WWF WrestleMania: The Arcade Game
Good afternoon everyone, today we'll be taking a detailed look at the incredible WWF WrestleMania, the arcade game released in arcades and for various home consoles in 1995.
If anyone wants to play it without downloading the game, you can play it online at this page: https://gam.onl/arcade/wwf-wrestlemania.html#wwf-wrestlemania
It was the first WWF arcade game since Wrestle Fest in 1990. It's considered one of the most fun wrestling games in history, and we'll be looking at what made it so fun, as well as the origins of the game's different versions. I'd love to hear what you remember and think about WrestleMania, the arcade game.
Get ready for Kombat! The origin of WrestleMania, the arcade game, was due to the fact that the people at Midway wanted to create a wrestling game with the same unbridled style of their successful NBA Jam and Mortal Kombat. Mark Turmell, Sal Davita, and their team worked hard to make this game as fun as possible.
They took the gameplay from NBA Jam, combined it with Mortal Kombat-like combat mechanics, and they had a game called WWF, and it worked perfectly. The digitized arena of wrestlers and fans gives the game a more realistic look than any previous WWF game. The fact that Undertaker could shoot phantoms like fireballs or that Doink could electrocute people indicates that it's more of a fun game than a simulation. Details like Bret Hart's hearts flying out when he was punched or Yokozuna's huge hams flying out.
The game featured eight WWF superstars: the best of the best, Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, The Undertaker, Razor Ramon, Lex Luger, Bam Bam, Bigelow, Doink, and Yokozuna for 1993.
The arcade machine has exactly the same button layout as the one-two punch and two-two punch combos. You have two punch buttons, two kick buttons, and one block button. Each match is a best-of-three knockdown, and you need to deplete your opponent's energy bar to win. Once you do this, you pin them, but there's no one-two-three count. You can move around the ring in all directions and you can even go behind the ring when you're out. You can execute moves similar to how you did in Mortal Kombat. For example, press back and back, power kick with Shaw Michaels, he'll do a pump kick by pressing forward and power punch. You get into a headlock. From here, you can press button combinations to execute other special moves: forward and power punch with Raze. Ramone for Razer's Edge
Wrestle Mania, the arcade game, was released for all home consoles by Acclaim. The Sony PlayStation and Sega Saturn versions are the best in terms of graphics, but these games have earned a reputation for being similar to arcade games, which is not the case at all. The first consoles to release this game were the PlayStation and Sega Saturn, but the game's details were nothing like the original.
In 1995, 16-bit consoles were still powerful, so WrestleMania, the arcade game, was also released for Super Nintendo, Sega Mega Drive, and Genesis. The Super Nintendo version is a complete disaster. It's missing two characters, Bambam Bigelow and Yokozuna, but it's the horrible slowdown and unresponsive gameplay that ruins the game.
An enhanced version was also released for the 32X, and this version is much better than many believe. It's a PC version that was also released and shares many similarities with the PlayStation and Saturn versions. One thing all the home versions have in common is that none of them include the fun arcade finishes.
My Conclusion of the Game
Over the years, we've heard many interesting stories about what this game could have been. The two most notable are: first, the fatalities. That's right. There's talk that there would be some sort of fatal finishing move for wrestlers in the arcade version. WrestleMania, the arcade game, is truly an incredible video game and one that holds up very well, as long as you don't play the Super Nintendo version. Of course, WWF in Your Home would follow on PlayStation, Saturn, and PC.
