King of the Ring: My Seven Favorite Wrestling Games
These are my favorite wrestling games. Only champions are on this list, not contenders.
To be the man, you have to beat the man. WOOOOOO!
Ric Flair
List items
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I imported this game when it came out, and that ranks as one of the top ten financial decisions I've ever made in my life. I was very excited for it's release because of my love for WCW/NWO Revenge and Wrestlemania 2000, as well as Japanese wrestling. I wasn't prepared for how awesome this game would be, how it would eclipse all wrestling games before it, and the massive amount of hours I would invest into it. It consumed my life at the time, and ranks as one of my favorite games I've ever played. This is wrestling game perfection.
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WWF No Mercy is the last great wrestling game ever made. No other game even comes close to offering me the same experience as No Mercy did. Hopefully one day there will be challenger to the title, but until that day comes, WWF No Mercy is the undisputed champion of American Wrestling games. Being the last game with the legendary AKI engine, it's definitely the Excellence of Execution.
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WCW vs Nwo World Tour was addictive, but when Revenge was released I realized something special was in front of me. The first game that captured almost everything I loved about wrestling, I wanted to play the game more than watching Raw or Nitro. I never imagined it would get better, luckily AKI was just getting started. Revenge holds a special place in my heart because it was the last great WCW game to ever be released, and reflects how spectacular and unique WCW once was.
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When I heard AKI was going to make a WWF game, I knew the WWF was going to win the Monday Night War. My friends and I wished they would make a WWF game like Revenge, but the real surprise was create a wrestler mode. Literally, a game changer. If only it kept track of the amount of time you put into that , because I probably put millions, and millions of the people's hours into that mode.
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My friend had imported Fire Pro G on the PSOne, and I had imported Fire Pro D on the Dreamcast. "If only there would ever be an American release", we cried. Six years later, someone heard us and released this gem. It's the culmination of every Fire Pro title before it, and it's in English! No shelling out tons of money on import copies or modding of consoles. I still prefer the engine used in the AKI games, but the customization of characters and moves available was exponentially deeper. Of all the classic games on this list, it's the only one available on 7th gen consoles (you can download it on PSN). It's worth every penny.
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Capcom's take on wrestling, and I wish they continued this series as much as they did Street Fighter. The imaginative characters was refreshing, and some would have made great gimmicks in real life. Even as a kid, I appreciated all the references to Street Fighter, and the relationships some of the wrestlers shared with the world warriors. This was a wrestling game that was high on the action and spectacle, and one of the few games I repeatedly rented from blockbuster before obtaining my own copy.
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Before the AKI N64 wrestling games, this is where I got my wrestling fix. For me, the NES and other 8-bit wrestling games weren't fun. It wasn't until Royal Rumble showed up that I got excited and began recreating what I watched on TV. As a kid, you couldn't ask for more. I had the SNES version, and a friend of mine had the Genesis version, so I got to experience both rosters. The SNES roster was better, hands down. This set the standard for me. I feel modern wrestling games overcompensate with their presentation or emphasis on graphical realism, and don't focus on making the actual wrestling part simple, enjoyable and therefore fun. A lot can be learned from Royal Rumble.
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