Since I’ve reviewed wrestling games on the NES, Game Boy, SNES, Genesis, PS1, N64, and Dreamcast, I decided to list the games I enjoyed the most. This isn’t a best of list, it is simply the games I enjoyed more than the others, or was surprised by.
I had never played many of these games before reviewing them, which is part of the fun. I started doing projects like this to see what I missed in the 1990s, and I missed out on a lot. Some of these games turned out to be on my lists of my favorite games on their respective systems.
When I looked at the reviews for a few of them, I was surprised to see how poorly they were received. It is a good reminder that any review is an opinion piece. You don’t have to agree with them, and it can be fun to argue as long as you don’t take things too far. There is no reason to get angry over stuff like this.
Bottom Line up Front: A List of the Wrestling games I enjoyed the most out of all the games I’ve played so far.
HammerLock Wrestling (SNES)
Developer: Jaleco
Genre: Wrestling
Review Score: 44/100 (MobyGames)
I really liked the way HammerLock Wrestling presented the matches. It is a little strange at first because two-thirds of the screen has cutscenes, but they look very good. I guess it is an acquired taste, but I found it to be very fun.
This isn’t a very complicated wrestling game. The gameplay is good, the graphics are great, and it is a very fun game. The cutscenes add a lot to the game. It helps HammerLock Wrestling stand out.
This is one of the games that I like more than most people. It has a quirky presentation when compared to the other games on the SNES, but that is one of the reasons why I like it. It is much better than the LJN published games on the console.
Natsume Championship Wrestling (SNES)
Developer: Natsume
Genre: Wrestling
Review Score: 6.7/10 (Moby Games)
This, along with HammerLock Wrestling and Saturday Night Slam Masters, stand out from the other games on the SNES and Genesis. This game has the best gameplay of all the SNES wrestling games. It is one of my three favorite wrestling games on the system.
Natsume Championship Wrestling was released in North America without a license. In Japan, it was an All Japan Pro Wrestling game, but the publishers correctly assumed that the company didn’t have the name recognition to sell games. You had to be a hardcore wrestling fan to follow wrestling companies outside of the US, not to mention that they were trying to sell video games as well.
This game has excellent graphics and good gameplay. It takes a little time to get used to the game’s difficulty, but it is one of the better wrestling games on the SNES. Just like HammerLock Wrestling and Saturday Night Slam Masters, it is considerably better than the LJN published games.
Tecmo World Wrestling
Developer: Tecmo
Genre: Wrestling
Review Score: 7.6/10 (MobyGames)
Tecmo World Wrestling looks the best out of all the NES wrestling games. It also has excellent gameplay. The game doesn’t have a license, but that isn’t that big of a deal for a game like this.
This isn’t an easy game to play. It can be very difficult right away, but as you learn what you need to do, you’ll find that it is one of the best wrestling games on the NES. The roster is pretty good, and the controls aren’t too complicated to figure out.
There is a little story in this game. While it isn’t anything special, it does help Tecmo World Wrestling stand out from the other games. It is my second favorite wrestling game on the NES.
Pro Wrestling
Developer: Nintendo R&D3
Genre: Wrestling
Review Score: 6.6/10 (MobyGames)
Pro Wrestling is my favorite wrestling game on the NES. This game is similar to the Fire Pro wrestling games and has a great roster. Some of them turned out to be rather iconic, like Starman.
The controls and graphics are very good for an early NES game. It also stands out because it has better gameplay than the other games on the system. The closest one to it is Tecmo World Wrestling.
While I didn’t play this game as a kid, I’m glad I eventually played it. This is one of my favorite NES games, and one of the better wrestling games. It holds up much better than the other games on the console, and is still fun to play today.
Saturday Night Slam Masters
Developer: Capcom
Genre: Fighting
Review Score: 7.3/10 (MobyGames)
Saturday Night Slam Masters is my favorite wrestling game on the SNES and Sega Genesis. There was much less competition on the Genesis, and it narrowly beat out Natsume Championship Wrestling and HammerLock Wrestling on the SNES. Both versions are very good.
This is an arcade wrestling game with simple controls and amazing graphics. There are so many little things that this game does better than all the others. I love the ring entrances, the controls, and the graphics.
The over-the-top roster is probably my favorite part of this game. Of course, there is Mayor Hagar from the Final Fight games, but the rest of the roster is great. This feels like the 16-bit version of everything I liked about Pro Wrestling and Tecmo World Wrestling.
Power Move Pro Wrestling
Developer: Yuke’s
Genre: Wrestling
Review Score: 6.5/10 (MobyGames)
Power Move Pro Wrestling is another reskin of a Japanese wrestling game. This time, a New Japan Pro-Wrestling game was changed due to the limited popularity of the promotion outside of Japan. I know that people knew about the company, but unless you were really into wrestling in the mid-1990s, you most likely didn’t know about the promotion.
This game was developed by Yuke’s, and it is much better than most of the wrestling games on the PS1. The roster is decent enough and is similar to other wrestling games that didn’t have a license. The graphics are rough, but the gameplay makes up for it.
