History of Wrestling Games

Wrestling is a combat sport involving grappling type techniques such as clinch fighting, throws and takedowns, joint locks, pins and other grappling holds. Well it is that but under the banner of WWE which is the biggest franchise out there it is known as Sports Entertainment.

I’ve been gaming since the NES was nestled under the christmas tree when i was 5, and having played WWF (World Wrestling Federation, now known as the WWE World Wrestling Entertainment) Wrestlemania Steel Cage Challenge which literally had ten wrestlers to choose from (Image Below) compared to the 120 now on offer in the latest wrestle fest.

So my question how far has the franchise come and are you happy with the current product?

Some still say the best wrestling game ever released was and is WWF No Mercy on the N64 in December 2000, this game was amazing, it had everything that i wanted in a wrestling video game at the time, Great graphics, Road to Wrestlemania, Championship Mode. So many options for single player it was truly a quality game…Apart from the hair pulling bugs that the game had, which resulted in its sales dropping.

This was the same year as WWF Smackdown was released on the Playstation and was a huge leap in terms of gameplay, it was smoother and faster, Since WWF Smackdown was released Yukes have held on to the WWF/WWE franchise Previously all licences went through Acclaim from the WWF Warzone games to the WWF In Your House. There have been some groundbreaking games and some god awful ones like WWF War Zone, there simply was no fluidity in the game it felt clunky even then and the little sound bites they have for the characters were hilarious. The Control span of the games has also excelled over the years with the combos no longer needing silly button combinations.