X 21 / 100 You've been warned Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 0 / 5 Gameplay This is one of the few games that were so battling that I had to seek out a walkthrough. It took me a while to find on (thank you StrategyWiki) but even with every mechanic and button combination spelled out in black ink I can't get any of it to work. Yes that's an exaggeration, but not by much. This stupid game is impossible. Utter trash gameplay. Nothing you do to your perfectly controller results in activity on screen. It's that bad. Avoid like the plague. 2 / 5 Level Design If there's one nice thing...

Review #8017 Champion Wrestler Well, it's a wrestler PCE 1990 Taito Fighting Fighting › Wrestling H 28 / 100 Horrible Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 1 / 5 Gameplay Terrible. I have no idea what to do. 2 kicks and 1 punches. After landing a few hits the other guy falls but he gets up immediately so there's almost no opportunity to pin him. You each have a life meter but no amount of damage seems to deplete it. At least not in a meaningful way. After 20 minutes of constant fighting we had each other down maybe 20%. What a slog. As is typical, hit detection is non existent. Just mash and hope for the best. Oh and your opponent can perform all manner or grapples and throws but you can't do any such thing. 1 / 5 Level Design Only one mo...

Review #6091 Wrestle War Mash dem buttons MD PAL 1990 Sega Fighting Fighting › Wrestling G 45 / 100 Bad Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 2 / 5 Gameplay Pure button masher. Camera swings around wildly. Objective is to get opponent's health bar to zero and then pin them which will guarantee a victory. Only two attacks - punch and kick. C to hold and then mash A and/or B to either throw to the ground or into the ropes. Decent movement in the slightly askew camera. Ok hit detection...for a wrestling game. 1 / 5 Level Design What level design? This is an arcade game through and through. One fight after the next. 4 / 5 Theme Arcade feel. Quick intros and end of fight text. Not much to look at but I love the la...

Review #6012 Cutie Suzuki no Ringside Angel Aw, such cuties MD 1990 Asmik Ace Fighting Fighting › Wrestling G 41 / 100 Bad Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 2 / 5 Gameplay I hate wrestling games but this one kept my interest for longer than most. And no, not because it's only female wrestlers. Sheesh. The controls are super laggy but the gameplay loop at least makes sense. That's better than most wrestling games. Punch or kick to knock the opponent down and then comes the magic - press down and A or down and B to execute a hold that saps their energy. Do this over and over to weaken them enough that you can pin them. There are other moves like running and jump kicking but all you need are the holds. There's no grappling (thank goodness) and no jumps. So no mashing at all...

Review #2067 Death Brade No, it's not about killer hairdos SFC 1993 I'Max Fighting Fighting › Wrestling F 56 / 100 Not Bad, but Flawed Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 2 / 5 Gameplay Well, it's wrestling game. Once you figure out the controls it's not terrible, but still incredibly tedious. You cna dash to knock the opponent down, punch when you're in close, and once you begin a grapple, which happens randomly, just hold a direction and mash A or B like crazy. Rinse and repeat. The only gimmick is a meter which fills up as you get beat up. Once full you can execute a finishing move during a grapple. This attack takes off about 1/3 of their health so it's OP. 4 / 5 Level Design Huge arenas with plenty of space to run. So...

Review #7005 Battle Royale Battle Royale of America Wrestling League TG-16 1990 NEC Fighting Fighting › Wrestling H 39 / 100 Horrible Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 2 / 5 Gameplay Fast but stilted movement. Really only fun as a multiplayer game. I is a low punch while II is a kick with longer range. In both cases you just mash until the other guy is on the mat, then you get below him to pick him up and throw him out of the ring. Pure button masher. 1 / 5 Level Design Only single-match exhibition mode. 4 / 5 Theme Very silly, but also heavy on fan service. The girls before the fight are pure window dressing. Post match stats remind me of Smash Bros. Also shows a replay of the POG. Way more than I was expecti...

Review #4691 WWF Super WrestleMania The one with Hulk Hogan Genesis 1992 Flying Edge Fighting Fighting › Wrestling H 35 / 100 Horrible Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 2 / 5 Gameplay Pretty good...for a wrestling game. Controls are slow and eat a lot of inputs but they're at least understandable. Face buttons for kick and punch buttons. A doesn't seem to do anything though. I was expecting it to be a run button like in the SNES version but it doesn't work. I couldn't figure out how to run. When opponent is on the ground punch becomes kick, kick becomes piledrive, and A still doesn't nothing. You have to press B+C to pin. Really finicky about where to stand when trying to pin or tag a partner. Extremely repetitive gameplay - kick when the opponent is far a...

