I’ve ranked the WCW and WWF wrestling games, and now I want to do a list for the non-company games. These are all the wrestling games on the Game Boy, NES, SNES, Genesis, and PS1 that I’ve played. This won’t include any imports, because I haven’t played any. I also won’t include the ECW games.
If I ever get into imports, then I’ll do a list of those. I want to keep these lists to the games that I’ve played, so I can justify why I put something on this list. It wouldn’t be fair to rank a game that I have played or reviewed before.
Many of these games were the best on their consoles, so I’m looking forward to this. I had considered putting the ECW games on this list, but I didn’t feel like talking about them. At this point, I’m sick of those games, and playing three versions of Hardcore Revolution and two versions of Anarchy Rulez isn’t something I want to do again.
Bottom Line up Front: A ranking list of the non-WWF, WCW, and ECW games that I’ve played.
Ring Rage
Ring Rage is a bad port of a largely forgettable arcade game. Ring Rage is barely a wrestling game, as it takes place in a ring, but is essentially a fighting game. This is basically Pit Fighter set in a wrestling ring.
The controls and graphics are awful. There is very little to this game, even for a Game Boy game. There are only a few game modes, which are essentially the same. The roster is tiny, and there are only a few game modes, which are more like stipulation matches, but even those are simply cage matches. Normally, this wouldn’t be much of a problem, but this game doesn’t do anything well.
I wasn’t sure what to expect when I started playing this game. When I finally sat down to play it, I was very disappointed because of the graphics and the terrible cage and chain matches. Then I started researching the game, and it made more sense, but this didn’t really do anything to change my mind on the game. The Game Boy port was released a while after the arcade game, and it isn’t a good port of a forgettable game.
Tag Team Muscle
After more consideration, I don’t think this is the worst wrestling game on the NES. I still think it is one of the worst games on the NES, but it is in no way the worst game on that system, especially when you consider the unlicensed games. This is a retrospective look at the game, and I think it could’ve been fun to play back in the late 80s. Playing it now, I don’t think it is a good game at all.
When I compared this to the other wrestling games, I thought it was worse than the rest of them. The graphics aren’t as good as the others, the controls could be better, and it was almost impossible to pull off the few wrestling moves in the game. It isn’t as annoying as Tag Team Wrestling, and I did like the graphics, but the gameplay is a little worse than that game.
There are some excellent wrestling games based on M.U.S.C.L.E. Unfortunately, they didn’t all make it out of Japan, and it wouldn’t be until the GameCube that we got something good from this property. It would also be a while before Manga and Anime would appear in North America.
Tag Team Wrestling
Data East unleashed this lousy port of an arcade game on an unsuspecting population back in the 1980s. It is an infuriating game to play at times because of a horrible control scheme. The arcade game was something different and was able to stand out in the arcades, but the NES game was an infuriating mess.
There are only two teams in this game. This is the first of a list of problems that really should’ve been fixed before releasing a home console version. Those teams are locked on players one and two. The control scheme is awful. You punch the opponent, lock up, and then press the B button 1-7 times to do a move. You wrestle the same opponents repeatedly until you get sick of the game and look for something else to do.
The only thing that saved this game was that it looked better than M.U.S.C.L.E. It is a bad port of an interesting arcade game. Unfortunately, it is still a bad game. I went back to play this game again since it has been a few years at this point. I still don’t like the game, but it is notable for what it was in the arcades. I wish Data East had done something to add value to this game, and even adding another tag team would’ve been a welcome addition.
The Simpsons Wrestling
When I first played this game, I thought it was the worst wrestling game on the PS1. I had only played a few of them before starting this project, and little did I know that many of the WCW games are so much worse than this. The Simpsons Wrestling is an okay arcade game, which is how you almost have to view it when compared to the other wrestling games on the system. Unfortunately, it isn’t as good as the other arcade wrestling games on the PS1.
The game can be a little cheap when you first start. It plays more like a one-on-one beat’em up that happens to take place in a wrestling ring. The controls are easy to learn, special moves are easy to perform, and I wouldn’t say I like the graphics, but they aren’t too bad. It is a competently made game with quite a few unlockable characters and cheat codes.
This isn’t as bad as I first thought. I still don’t like the game that much, but it is considerably better than WCW Nitro, WCW/NWO Thunder, and WCW Backstage Assault. This game has a charm that is missing from other wrestling games on the PS1, and it is a nice use of a licensed property.
