Tecmo World Wrestling (Game)

Tecmo World Wrestling

GAME » on September 1, 1989

Nintendo Entertainment System (Platform)

The first home console professional wrestling game to feature a play by play announcer, Tecmo World Wrestling both borrowed from and improved on concepts from the Nintendo classic Pro Wrestling.

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Overview

Tecmo World Wrestling is a 1989 (Japan) / 1990 (US) NES wrestling game developed and published by Tecmo. In Japan it is known as Gekitou Pro Wrestling!! Toukon Densetsu ("Intense Pro Wrestling!! Legend of the Fighting Spirit"). It introduced novel concepts for NES pro wrestling titles at the time, including cinematic cutscenes and a play-by-play announcer.

Gameplay

Tecmo World Wrestling's gameplay and scenario was extremely similar to the earlier NES wrestling title Pro Wrestling, but added a much larger array of moves for the wrestlers to perform, providing a more diverse roster of characters. Unlike Pro Wrestling, health meters for both the player and computer opponent were displayed on screen.

The single player mode took the player's selected character through the remainder of the roster, until they were victorious in the title match and moved on to face the final boss of the game, the "Earl of Doom" Blue King (Character). In another similarity to Pro Wrestling, Blue King was an unplayable character who could do every character's moves (akin to Pro Wrestling's Great Puma (Character)). Between matches, the player could engage in button mashing training exercises (either squats, sit-ups, or push-ups) to boost their strength.

The two player mode was a basic one-on-one battle between players selecting any wrestler from the roster.

Features

Tecmo included a unique feature in the game in which certain moves, if done when the opponent is at low health, would trigger a cinematic cutscene (similar in appearance to what Tecmo had done with its earlier NES Ninja Gaiden (Franchise) titles) that displayed the move being performed from a close-up, more detailed perspective. This provided a much more dramatic presentation to the bout as it neared its conclusion.

Also included was a play-by-play announced named Tom Talker. Talker called the action on the fly via text. This was the first example of play-by-play in any home console pro wrestling video game (WWF MicroLeague Wrestling (Game) for the Commodore 64 was released in 1987 and also contained text play-by-play).

Roster

Name	Nickname	Finishing Moves	Notes
Akira Dragon (Character)	The Samurai	Back Brain Kick, German Suplex	Visually inspired by wrestler Antonio Inoki
El Tigre (Character)	Striker	Back Drop, Northern Lights Suplex (misspelled in the game as "Northern Right Suplex")	Visually inspired by wrestler Tiger Mask
Pat Gordon (Character)	Greek Warrior	Back Drop, Power Slam
Rex Beat (Character)	The British Star	Power Bomb, Death Drop	Visually inspired by tag team The Road Warriors
Jackie Lee (Character)	Kung-Fu Master	German Suplex, Power Slam
Boris Chekov (Character)	The Siberian Machine	Giant Swing, Power Slam	Visually inspired by wrestler Stan Hansen
Mark Rose (Character)	Mr. Tattoo	Back Drop, Northern Lights Suplex (misspelled in the game as "Northern Right Suplex")
Julio Falcon (Character)	Iguanaman	Death Drop, Power Slam
Randy Gomez (Character)	The Flying Hand Grenade	Back Brain Kick, Power Bomb
Dr. Guildo	The Technician	Death Drop, Giant Swing	Visually inspired by wrestler Big Van Vader
Blue King (Character)	Earl of Doom	(can use any move from any character)	Non-playable boss character

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