The full experience of wrestling games

[AppleQueso]

I play the AKI games all the time.

Newer ones simply aren't as fun.

What are the AKI ones? I only played WWF and WCW games.

the ones AKI developed that used their engine

WCW/nWo World Tour, WCW/nWo Revenge, WWF Wrestlemania 2000, WWF No Mercy, Virtual Pro Wrestling 64, Virtual Pro Wrestling 2

[Breetai]

Most of those older game's single-player "campaigns" are just a bunch of matches as you work your way up the title ranks with no storylines of any sort. Storylines didn't become the norm in wrestling games really until 6th generation games. And working your way up those ranks in the old games usually took a while.

I'd suggest getting some friends together and playing the game multiplayer, unless you have that much patience which archaic controls and archaic A.I. and lots of time on your hands. (Yeah, I know this is a retro site and all, but wrestling games really have aged poorly)

I have to say that you are off on this one. WWF No Mercy on the N64 was one of the first wrestling games to start the single-player story thing that became the norm in the sixth generation (I honestly can't remember if Wrestlemania 2000 had this or not, but I don't think it really did). WCW vs nWo World Tour (and a few before it, but mainly this one) was the first game to REALLY nail the control system. This was tweaked a bit through Virtual Pro Wrestling (JP), WCW/nWo Revenge, Wrestlemania 2000, Virtual Pro 2 and WWF No Mercy, but it's basically the same control system. The control and pacing of these games STILL has not been matched by the newest games. There is even a huge modding community out there for No Mercy, where they've created 100s of new characters, updated the graphics (for use in emulators), created new rings, etc. In the opinion of a lot of people, the best wrestling games are still on the N64. I agree with them.

While the 100s of hours into each games me and the other guy were suggesting was, of course, mainly a joke, in a way it wasn't. People really have put that many hours into the later games like WWF Wrestlemania 2000 and No Mercy. Even WCW/nWo Revenge still holds up (World Tour not really, as Revenge and WWF games blew it away). Virtual Pro 2 came out between Wrestlemania 2000 and No Mercy, but features Japanese leagues and is a bit more complex than the US games. Those who have played it (again, like me), would say that this is THE best wrestling game you can get on any console for game play, pacing and being able to produce the best technical matches of any wrestling game.

Check out some of the mods for No Mercy:
Hi-def:


Classics:


TNA/ROH:


TNA 6-sided ring!!!:

[AppleQueso]

we need a hand-clap smiley so i can use it in response to the above post

[Menegrothx]

I cant believe how many times I played through the career mode of Here comes the pain as a kid. I got my selfmade character's stats to 99 (3-4 playthroughs?) and played the story mode through on HHH, Rey Mysterio, Undertaker, Brock Lesnar and The Rock. On top of that I played versus mode a lot.
I doubt I would have the patience to even go through the storymode once if I bought the latest WWE game

E: Breetai, do you know are there any BJPW (or similiar) Japanese wrestling games with crazy death matches? Exploding cage timebomb death match, all the crazy weapons etc...

Backyard Wrestling 2 has Ryuji Ito but other than that it sucks.

[Breetai]

E: Breetai, do you know are there any BJPW* (or similiar) Japanese wrestling games with crazy death matches? Exploding cage timebomb death match, all the crazy weapons etc...

*Did you mean AJPW or NJPW?

Sorry, I'm not sure. I know that the Genesis/MD port of Muscle Bomber/Saturday Night Slam Masters has a deathmatch. I suspect that some of the Fire Pro games do (in fact, I'm very sure), but I haven't played Fire Pro in years aside from dabbling in Fire Pro 6-man Scramble and Fire Pro D a bit lately.


