Ah, I have some fond memories with this one. WWF Wrestlemania: The Arcade Game brings me right back to my own childhood in the 90’s, to when I played it on my friend’s Playstation or at my local arcade time after time. I still play it on my computer time after time.
Released in 1995 for the Playstation, Sega Saturn, DOS, Super Nintendo, and arcade consoles, this is a wrestling game featuring the top superstars of the mid 1990’s World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now called World Wrestling Entertainment, or WWE).
However, it’s not quite like the wrestling games you may be accustomed to today. Choosing from eight different superstars (Bret “The Hitman” Hart, Shawn Michaels, The Undertaker, Yokozuna, Bam Bam Bigelow, Razor Ramon, Lex Luger, and Doink the Clown), you take part in what turn out to be less like a wrestling game, and more like a Fighting/Beat-em-up game in the vein of Mortal Kombat. You fight matches in a tournament, in which your goal is to beat up your opponent(s) until their life bar runs out and you can pin them, before they can do the same to you. There are two different tournaments available in Single Play: you can compete for the Intercontinental Title, in which the tournament requires you to win 4 one-on-one matches, 2 two-on-one handicap
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matches, finishing with you winning one final THREE-on-one handicap match. The more difficult, yet prestigious World Wrestling Federation Title tournament, on the other hand, sees you fighting through 4 two-on-ones, 2 three-on-ones, and culminates in a final Royal Rumble match in which you must defeat and eliminate all eight superstars in the game. There is also a Two-Player mode as well, in which you and a friend can either battle each other or team up in Cooperative Play against other wrestlers.
The matches are usually quite fast-paced, in which you must employ different attacks and wrestling moves. Many of these attacks are employed through specific key combinations and button pressing (don’t worry; the game has a control configuration option that allows you to switch the controls to match what you feel most comfortable with). Once again, this is where it becomes less of a wrestling game and more of a fighting game (which some may like, while others may be turned off by. I’m one of the former). But there are more moves than the expected pile drivers and body slams; all of the superstars have their own unique move sets, but this also includes gimmicky character-based attacks that go out of the wrestling norms, to say the least (for example, Doink’s special attacks include hitting opponents with a cartoon hammer or shocking them with a joy buzzer; Undertaker can hit people with a gravestone or shoot demons at competitors). And many of the character movements are usually quite over-the-top (a good uppercut can send these guys FLYING into the air!!).
Bottom line: WWF Wrestlemania: The Arcade Game, is a simple, yet addictive, over-the-top, and action-packed game that, aside from the great nostalgia factor. Those fans who want a fast-paced, one-of-a-kind game based on the WWF should definitely give this game a whirl.
