WWF King of the Ring was ported to the Game Boy, and it is a very rough game. I’m one of the few people who likes the NES game, and the Game Boy port is not as good. The controls aren’t as good, and the graphics are hit-and-miss.
This version of the game has fewer wrestlers and doesn’t look as good as the NES game. I could probably say this about every Game Boy post of an NES or SNES game. It is notable here because of the wrestlers removed from the game.
The Undertaker and Bam Bam Bigelow were removed from the Game Boy version of the game. I would’ve rather had them instead of Hulk Hogan and the custom character. All the wrestlers play the same, so you can just pretend they are someone else.
TLDR: This is a bad port of an average game.
Narrative
This game doesn’t have a story. It is an arcade wrestling game with a few modes to choose from. There is a tournament so you can make up a story around that if you really want to.
Gameplay
The gameplay is fine, but there are some odd things in it. It feels like the health bars are way too big to the point where it takes you a long time to wear down your opponent. The controls are good, though.
King of the Ring has four game modes. This isn’t too bad for a game for this time. Here is a list of them:
- One on One
- Tag Team
- Tournament
- King of the Ring
You might wonder what the difference is between the Tournament and King of the Ring mode. I was a little confused by both of them being here. The King of the Ring mode is a traditional tournament, while the Tournament mode is a gauntlet match.
I have no idea why they labeled it as a tournament instead of a gauntlet. Maybe they thought no one would know the difference, or maybe the developers didn’t care. Either way, I find it very odd to have labeled them in the way they did.
The roster is okay. It isn’t too different from the NES version of the game. It is a little smaller, but that is probably due to the limitations of the Game Boy. Here is the roster:
- Brett Hart
- Hulk Hogan
- Yokozuna
- Razor Ramon
- Mr. Perfect
- Lex Luger
- Randy Savage
- You, a customizable character that is mostly worthless.
I couldn’t find the manual for the Game Boy version online. The one that kept coming up was for the NES version of the game. I’m sure it is out there somewhere, but I haven’t seen it yet. The controls for the Game Boy game are similar to the NES port, so here is a link to the NES manual until I can find the Game Boy manual.
Each wrestler plays the same. While this is disappointing for a wrestling game, I can understand it for a Game Boy game. The cartridge probably wasn’t big enough to make each wrestler play differently.
Visuals
For the most part, the graphics are okay. Being in black and white doesn’t help the game. It makes the graphics a little boring.
I like the cartoonish look of the character sprites. Most of them have the same body type, except for Yokozuna. They all look okay; the developers did a good job with most of them. The customizable wrestler looks too similar to Hulk Hogan.
When I tried to play as the default wrestler, I had a hard time figuring out who was who when I wrestled Hulk Hogan. The two look different from the other wrestlers, but they are very similar to each other. Aside from this, I like the way the characters look.
The rest of the game is a little boring. The crowd doesn’t look like anything, and the ring looks generic. It is what you might expect from a Game Boy game. It isn’t spectacular, but it isn’t terrible.
This is a decent-looking Game Boy game. For a black-and-white game, it looks okay. It suffers from the same things that other Game Boy ports suffer from. It looks close to the original.
7/10. This would’ve been fine back in the early 1990s. It is a shame that the roster is smaller than the NES version, but it is understandable.
Conclusion
WWF King of the Ring has problems that are in all of the NES and Game Boy wrestling games. I feel like I’m the only person who enjoys it. While the Game Boy port isn’t as good as the NES port, it is better than the WWF Superstars games.
If you liked this post, please check out my other posts about the Game Boy wrestling games, such as WWF Superstars and WWF Superstars 2.