Review #4692 WWF WrestleMania: The Arcade Game Mortal Kombat: The Wrestling Game Genesis 1995 Acclaim Fighting Fighting › Wrestling X 21 / 100 You've been warned Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 1 / 5 Gameplay Plays more like a 1v1 fighting game than wrestling which I guess is a good thing. Only problem is I can't figure out any special moves so my opponent destroys me. Must win best 2 of 3 like a 1v1 fighter. Controls like a Mortal Kombat game with long animations and horrible hit detection. 1 / 5 Level Design No modes to choose from. Just a Punch Out style series of bouts to play thru. 2 / 5 Theme Only 6 wrestlers to choose from? Looks and sounds like an arcade game...if you like that sort of thing....

Review #4690 WWF Royal Rumble Hey, how come this version has Hulk Hogan? Genesis 1993 Flying Edge Fighting Fighting › Wrestling F 50 / 100 Not Bad, but Flawed Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 3 / 5 Gameplay Same as previous WWF game. Like, the exact same controls, but with greatly improved hit detection and increased speed. Only notable addition is a grappling meter that shows who is winning. Interesting but mostly pointless. Can't decide which button to mash. Seems to be random each time. Boring, repetitive gameplay, but at least it performs well. 2 / 5 Level Design Same modes as before plus a Battle Royale where six wrestlers jump in at once. Same ring as always. 2 / 5 Theme The SNES version didn't h...

Review #4689 WWF Raw 2X speed, 1/2 animation Genesis 1994 Acclaim Fighting Fighting › Wrestling H 27 / 100 Horrible Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 1 / 5 Gameplay Take everything about the previous 2 WWF games, speed it up by 2x, remove half the frames of animation, and make it impossible to win a grappling session. It plays fast but is impossibly difficult to control, much less win a match. 2 / 5 Level Design Same as always. Has a few more modes which throw more wrestlers into the ring which makes the games sins all the more apparent. The too-fast gameplay becomes unwieldy once there are two, three, or seven other guys flying around the ring. 1 / 5 Theme Still no Hulk. And blech, it's pro wrestling. ...

Review #4497 Saturday Night Slam Masters Final Fight: The Wrestling Game Genesis 1994 Capcom Fighting Fighting › Wrestling F 57 / 100 Not Bad, but Flawed Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 3 / 5 Gameplay One button controls make combat a simple button mash exercise. Against one opponent. Very repetitive gameplay. It is a wrestling game after all. Plays very fast Enemies stun lock you with no real way to recover and fight back. Ring is very large horizontally but vertically is not deep at all. 2 / 5 Level Design Just a bunch of wrestling rings but at least there's more than one of them. 3 / 5 Theme Excellent presentation. Has all the Capcom stuff like nice life bars and timers in the hud. Excellent variet...

Review #4297 King of the Monsters Kaiju won't like this much Genesis 1993 Takara Fighting Fighting › Wrestling G 42 / 100 Bad Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 2 / 5 Gameplay Slightly isometric view. Fighting ring is very large (multi screen). Four moves - attack, grab, run, and jump (which is totally useless) Screen doesn't scroll when you run so you basically get no draw distance when trying to attack and enemy who is off screen. For example, after throwing an opponent into the ropes they disappear and appear without time to react. Typical grapple and mash until someone wins gameplay. Pretty boring. How do you pin the enemy? Even when he has no health he gets back up 99% of the time and then gets a free attack on you. Controls aren't great. 3 / 5...

Review #4298 King of the Monsters 2 Is it wrestling or is it 1v1? Genesis 1994 Takara Fighting Fighting › Wrestling G 45 / 100 Bad Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 2 / 5 Gameplay Hold on a second. This is totally different than the SNES and NeoGeo versions. This is a 1v1 fighting game with a little bit of wrestling. Moves mixed in. But you don't have to pin the opponent, you just get their lifebar down like any other fighting game. The gameplay is extremely stiff but it's much faster than the previous game. I only figured out a couple of special moves and they're hard to hit an enemy with because of how deep the arena is. Most fights devolved into a normal puncher kick and that grappling that wrestling fans love so much. It's definitely different than the other g...

