WCW Main Event on the Game Boy is Fun

There are a few wrestling games on the Game Boy. Some are exclusive to the handheld, and others are inferior ports of console games. WCW Main Event is one of the exclusives.

I’ve never played this game before, so I don’t have any idea what I’m getting into here. My first impressions of the game are good. This is a nice-looking Game Boy game.

Since this is a handheld game, I’m going to relax my standards. Developers had to make a number of concessions when bringing these games to market. Let’s review the game and see what it has to offer.

TLDR: A Good Wrestling Game on the Game Boy.

Narrative

Like other wrestling games from the late 1980s and early 1990s, it has no story and is a collection of matches, and is similar to an arcade experience. This is what you should expect from a game made during this time.

Gameplay

The gameplay is what you should expect from a game on the Game Boy. You can play single or two-player, assuming you have the necessary equipment like a second Game Boy, link cable, and another cartridge. It was a pain in the ass to try and play two-player on the Game Boy.

After you’ve decided on single or two-player, then you get to select your wrestler and opponent. I initially thought the roster was pretty good and figured Ric Flair was in the WWF when it was made. I’ll get into that in a second, but first, here is the roster:

• Rick Rude
• Ron Simmons
• Steve Austin
• Sting
• Dustin Rhodes
• Johnny B. Badd
• Vader
• Rick Steiner
• Scott Steiner

Here is the deal with the roster and how it sent me down a rabbit hole to verify if these wrestlers were still with the company. By the time the game was released in 1994, the Steiner Brothers had left WCW, and Rick Flair had rejoined the company. The game was already finished, and wrestlers couldn’t be added or removed. What about the other wrestlers?

The other wrestlers were all in WCW at the time. It’s cool to see some pre-WWF Dustin Rhodes and Steve Austin in the game. It would be a few years before they went to the WWF and became Gold Dust and Stone Cold. Now that you’ve picked a wrestler, you’ll find the predictable limit of game modes.

There isn’t much to do in this game; it is more of an arcade experience. You can choose a single match or an elimination match. The single match lets you select the number of pinfalls you want, or you can choose a time limit. That’s it; there isn’t anything beyond these options, which isn’t that big of a deal for a handheld game.

The controls are decent. There are limitations due to the Game Boy only having two buttons. Because of this, you have a limited number of moves. These can be found in the manual and online. The only one I could find is buried in a review of the game.

For a Game Boy game, this is a decent experience. It would have kept me entertained as I rode in the car or if I wanted a distraction from school. It is exactly what I would want from a game like this.

Visuals

WCW Main Event is a good looking game. The developers managed to make the wrestlers look different. The ring, crowd, and wrestlers all look good.

There are the usual limitations you should expect from the Game Boy. The pictures of the characters barely look like their real-life counterparts. Thankfully. The developers included the names, so you have an idea of who people are supposed to be.

The game screen looks very good. You’re given a health and stamina bar, a picture of your character, and their name. It is what you would see in any wrestling or fighting game.

The character sprites have a cartoonish look. I like this, and I’m not sure what else the developers could do with them. By 1994, the Game Boy was very old, and it wasn’t like anyone was expecting a realistic look for video games at this time.

8/10. This is a good game that would’ve been fun to play. It is a nice distraction from other Game Boy games.

Conclusion

I originally thought this game was released in the late 1980s or in the early 1990s. To my surprise, it was released in 1994. This raised a few questions for me and made me think about who was on the roster.

There were a few reviews for this game, but I ignored them. I think this is a good Game Boy game, and it would’ve been a good NES game. This brings up something interesting I stumbled across.

Bizarrely, Wikipedia says this game was released on the NES. I’ve found nothing to confirm this, and Wikipedia doesn’t provide a source. If there is a ROM for an unreleased NES version of the game, I couldn’t find it.

If you like this post, please check out my other wrestling reviews, such as WCW Super Brawl or N64 Wrestling Games Ranked