WCW SuperBrawl Wrestling isn’t a good game. It looks good, but the gameplay leaves a lot to be desired. It isn’t terrible, but there isn’t much reason to return to this game.
Every wrestler feels the same, and they all look similar. They have the same move set, the same animations, and the same body shape. It feels like it should’ve been on the NES with how basic the gameplay is.
I was looking forward to this one and ended up being disappointed. There is a good game here, but so many parts could be better done. It looks good, and the controls are okay, but things could’ve been better.
TLDR: WCW SuperBrawl is a Barebones game with Good Graphics and Bad Gameplay.
Narrative
Like many of the wrestling games of this time, there is no story to these games. You have to make up a storyline for yourself. It is getting a little tiring of saying this over and over.
Gameplay
The gameplay is okay. It is a step down from the NES game, but it is similar to what the WWF would do. The wrestlers finishing/special moves in the game is great, but it isn’t enough to make this a good game.
The roster is pretty good! I don’t think there were too many wrestlers left off, and I like the developers’ selections. Here is a list of the wrestlers in the game:
- Sting
- Barry Windam
- Vader
- Rick Rude
- Ron Simmons
- Ric Flair
- Brian Pillman
- Dustin Rhodes
- Rick Steiner
- Scott Steiner
- Johnny B. Badd
- Ricky Steamboat
There are a limited number of game modes, but that is to be expected from a game from this time. You can do tag team matches, but those are selected from menus after you’ve decided what you want to do. Here is a list of what you can do in this game:
- Single Match
- Tournament
- Ultimate Challenge
You have to pin your opponent three times to win a match. I don’t understand this at all. I thought it was something to do with the options, but I didn’t see it when I looked.
The single match is straightforward. You wrestle one match as either a single or as a tag team. The tournament is an eight-man tournament. It is fine for what it is. In Ultimate Challenge, you must defeat all the wrestlers on the roster.
The controls are awful. They work, but everything feels stiff. I didn’t have a problem moving my wrestler around the ring, but it looks strange, almost like you’re trying to move your character through quicksand at times.
There are two sets of grapple moves. One is tied to the directional pad and the X button, and the other to the directional pad and the A button. Each wrestler appears to have the same set of moves, and they have a special or finishing move. I think. When I was playing as Dustin Rhodes, I did his finishing move from the early 90s.
These moves feel like they come out at random until you get the hang of the game. I know how to do most of them, and the controls are unresponsive at times, but it does feel like things just happen. It isn’t as crisp as one of the Fire Pro games or some of the better NES games.
Overall, the gameplay isn’t all that great. The controls are stiff, and the characters are sluggish. Every wrestler is basically the same, creating funny moments like Vader drop-kicking everyone and pulling off sunset flips. The best I can say about this game is that it is playable.
Visuals
WCW SuperBrawl Wrestling uses an isometric camera view. It isn’t bad and doesn’t take away from the gameplay. The character sprites are graphical swaps of the same model. It is a little disappointing.
The character select screen is surprisingly interesting. Each character is represented by a digitized photo that looks pretty good. At times, one of the wrestlers will pop out and say their catchphrase. There is also some animation that looks okay for the SNES.
After the select screen, things start to fall apart. It looks like the developers used the same character model for each wrestler. There are minor graphical changes like hair color and trunk color.
Using the same model, it makes things look strange. Vader looks smaller than Brian Pillman despite the game telling you he has about 200 lbs on him. It is just strange.
The character movements don’t look good. Everyone has the same sluggish walk cycle, probably due to using the same model. The animations for the moves look good.
Overall, the visuals are hit-and-miss. Parts of the game look good, while other parts are pretty awful. The ring and crowd look okay, the wrestlers look the same, and the moves look okay. The graphics are probably the best part of the game, but it isn’t good enough to save it.
6.5/10. This isn’t a good game, but it isn’t a bad one. The gameplay isn’t very good; the best I can say is that it is playable. The graphics are okay at best. The WCW game on the NES is much better than this one.
Pros
- Good Roster
- Decent Graphics
Cons
- Bad Controls
- Characters look the same
- Characters play the same
Conclusion
I wish that WCW SuperBrawl had been a reskin of a Super Famicom game. That would have made the game much better. The graphics look good overall, but the characters all look the same.
The controls are okay, and the moves are easy to do. The problem is that every character has the same set of moves, and the sprites are all based on the same model. Minor graphical changes to the sprites and adding finishing/signature moves were done to make the characters a little different.
I don’t think enough was done to make this anything better than a forgettable licensed wrestling game. It isn’t comedically bad, and it isn’t a broken game. It’s just a below-average game that could’ve been better.