{"id":124903,"date":"2022-05-17T17:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-05-17T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/#article-131523"},"modified":"2022-05-17T17:00:00","modified_gmt":"2022-05-17T17:00:00","slug":"feature-the-12-best-wrestling-games-on-nintendo-systems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2022\/05\/17\/feature-the-12-best-wrestling-games-on-nintendo-systems\/","title":{"rendered":"Feature: The 12 Best Wrestling Games On Nintendo Systems"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a><\/div>\n

Ah, professional wrestling, the one true sport. Is there anything better than having a big fake fight? Of course not, which is why kids have play-fights all the time. And, just like wrestling, sometimes those fights become all-too-real when someone works themselves into a shoot.<\/p>\n

Wrestling, of course, has quite the storied history not just in The World, but on Nintendo, too. So we\u2019ve decided to brave the squared circle and unleash twelve of the best, most important and most interesting wrestling games in Nintendo history all over your candy asses. And, if you disagree with the list, just pretend it\u2019s a Russo-style swerve!<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\"WCW\"WCW<\/a><\/p>\n
\n

Publisher: <\/span>FCI<\/strong> \/ Developer: <\/span>Nichibutsu<\/strong><\/p>\n

Release Date: <\/span>Apr 1990 (USA<\/abbr>)<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Still the only game officially licensed with the NWA, WCW Wrestling<\/strong> is a standout showing for grap fans on the NES. Its original Japanese release was called Superstar Pro Wrestling<\/strong>, but for the western debut it was rebuilt with WCW wrestlers, including the likes of Sting, Ric Flair, \u201cDr Death\u201d Steve Williams and \u2013 interestingly \u2013 the Road Warriors, who, uniquely, also appear in the Superstar Pro Wrestling version. It\u2019s rather forward thinking, too, in allowing the player to customise their chosen wrestler\u2019s moveset prior to a match.<\/p>\n

Granted, there aren\u2019t that many<\/em> moves \u2013 eight to choose from per wrestler \u2013 but this feature combined with the fun pick-up-and-play gameplay itself made for an early winner.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\"Tecmo\"Tecmo<\/a><\/p>\n
\n

Publisher: <\/span>Tecmo<\/strong> \/ Developer: <\/span>Tecmo<\/strong><\/p>\n

Release Date: <\/span>Apr 1990 (USA<\/abbr>)<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Fascinatingly, this is the first grap-game ever to feature a full play-by-play announcer. No, of course it\u2019s not full sampled speech \u2013 the accurately-named Tom Talker offers his colour commentary in the form of pop-up speech bubbles. Indeed, if that were all the game had to offer it\u2019d almost be enough to justify its place on the list, but each of the ten imaginary wrestlers here have over 20 moves apiece \u2013 a stunning number considered how limited the games that came before could be.<\/p>\n

Brilliantly, Ninja Gaiden<\/a><\/strong>-style \u201ctheatre\u201d sequences are used in action replays, in order to display the impact of particularly devastating moves.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Super\"Super<\/a><\/p>\n
\n

Publisher: <\/span>Human Entertainment<\/strong><\/p>\n

Release Date: <\/span>20th Dec 1991 (JPN<\/abbr>)<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The iconic Fire Pro Wrestling<\/strong> series got its start on PC Engine, but it made the leap to Nintendo here for the first of seven (!) entries on Nintendo systems. What makes Fire Pro so beloved and unique is its focus on timing \u2013 not just the fact that button-mashing won\u2019t get the player anywhere thanks to a fastidious grapple\/counter system, but also in terms of its adherence to the rhythms and momentum of a real wrestling match, in which the action sees peaks and troughs before coming to a head with a spectacular finisher and dramatic kick-outs.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\"Saturday\"Saturday<\/a><\/p>\n
\n

Publisher: <\/span>Capcom<\/strong> \/ Developer: <\/span>Capcom<\/strong><\/p>\n

Release Date: <\/span>2nd Sep 1994 (USA<\/abbr>)<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

This big, bombastic coin-op conversion is best known for its inclusion of Final Fight<\/a>\u2019s<\/strong> esteemed mayor of Metro City, one Mike Haggar. Despite utilising some attack movements from the popular Street Fighter 2<\/a><\/strong>, the controls are overall more simple, with only punch, kick and jump buttons available \u2013 though wrestlers can venture outside the ring to plunder weapons from the crowd. The SNES version packs both the Single and Team Battle modes from the arcade game, allowing four players with the use of a multitap.<\/p>\n

Amusingly, the game\u2019s Western localisation makes the rather dubious claim that wrestler Gunloc is Street Fighter Guile\u2019s brother \u2013 something that remains resolutely<\/em> non-canon.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Funaki\"Funaki<\/a><\/p>\n
\n

Publisher: <\/span>Technos<\/strong><\/p>\n

Release Date: <\/span>1994 (JPN<\/abbr>)<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The titular Funaki Masakatsu co-founded the MMA organisation Pancrase, predating the UFC and offering up future WWF Attitude Era star Ken Shamrock. Prior to his glittering MMA career, however, he was a pro wrestler for New Japan Pro Wrestling, and it\u2019s this aspect of his life and work that the next entry in our list focuses on.<\/p>\n

The most notable feature here is the create-a-wrestler mode, that allows you to, well, create a wrestler and then watch their life play out on screen, including marriage and the birth of their child, who can themselves be trained as a wrestler and become playable at 18 years old. Brilliant.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\"WWF\"WWF<\/a><\/p>\n
\n

Publisher: <\/span>Acclaim Entertainment<\/strong> \/ Developer: <\/span>Sculptured Software<\/strong><\/p>\n

Release Date: <\/span>Nov 1995 (USA<\/abbr>)<\/strong> \/ 25th Jan 1996 (UK\/EU<\/abbr>)<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

If Slam Masters took a leaf from Street Fighter\u2019s book, then WWF: Wrestlemania: The Arcade Game<\/strong> does the same for Midway\u2019s Mortal Kombat<\/a><\/strong> series. This digitised scrapper is as cartoonish and exaggerated as the WWF product was at the time of its release, seeing The Undertaker throwing fireballs all over the ring. There\u2019s little in the way of pinning strategy, here \u2013 simply empty your enemy\u2019s health bar to go for the pin.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not the best version of the game \u2013 indeed, the Mega Drive version is (whisper it) superior \u2013 but it\u2019s still enormous fun to this day, hence its inclusion in our list.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ah, professional wrestling, the one true sport. Is there anything better than having a big fake fight? Of course not, which is why kids have play-fights all the time. And, just like wrestling, sometimes those fights become all-too-real when someone works themselves into a shoot. Wrestling, of course, has quite the storied history not just […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-124903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nintendo-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124903","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124903"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124903\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}