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Top 5 Of My Favorite All-Time Wrestling Games

Ever since 1998 when I was playing WCW/nWo Revenge on the Nintendo 64, I’ve always had a fondness of playing certain wrestling games because of the simplicity in the graphics as well as amazing features like the create-a-wrestler and wrestling matches like a steel cage match.

From July 6, 1998 to June 2007, I used to watch wrestling almost every Monday and Thursday night to see the compelling storylines as well as great matches and unscripted promos. But nowadays, I hardly watch WWE wrestling in particular because it’s become very stale, repetitive, and redundant with scripted promos, many meaningless filler matches with lack of stars, lack of character development, and Roman Reigns being forced and shoved down everyone’s throats on a weekly basis.

Here are my top 5 favorite all-time wrestling games.


1. Fire Pro Wrestling World - One of the main reasons why this game is my favorite all-time wrestling game is because of the fact that in this game unlike many wrestling games of the 1990s, 2000s, and this current decade, this game allows us as gamers to not only create our own wrestlers, but the wrestling logos, arenas, and even the rings making the create mode far deeper than any WWE 2K game out there right now. The roster is extremely deep with many wrestlers to choose from either from the game or you can even upload wrestlers on the game through downloaded mods. The graphics are amazing and the match types like the steel cage match with the explosion effect to it takes wrestling to a level not seen since the peak of ECW in the late 1990s.


2. WCW/nWo Revenge - Growing up in my early teens, I was absolutely in love with this game from the moment I first started playing it because of its very simple grappling mechanics as well as being able to change a wrestler’s attire and even coming out to the ring with a manager and getting him/her to assist you in matches. And then the amazing intro of the game which is my favorite all-time intro to a wrestling game and plus the arenas to the game looked absolutely great with the classic Nitro arena from Sept. 1995 to March 1999 being my favorite all-time wrestling arena. I also love this game for the fact that there was not only a championship mode where you face off against 10 random opponents to win the title, but also a scoring system which you accumulate points based on certain things like signature move and finishing move.


3. WWE No Mercy - In 2000, No Mercy brought something different to the table for wrestling games at that time because you can actually earn money by not only winning survival mode where you get to unlock certain characters like Mick Foley, Andre The Giant, and Ken Shamrock, but also by winning matches in story mode that you can use to buy not only certain moves like a Razor’s Edge, but also other characters like veteran referee Earl Hebner. I loved how well they displayed the wrestlers in 3D and the fact that we can wrestle in a ladder match for a title by grabbing the ladder to constantly dish out some much needed punishment to the opponent with it and grabbing the belt to win the match after we used the finishing move on the opponent beforehand. The game is still a classic to this day to many gamers like myself. The storylines for the game were among the best ones ever for a wrestling game at the time.


4. Here Comes The Pain - This game was a better upgrade from Shut Your Mouth that had the wrestlers looking much better almost as close to their real life counterparts. I greatly enjoyed the new graphics for this game like the various new types of grappling mechanics (Power, Speed, Technical, and Submission) as well as the fact that the elimination chamber was added to this game and I’ll tell you, that match is pure hell when you’re trying to do everything you can do to win the match by surviving through five other opponents and then there was also the triple threat tag team TLC matches that brought so much excitement as I enjoyed laying the smack down on opponents by putting them through tables and punishing them with the chairs and ladders. There was even the inclusion of the gimmicky, but raunchy “Bra and Panties” match. This was also the first game to feature "WWE Legends" like Early 90s Undertaker into the roster, thus starting a tradition that would follow suit with future SmackDown! and later WWE 2K games. This was by far my favorite game from The Smackdown series.


5. Ring Of Destruction:  Slam Masters II - Unlike the previous iteration of Slam Masters, this game was actually made into a traditional fighting game with very amazing 2D character designs such as Victor Omega being based on Hulk Hogan and Mike Haggar being based on Randy Savage and Jesse Ventura. This game put a main emphasis on striking and grappling as I enjoyed putting those powerful suplexes and powerbombs on opponents. Controls were upgraded to five buttons: two punch buttons, two kick buttons, and a grapple button. The objective of each match is to deplete the opponent's life bar in two out of three rounds. It is no longer possible for the player to pin their opponent to win a match, though all other wrestling-style moves have been retained.

The Conclusion - Even though wrestling games have evolved tremendously since the late 90s, to me personally, Fire Pro Wrestling World is the only wrestling game out there now that’s captivated the passion and excitement of the genre from current young generational gamers and old school gamers like myself.

By Kwame Shakir

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