Fun Fact: Both AJ Styles and Samoa Joe have mentioned multiple times as Virtual Pro Wrestling 2 on the N64 being their absolutely favourite wrestling game. When the TNA game was being made a few years ago, those two tried to pitch a re-make of VPW2

[BurningDoom]

I have no debate about those games being great for the day. And it was the best era in professional wrestling, period. But in every single department other than the era wrestling it was in, the modern games have outshined those games. Better controls, better graphics, better audio and video, larger rosters, more gameplay modes, storylines, online support. It really isn't a comparison. I think nostalgia is blurring some people's reality here.

And how are we supposed to get those mods to run on our N64s?

[AppleQueso]

I have no debate about those games being great for the day. And it was the best era in professional wrestling, period. But in every single department other than the era wrestling it was in, the modern games have outshined those games. Better controls, better graphics, better audio and video, larger rosters, more gameplay modes, storylines, online support. It really isn't a comparison. I think nostalgia is blurring some people's reality here.

The control and pacing of these games STILL has not been matched by the newest games.

I still play these games all the time. Matches are more fun, new ones still haven't gotten it right.

And how are we supposed to get those mods to run on our N64s?

You don't.

There is even a huge modding community out there for No Mercy, where they've created 100s of new characters, updated the graphics (for use in emulators), created new rings, etc.

[Breetai]

I have no debate about those games being great for the day. And it was the best era in professional wrestling, period. But in every single department other than the era wrestling it was in, the modern games have outshined those games. Better controls, better graphics, better audio and video, larger rosters, more gameplay modes, storylines, online support. It really isn't a comparison. I think nostalgia is blurring some people's reality here.

And how are we supposed to get those mods to run on our N64s?

I played the PS2/PS3 Smackdown and RvsS a lot in the 2000s. I played three or four of them to death, where I did basically everything you could do in them. Those games are faster paced and have a more "arcade" feel than the Aki games. I've gone back to the N64 ones numerous times and I believe they really are better in the control and match flow departments. For me, that means they are more fun.

I bolded the things you said that, in my opinion, either don't matter or are debatable at least. I find the control better in the N64 games than any other wrestling game. At the very least, anyone who has played them should be able to figure out the controls with little effort. They have no problems and are not overly complicated. The rosters of ANY wrestling game, unless it is meant to feature classic rosters, will always become outdated rather quickly. I say it's a moot point. Likewise with gameplay modes. As long as it has the standard modes, most of them are just filler to be honest. Storylines are fun, but once you've played through the few available, who really plays them again and again? For online support... I don't really game online, so I don't care about it. You CAN play No Mercy online with an emulator on a PC if you want.

Of course the graphics are much better on newer games. But Racketboy is a retro game forum. Do any of us here really use graphics as a determiner to say that one game is better than another in most cases?

I really don't think it is nostalgia speaking here.

[Menegrothx]

E: Breetai, do you know are there any BJPW* (or similiar) Japanese wrestling games with crazy death matches? Exploding cage timebomb death match, all the crazy weapons etc...

*Did you mean AJPW or NJPW?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Japan_Pro_Wrestling

Fun Fact: Both AJ Styles and Samoa Joe have mentioned multiple times as Virtual Pro Wrestling 2 on the N64 being their absolutely favourite wrestling game. When the TNA game was being made a few years ago, those two tried to pitch a re-make of VPW2

Cool, I'll probably buy it then once I get me a region converter to my N64 (provided I can find a copy of it for a relatively cheap price). Didn't think that pro wrestlers would be into import gaming

[Breetai]

Didn't think that pro wrestlers would be into import gaming

Quite a few pro wrestlers have wrestled in Japan.

You don't need to buy anything to play Japanese games on a US N64. Just break the tabs off inside, just like on an SNES. It takes like a minute to do.

I'm not huge into JP pro wrestling, so I didn't know about BJPW. I just know old AJPW, of course New Japan and Hustle (because it happened to be on TV a lot when I was living in Japan. Hard Gay!). I've heard of Michinoku Pro, but never seen it since it's for northern Japan and I was in Tokyo. Also heard of FMW, but never seen it either.