A Tribute to WWE/WWF Games

I remember the good old days of WWF, when there were some real superstars like the Ultimate Warrior, Hulk Hogan (before he became the joke he is now) and Bret ’the Hitman’ Hart. The sport’s pretty much lost its charm now, and all the epic matches have been replaced by enough drama to fuel a soap opera and enough scantily clad babes to make you feel you’re at the Playboy Mansion.

While the quality of the show has deteriorated, the games have only gotten better. If you’re a fan of the franchise, here’s a list of games you just have to play…

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WWF Wrestlemania: The Arcade Game (Sega Mega Drive):

Developed by Midway, WWF Wrestlemania: The Arcade Game was more a fast-paced two-player brawl than a real wrestling game. Grapple maneuvers were limited to basic throws, so you’d spend most of your time just punching your enemy to a pulp. In spite of this, the game managed to draw the beat ’em up crowd because of its arcadish special moves and gorgeous visuals.

Although there were only eight playable characters, each one had rather unrealistic special moves - the toothpick-flinging Razor Ramon for instance, could turn his hand into a razor’s edge and whack his opponent with it (close shave, chico!), and his other move allowed him to pick his opponent up by the feet and flail him around like an old carpet.

Although the game ran in 2D, this was one of the first wrestling games to use character sprites made of real images of the wrestlers they represented.

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WWF Raw (Xbox):

Being the first wrestling game on the Xbox, WWF Raw showed us that a great graphics/physics engine and some powerful hardware could do wonders for a wrestling game. Thanks to developer Anchor’s experience with the genre, the game had absolutely the best grappling system ever. It focused more on timing and execution rather than the usual punchbag-style gameplay of other wrestling games of its time, which was a big plus.

Unlike other wrestling games, all moves required energy, which meant that you couldn’t run around flailing punches like a retard. Another ‘first’ for the game was the innovative item system, that allowed to you interact with many different objects around the ring side, ranging from chairs to bats, which you could use to whack your enemies to see some red pixels ooze out (incredibly satisfying!).

If you got bored you could go ahead and create your own character and customize everything from his accessories to his entrance. WWF Raw had it all, and everything was executed so well that it was really hard (if not impossible) to find a flaw in the game.

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WWF Attitude (PlayStation):

Developer Acclaim went all out on this game, giving us 30 playable characters and 21 multiplayer modes, making Attitude one of the most heavyweight wrestling games out there. Attitude was one of the first wrestling games to have an extremely well built move-reversal system, which made the gameplay more skill-based than its predecessors. This also made the game a lot harder, and only for hardcore wrestling fans.

Although pulling off complex moves were kind of hard, the result (both visually and on the opponent) was really impactful. Most moves required you to punch in quite a few buttons in sequence, so there was quite a steep learning curve to it.

If you didn’t want to learn, however, you could always use one of the finest wrestler creation modes I’ve seen. The mode allowed you to select from a plethora of moves, facial features, entrance music and a lot more, making character creation a lot of tun.

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WWE SmackDown! Shut Your Mouth (PlayStation 2)

Shut Your Mouth found the right balance between simple moves and complex counters. The game had a two-tiered skill level - the first comprised gamers who could pull off moves with ease, and the second (more hardcore) were those who’d mastered the reversal system, and always had an upper hand in any fight.

This made sure that a seasoned played could always beat a button masher, and at the same time, a button masher wouldn’t get his butt kicked by the AI all the time since the basic moves were quite simple.

The game also made you or your opponents dizzy after they’d taken a beating, after which those slow but godly finisher or high-impact moves could be used. This ensured that Stone Cold Steve Austin wouldn’t spend the entire length of the game stunning you, or you wouldn’t taste the Rock’s People’s Elbow throughout the match.

In my opinion this was one of the first wrestling games that was polished close to perfection, thereby setting the pace for wrestling games in future.