Review #4057 Beast Wrestler It's wrestling. With beasts. Genesis 1991 Renovation Fighting Fighting › Wrestling X 16 / 100 You've been warned Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 0 / 5 Gameplay Same as all wrestling games, but with worse hit detection, a smaller moveset, and falls that last a good 10-20 seconds. Oh and matches last for about 20 minutes. Yeah, 20 minutes straight of mindless mashing to complete one whole match. No thanks. 1 / 5 Level Design Two modes - match and tournament. Nothing special about the fighters or the ring you fight in. It just an empty square like all the other games. No gimmicks 1 / 5 Theme Choose from a roster of monsters and then fight within a boring ring. At least King of ...

Review #706 WWF Royal Rumble The one without Hulk Hogan SNES 1993 LJN Fighting Fighting › Wrestling G 49 / 100 Bad Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 3 / 5 Gameplay Same as previous WWF game. Like, the exact same controls, but with greatly improved hit detection and increased speed. Only notable addition is a grappling meter that shows who is winning. Interesting but mostly pointless. Can't decide which button to mash. Seems to be random each time. Boring, repetitive gameplay, but at least it performs well. 2 / 5 Level Design Same modes as before plus a fun Battle Royale mode where six wrestlers climb in at once. Same ring as always. 1 / 5 Theme No Hulk Hogan 3 / 5 Art Style ...

Review #708 WWF WrestleMania: The Arcade Game Mortal Kombat: The Wrestling Game SNES 1995 Acclaim Fighting Fighting › Wrestling X 21 / 100 You've been warned Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 1 / 5 Gameplay Plays more like a 1v1 fighting game than wrestling which I guess is a good thing. Only problem is I can't figure out any special moves so my opponent destroys me. Must win best 2 of 3 like a 1v1 fighter. Controls like a Mortal Kombat game with long animations and horrible hit detection. 1 / 5 Level Design No modes to choose from. Just a Punch Out style series of bouts to play thru. 2 / 5 Theme Only 6 wrestlers to choose from? Looks and sounds like an arcade game...if you like that sort of thing. I d...

Review #707 WWF Super Wrestlemania The one with Hulk Hogan SNES 1992 LJN Fighting Fighting › Wrestling H 35 / 100 Horrible Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 2 / 5 Gameplay Pretty good...for a wrestling game. Controls are slow and eat a lot of inputs but they're at least understandable. Face buttons for kick, punch, run, and ...can't remember the fourth one. When opponent is on the ground punch becomes kick, kick becomes piledrive, and run becomes pin. Really finicky about where to stand when trying to pin or tag a partner. Extremely repetitive gameplay - kick when the opponent is far away, punch when close, grapple and throw to the ground, then kick while he's down, and pin when his energy is depleted. Rinse and repeat. 1 / 5 Level Desig...

Review #705 WWF Raw 2X speed, 1/2 animation SNES 1995 Acclaim Fighting Fighting › Wrestling H 27 / 100 Horrible Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 1 / 5 Gameplay Take everything about the previous 2 WWF games, speed it up by 2x, remove half the frames of animation, and make it impossible to win a grappling session. It plays fast but is impossibly difficult to control, much less win a match. 2 / 5 Level Design Same as always. Has a few more modes which throw more wrestlers into the ring which makes the games sins all the more apparent. The too-fast gameplay becomes unwieldy once there are two, three, or seven other guys flying around the ring. 1 / 5 Theme Still no Hulk. And blech, it's pro wrestling. ...

Review #677 WCW Super Brawl Wrestling I thought it was baseball that was played on a diamond SNES 1994 FCI Fighting Fighting › Wrestling H 33 / 100 Horrible Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 2 / 5 Gameplay Ok I guess there are wrestling games that let you control your character. Controls aren't awful. Not great either, but much better than the trash heaps that Natsume and Hammerlock turned out to be. View is isometric for some reason. Seems weird since the controls are not. Makes for some weird movement like pressing R or L lets you run toward the ropes which again is weird since it's so hard to tell where your opponent is in relation to the line you're on. Moves are incredibly slow with long animations so it doesn't feel super responsive. Not my idea of fun anywa...