This was a bit of a hidden gem for me. I had no idea this game existed until I decided to play the wrestling games on PS1. The gameplay is very good, and if the graphics had been better, this could’ve been one of the best wrestling games on the console.
Hal Wrestling
Developer: Human Entertainment
Genre: Wrestling
Review Score: 38/100 (MobyGames)
Hal Wrestling is part of the Fire Pro Wrestling series. For whatever reason, this series had a strange set of releases in the US where the names would be dropped, and we didn’t get as many as we should’ve. These games are much better than those published by LJN and Acclaim (Yes, I know they are basically the same company).
This is a grapple-heavy wrestling game. You can punch and kick, but they aren’t all that important. Just keep doing grapple moves, and you should be okay. It is also an easy game to learn.
I had no idea this game existed. It is one of the many wrestling games I wish I had played when I was a kid. It is the best wrestling game on the Game Boy, and nothing is close to it.
WWF No Mercy
Developer: Aki Corporation
Genre: Wrestling
Review Score: 8.1/10 (MobyGames)
This is the best wrestling game on the N64. There is nothing better than WWF No Mercy for this console. This game is as good as the two SmackDown games on the PS1.
The career/story mode is what stands out to me. It is as good as the same mode in SmackDown 2. This is also an easy game to play. While it might take some time to master the controls, you can pick this game up and play right away.
This game got the most out of the N64. No Mercy is a spectacular game that is one of the best on the N64. I missed out on this because I didn’t own the console at the time. I bought a PS1, and while I was very happy with it, I felt bad that I missed out on this game and others on the N64.
WCW/NWO Revenge
Developer: Aki Corporation
Genre: Wrestling
Review Score: 7.4/10 (MobyGames)
Revenge is the best WCW video game. Before playing this game, and a few others, I had only played Mayhem on the PS1. I liked it, but it isn’t anywhere near as good as Revenge, World Tour, of WCW vs The World.
This was one of the N64 games I was looking forward to when I started going through the wrestling games on the system. While it has dated graphics, the gameplay more than makes up for it. This is a good-looking N64 game, but it isn’t as nice-looking as the PS1 games.
The graphics and a lack of a story mode are the only things that hold this game back from being the best wrestling game on the N64. I have a vague memory of either playing this game or Would Tour in the late 1990s. Either way, I’m glad I went back to play this game.
WCW vs The World
Developer: The Man Breeze
Genre: Wrestling
Review Score: 6.9/10 (MobyGames)
This is one of the many wrestling games I remember seeing in the stores when I was a teenager. I wasn’t a fan of WCW, so I didn’t bother with it. Sadly, this led me to skip over some of the better wrestling games from the mid-1990s.
WCW vs The World is a localization of Virtual Pro Wrestling, and I wish more of the WCW wrestling games had gone this route, especially in the late 1990s and early 2000s. This would’ve drastically increased the quality of the company’s video games. This game was released in 1996 and is a very good game.
While this game doesn’t look as good as the other PS1, N64, and Dreamcast games, it is very fun. It is easy to learn how to play, and the controls are very good. WCW vs The World is one of the many games I missed out on, but I’m glad I went back to play it.
SmackDown 2
Developer: Yuke’s
Genre: Wrestling
Review Score: 7.7/10 (MobyGames)
This is more of a nostalgia pick. SmackDown 2 is the best wrestling game on the PS1, and one of my favorite games on the system. I have a lot of memories of playing this with my friend Drew, and actually being good enough to beat him at a video game.
This game has the best graphics, gameplay, and controls of any wrestling game on the PS1. The only comparison for this game is WWF No Mercy on the N64. Both games are spectacular.
All of my memories of this game have to do with me playing against my friend Drew. When we had game nights, this is what we played. I don’t remember if he had an N64 at this point. If he did, I don’t remember playing it.
At the time, this game had everything I could ever want from a wrestling game. I hadn’t played the N64 games until recently, so I had no idea what I missed. SmackDown 2 holds a special place in my heart, and I remember playing it with my friends.
Conclusion
There are a number of great retro wrestling games. I found a lot of the SNES and NES games to be quite a bit of fun, even if they didn’t have all the features I enjoyed from the PS1 and N64 era of games. It all depends on what you want from a wrestling game.
Many of the excellent wrestling games from the 1990s weren’t released in North America. You had to import them, and not everyone knew about them or wanted to try to figure out how to import games. Emulation has changed this, but you still run into the problem of not knowing what is out there or dealing with a language barrier.
The Sega Dreamcast was hit hard by this. All of the great wrestling games on that system needed to be imported. This kind of got lost on some people when I made a video on the Dreamcast wrestling games. I’m not all that surprised that people didn’t get that far in the video, but whatever.
This list will change as I look at the other console games. I’m wrapping up the Game Boy games at the moment, and then I’ll be getting into the GameCube games. I’ll wrap this up with the PS2 games at some point. Currently, I’m not planning on going over the Sega Saturn or Xbox games. I just don’t feel like collecting for those consoles.
If you liked this post, please check out my other lists, such as WCW Games Ranked or N64 Wrestling Games Ranked.
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