WWF wrestlemania
Wrestling is often met with a lot of skepticism because the matches are said to be fixed not to mention the weird storylines and bizarre characters. What you can’t make fun of are the athletic abilities that the wrestlers need to perform some of their amazing feats. The World Wrestling Federation, now called World Wrestling Entertainment, was and is the biggest broadcaster of the sport. WWE wrestlemania is the biggest annual show and this game is derived from that, it let’s you select one of three contestants and you must battle through all the others including the current champ Segeant Slaughter to be crowned champion.
You can play a practice game or go for the championship belt, both will lead you to the character select screen which allows you to choose from Hulk Hogan, the British bulldog or the ultimate warrior. All three of them were pretty much faces, or good guys, when this game was released. Each character including the opponents has their own signature move. You face off against your opponents in a predetermined order and include the likes of Mr. Perfect, the warlord and the million dollar man Ted Dibiase. You can fight using regular punches or kicks but the big moves come after you win a grapple, you can then execute a special move which will take off a large chunck of energy. You can even do some crazy things like jumping of the ropes into your opponent or going outside the ring and grabbing a chair to beat him up but don’t stay out too long or you’ll get counted out. Once either contestants energy drops to zero they can get pinned for a threecount to win the match.
WWF wrestlemania is a bit of a mixed bag for me, it’s not that bad and it has some very recognizeable characters in it and some cool stuff like the use of chairs. The trashtalking before a match is pretty unique so it’s a shame they don’t really influence the match. Too bad there’s not enough variation, the moves are rather bland and there isn’t a lot of difference between wrestlers. This game is mostly for wrestling fans and even then there are some better games around than this.
Overal rating: 6.5/10
This game was released for many different systems here are some notes:
| Amiga | Released in 1991. This is basically the same as the other 16-bit versions but this one has a load of trainers. |
| Amstrad CPC | Released in 1991. This one is the worst version available. |
| Atari ST | Released in 1991. |
| C64 | Released in 1991. Lacking the graphics of the 16-bit versions but the intro’s and stuff are all there. |
| DOS | Released in 1991. |
| Others | This version is not available. ZX spectrum released in 1991. |
| Date added | Nov-13-2010 20:30 |
| Name | WWF wrestlemania |
| Developer | twilight |
| Publisher | Ocean |
| First released | 1991 |
| Genre | Action |