Tecmo World Wrestling
This game, Pro Wrestling, and Hal Wrestling can easily be swapped around for me, as I enjoy all three of them. There is more to this game than Pro Wrestling and Hal Wrestling, but it is very similar to those games in terms of gameplay. I put them in this order based on how much I enjoy them.
Tecmo World Wrestling has a great roster, the gameplay is excellent, and I enjoy the graphics, which can be a little funny at times. There are finishing moves, which look very good, and they have little cutscenes for them. It is great, and I love that the developers were able to do this! The roster has excellent characters, the control scheme is great, and the presentation of matches has a nice mix of comedy and beautiful graphics.
The only bad thing about this game is the limited number of game modes, which is a problem for most of the NES, Game Boy, SNES, and Genesis wrestling games. While the single-player mode is excellent, and it is the one that comes closest to having a story mode, the game lacks other game modes. Despite this, Tecmo World Wrestling is a spectacular game.
Hal Wrestling
Hal Wrestling is my favorite wrestling game on the Game Boy. Playing reminded me of Pro Wrestling on the NES, and there is a good reason for that. It is part of the Fire Pro Wrestling series, and it was one of the only options for people in North America to try this series of games outside of importing them. Playing this game and Pro Wrestling makes me wish that we had gotten ports of the Fire Pro series instead of the LJN published games.
Out of all the wrestling games on the Game Boy, this one has the best controls and graphics. It isn’t perfect, but it is the one that I had the most fun with. There are a few minor issues with the game, but the gameplay more than makes up for it. I wish I had played this game when I was a kid.
Hal Wrestling is one of those games that I wish I hadn’t missed out on, but I’m glad that I went back to play the wrestling games on the different consoles and handhelds. It gave me the same feeling I had when I played Pro Wrestling on the NES, and I think it is one of my favorite retro wrestling games at this point. I’m so glad I had a chance to play this one. It has everything that I want from a Game Boy game.
Pro Wrestling
This is the best wrestling game on the NES. You could argue for Tecmo World Wrestling, but this is my list, and I had more fun with this game. I liked the roster, the moves looked great, and for an early NES game, Pro Wrestling has a lot going on.
While there is no story mode and limited gameplay modes, there is enough in this game to elevate it over the others. A story mode is one of the things that has me waffling on this game’s position on the list with respect to Tecmo World Wrestling. The wrestlers have unique moves, which are easy to perform as the controls are very good, and the game has finishing moves for each character. It also looks very good!
I love this game! The gameplay and the graphics are fantastic! I have a limit on the number of exclamation points, so I’ll have to calm down. Some of the wrestlers in this game, namely Starman and Amazon, have been included in other games. They ended up being iconic characters that have appeared outside of video games. This game was fun to discover when I started collecting games.
Natsume Championship Wrestling
This was a hard one to rank. In many ways, this is a better game than HammerLock and Saturday Night Slam Masters, but I didn’t like the control scheme as much as the other games on this list. I couldn’t find a reason to move it up on this list, especially since I had more fun with the games ahead of it.
NCW has a lot going for it. It has great graphics, a decent roster, and a good number of game modes. The wrestlers look different and have unique moves and controls. The problem is the difficulty and the control scheme. Those two things held this game back a bit. I tend to enjoy games that are easy to learn, and that wasn’t the case with Natsume Championship Wrestling.
The controls are complicated and are on par with a PS1 wrestling game. This might sound good, but imagine you couldn’t look up the controls while playing. My biggest problem with the controls was the timing system used in the game. As I continue to play this game, I find myself enjoying it more each time; it still hasn’t passed the other games, though.
I like NCW, but don’t like it as much as HammerLock Wrestling, Saturday Night Slam Masters, or Power Move Pro Wrestling. It is a case of which game I have more fun with. I didn’t enjoy NCW much due to the steep learning curve and control scheme. This is a game that I liked, but I didn’t have as much fun with it as I did with the other games.
HammerLock Wrestling
I liked this HammerLock Wrestling more than most people, and much of it has to do with the graphics and how simple the gameplay is. The game’s visuals can be a little hard to get used to, but the gameplay is much better than many of the licensed wrestling games on the SNES, Genesis, and NES. I had so much fun with this game, and that is the major reason why it is ahead of so many other games.
