Welcome to another edition of Playing With Power. The review article that looks at all things Nintendo Entertainment System. When last we played with power, we looked at WWF Wrestlemania, one of the worst wrestling games ever made. In the end, it left me with a rather bad taste in my mouth due to how bad a game it was, so going into this week’s review I was a little worried. Why? Because I’m tackling the spiritual sequel to WWF Wrestlemania known as WWF Wrestlemania Challenge. But does this wrestling game body slam its predecessor, or does it go down for the count as well?
YEAR OF RELEASE: 1990
PUBLISHER: LJN
GENRE: Pro Wrestling
The landscape of the WWF was changing in the year of 1990. Randy Savage was ruling the WWF with an iron fist as the Macho King, Ravishing Rick Rude was making all the ladies swoon, and Hulkamania was toppled at Wrestlemania VI against the power of the Ultimate Warrior. The WWF was still riding a massive wave of popularity in 1990, and so was the NES.
The original Wrestlemania was a best selling game on the console, despite its very poor gameplay. So, despite the clear disdain the game had earned, the fans still wanted more WWF on the NES. And this time, LJN would take over the license from Acclaim to release most of the early 90’s WWF video games. I know that sounds like going from one sociopath to an even more deranged sociopath, but in all honestly, I think most of the games LJN did wrestling-wise were decent at best (I actually still find Royal Rumble and Raw to be enjoyable).
Once again Rare was in charge of development for the game. And with a year plus since the original Wrestlemania game, they aimed to improve on their work and try for a decent grappler on the NES. In October of 1990, WWF Wrestlemania Challenge was released for the NES. And, like its predecessor, it sold quite well (though not as well as the original Wrestlemania did). So with over a year to set things somewhat right after the first WWF outing on the console, how did this game fare?
COVER STORY
Another solid cover, featuring some of the WWF’s biggest names at the time, instead of just Hulk Hogan like the previous box did. So, just like the Wrestlemania cover, it is a good eye catcher for wrestling fans, and having more than Hulk Hogan mugging the box is definitely nice to see (Especially Big Boss Man, who I was always a bit of a fan for)
GAMEPLAY
WWF Wrestlemania Challenge is a one to two player wrestling game. You control one of nine WWF superstars in one of several match types. The power packed roster in this game contains Hulk Hogan, The Ultimate Warrior, The Macho King Randy Savage, Hacksaw Jim Duggan, Ravishing Rick Rude, Brutus the Barber Beefcake, Andre the Giant, The Big Boss Man, and… “You”. We’ll get to you in a moment.
Controls in the game are very simple. The D-Pad controls your movements around the ring. The A button will execute striking attacks, while the B button will do grapple moves from the front or back of your opponent. For example, if you use Andre, you’ll body slam from the front, and do a choke and headbutt from the back. You can also use B to pin your opponent when they’re down. This works far better than the very buggy and annoying pin system in WWF Wrestlemania.
Pressing A and B together will execute a strong strike attack with most superstars. Most will do dropkicks, while other superstars will do specific attacks like Boss Man’s belly flop and Hacksaw’s running tackle. A+B will also let you climb up one of the four turnbuckle pads, and A and B will do jumping attacks off the top. The game also uses some logic, as Andre can’t climb up to the top due to being too heavy.
The game is broken into three main match types. There are one on one matches, two on two tag team matches, and three on three Survivor Series matches. In the tag and Survivor Series matches, you can tag your partner with the select button. When you tag in, the other partner will restore his health the longer that they aren’t the legal man. Tag matches and one on one matches are one fall to a finish. Survivor Series matches however go on until all members of a respective team are eliminated. I personally find Survivor Series matches the most fun to play in the game. One on One matches are fun as well, but interestingly enough should you lose to the AI, the game gives you continues so you can rematch and try once again. The 8 WWF superstars will be able to do the one on one bouts. “You” however, do things a little differently.
When choosing “You” from the character select screen, the one on one option is replaced with the titular Wrestlemania Challenge mode. In this mode you’ll battle in a gauntlet against all of the wrestlers in the game to become the WWF champion. It starts easy with more simple brawlers like Brutus Beefcake and Rick Rude, but once you have to face the likes of Savage, Hogan, and especially Warrior, that’s when the game really becomes a challenge. Warrior can be especially cheap, as his gorilla press slam can throw you out of the ring. And getting back into the ring can be a pain, especially when he decides to exit the ring to beat you down. But if you’re faster than the Warrior, you can beat him easily.
Just like the previous game, both wrestlers have respective health bars, and just like the last game they can deplete with the constant use of moves. But thankfully this time, it just depletes with your A+B special strike and top rope dives instead of every little strike and slam. An annoying thing though about the health bars is that instead of being on a top meter like before, they are on both visible sides of the ring. This can be very annoying because say you move to one side of the ring to brawl, you can’e see the meter on a certain side of the ring, making it a bit more difficult to gauge just how weak either you or your opponent is. Not to mention, the isometric angle of the ring is kind of annoying as well. Certainly nowhere as terrible as Bill and Ted was, but still kind of irksome.
The game controls quite well, and the AI is definitely a little smarter than the moronic AI of Wrestlemania. They still roam the ring sometimes, and turn vicious in an instant, but it’s far more well handled. The game doesn’t suffer from many hit detection issues, and definitely feels more like a balanced wrestling game than the poor excuse of a glorified fighter that preceded it. Rare definitely took the year since making Wrestlemania and improved on almost all areas. It’s not the deepest wrestling experience ever on the NES, but it actually feels like wrestling, which is definitely a plus.
GRAPHICS
The graphics in this game are vastly improved from the previous Wrestlemania. The ring looks like a full ring, there’s an outside area with padding, there’s an audience, and even an entrance ramp. Compare that to the previous WWF outing with its weird looking ring, and black abyss. The sprites are also really well done, and everyone looks like their real life counterparts. Even the caricatures in the character select are far better detailed than the blurry black and white messes from the previous game. Even the Ultimate Warrior picture on the title screen is a vast improvement over the monstrosity that claimed to be Hulk Hogan in the previous Wrestlemania title screen. This is above and beyond a step up.
MUSIC
Once again Rare delivers in the sound department, and I think in this case far exceeded the original Wrestlemania in terms of song quality. Once again the game contains perfect 8-bit renditions of classic WWF theme songs. My personal favorites being Rick Rude and Hulk Hogan’s theme songs. They also use new compositions for Hacksaw and Andre, and both have that classic NES Rare feel that is utter magic. Other things like the title screen and both themes for “You” (Player one and two have differing themes) are also amazing. This is Rare at their finest, and in my opinion definitely an overlooked soundtrack for a video game. There is no doubt going to be a song or two stuck in your head after playing this game.
OVERALL THOUGHTS
WWF Wrestlemania Challenge is by far a massive improvement in all areas. It looks like a wrestling game, it feels like a wrestling game, and is actually kinda fun, unlike the piece of crap we saw a year prior. It has solid graphics, and an excellent video game soundtrack. And honestly, I actually had a lot of fun with it. It’s certainly not to the standards of a game like Pro Wrestling, but for as simplistic in controls as it was, it’s still a very solid wrestling video game. Sadly, I wish I could say the same level of praise for the other WWF games that would follow on the NES, but for what this game brought to the table, it’s definitely a diamond in the rough. If you can find this game, I’d say pick it up and give it a play. It’s definitely a challenge worth doing.
RATING: Thumbs Up