I had more fun with this game than with most of the games on this list. The control scheme is much better and is easy to understand. I liked the graphics more, and the wrestlers had different moves. While it can take some time to get used to the visuals, HammerLock Wrestling is a better overall game when compared to other wrestling games on the various consoles, which mostly play and look the same. In this case, the unique presentation helped to make this game more fun.
HammerLock Wrestling is one of the better wrestling games on the SNES. The visuals aren’t for everyone, and I can see why some might hold this against the game. It has a lot going for it and is a better game than the WWF games on the SNES, and I like it more than most of the games on the other consoles I’ve looked at.
Power Move Pro Wrestling
This game was awesome! I hadn’t heard of it until I started playing wrestling games on the different retro systems, and I wish I had known about it when I was a kid. This is a reskin of another game, which was changed because the publisher didn’t think a Japanese wrestling game would sell in the US, which is a fair assumption. In the mid-1990s, I doubt there was a big enough audience for either New Japan or All Japan Pro Wrestling to warrant a video game in North America.
While the game has no story, the manual gives each wrestler a backstory. The controls are easy to learn, and the game is fun to play. The graphics are a little dated, but they would’ve looked good in the mid-1990s. It looks a little like WCW vs. The World or one of the N64 wrestling games, but the graphics are worse than those games. This was still an early 3D console game, and these graphics weren’t too far off from what other games from this era looked like. Power Move Pro Wrestling has great gameplay, and the controls are easy to learn.
This was the hidden gem of the PS1 wrestling games for me, and really for the console as a whole. I know plenty of people already knew about this game, but for me, it was a pleasant surprise. There are over 2000 games for the PS1, and no one can possibly be aware of all of them. Power Move Pro Wrestling would’ve been a great game to rent back in the day, and I enjoyed this one more than most of the other wrestling games.
Saturday Night Slam Masters (Genesis)
Like what happened with the SNES wrestling games, Saturday Night Slam Masters is my favorite game on its respective console. The Sega Genesis had a limited number of wrestling games, and there wasn’t much competition for it. There wasn’t a HammerLock Wrestling or an NCW wrestling game brought to North America for the Genesis, but I don’t think my opinion would’ve changed much, even if Thunder Pro or Wrestle War had been brought to North America.
This game is an excellent port of an arcade game, but I don’t think it is as good as the SNES version of the game. The controls are simple, and the graphics are much better than those of the other games on the list. While it doesn’t have as many game modes as the WWF games, it has much better gameplay, and I like the graphics more than those games.
Saturday Night Slam Masters is a simple arcade game with an over-the-top roster of wrestlers. The controls and gameplay are both great. It is closer to a fighting game in some ways. It is similar to how the WWF WrestleMania: The Arcade Game is set up, but it is better than that game. It is a spectacular wrestling game and my favorite on the Sega Genesis.
Saturday Night Slam Masters (SNES)
This is an awesome game! I’ve played a few wrestling arcade games, and this is the best of all of them. Saturday Night Slam Masters has great controls, wonderful graphics, and a spectacular roster of over-the-top wrestlers. I like this one a little more than the Genesis version, but it is very close.
The controls are very simple, and the game is easy to figure out. While there are only two game modes, they’re done so well that it makes up for the lack of content. It plays like a fighting game and beat’em up hybrid, and I love it.
Saturday Night Slam Masters takes you on a world tour as you fight the roster in one of two gauntlet matches. It resembles Street Fighter in some ways but also plays like Final Fight. It is an interesting hybrid of the two genres and makes a very fun game.
Conclusion
Going back to revisit some of these games has been quite a bit of fun. My opinions on most of them haven’t changed much since I reviewed them over the last few years. I didn’t remember what I thought about some of the NES games, and I might have been too harsh on two of them. They aren’t the best, but they were fun for what they were.
I reviewed most of these games before I started looking at the reviews they got when they were released. Some of them probably didn’t get reviews because of the console they were released on, or because they were too old to appear in Nintendo Power. At some point, I might want to go back and look at them, but that will be for another time.
This was a nice way to close out this round of wrestling game reviews. I did a similar list with the WWF and WCW games, but this one was a little different for me. As I kept reviewing wrestling games, I found most of the games that didn’t have a WWF or WCW license were more fun to play. As I got into the PS1, N64, and Dreamcast, games like this were noticeably absent and had to be imported. This was most notable with the Dreamcast, and if I ever get into playing imports, that is one of the systems that has some real gems, not just in wrestling, but overall.
If you liked this post, please check out my other lists of wrestling games, such as WWF games and WCW games.