A Winner is You! or Let's Bite Some Heads! - A Pro Wrestling Story

That's right folks! It's time we play some Pro Wrestling for the Nintendo Entertainment System. This gem of a game was released in March of 1987 and was developed by Nintendo R&D3 these are the same folks who developed Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!, Volleyball, NES Play Action Football, and oddly enough both StarTropics. These are good people!

So, why am I LPing this dinosaur of a game? Mostly for the sake of nostalgia. While I did pay some attention to wrestling growing up, a number of my friends were avid fans of the then WWF, I only picked up enough to sound competent in conversations and avoid being harassed. My cousins though had this game and whenever we visited them in Arizona my brother, them, and I would plop ourselves in front of their TV (they had their own in their bedroom?!) and play this game, pretty much until we were forced to shut the NES off by the adults.

I already did an informal poll of Twitter using Tyrants and I'll be playing the game through first as THE AMAZON (he wins because he is awesome, and he might not even be human) and then there will be a bonus round as Starman who is the second coolest character in the game.

I made a chart to help you understand:



So Let's get this started!



Just a note: Those guys on the box you can't actually play as them! I don't know who they are!

Also note: Sorry about the screen size NES emulator don't really seem to like make shots any bigger than this.

i honestly dont think there is a bad character in this game.

I can dig the flowchart.
Even though Starman is a badass character for badass people who are awesome.

Please refer to the chart Shivam!

Hey, Talking Time! Falselogic requested that I drop in and explain the cast of Pro Wrestling to you, being Talking Time's resident pro wrestler. The cast is entirely based on real life pro wrestlers, and I will lay it down for you all now.

Fighter Hayabusa is based on Japanese legend and WWE Hall of Famer Antonio Inoki.

King Slender is based on 16-time world champion and WWE Hall of Famer kiss stealin', wheelin' dealin' "Nature Boy" Ric Flair.

Giant Panther is based on Real American, reality TV star and WWE Hall of Famer Hulk Hogan.

Kin Korn Karn is based on Korean legend and the father of Japanese pro wrestling, Rikidozan, which is a shame, since Kin Korn Karn is the worst character in the game.

Starman is based on Mexican legend and b-movie star Mil Mascaras.

Star of this LP, THE AMAZON is equal parts legendary hardcore wrestler Abdullah the Butcher and never quite made it in America, but legend in Japan Bruiser Brody (sometimes know as King Kong Brody, not to be confused with King Kong Bundy).

Hidden boss character The Great Puma is based on Japanese and cruiserweight legend Tiger Mask (probably with a little of Tiger Mask II as well, but this game came out before Tiger Mask III or IV).

That's the cast of Pro Wrestling!

Shakewell's our Resident Wrestling Expert here at Talking Time and I've asked him to introduce us to the real world counterparts of Pro Wrestling's cast.

So without further ado let's meet the Wrestlers!



For laughs read Seanbaby's review of the game here.

So, I finished the game tonight and I just want to mention that Goddamn the difficulty ramps up in the defending the title matches!

Actual Wrassling begins tomorrow.

This is the first game I ever played while I was so drunk I could barely see straight. In the basement of a church!

And yes, I always played as the Amazon. My friend always played as Starman. Guess who usually won.

At first glance, Starman looked like this guy:

I don't know that I ever picked anyone but Starman.

Everyone?

- Eddie

Oh hell yes!

Flair vs Bear

Figure 4s all around plz.

Looking forward to this LP

King Slender for life, yo!

HEY!

Anyway, the game's from the period when Misawa was emulating Sayama almost totally as Tiger Mask, so really there's nothing much to choose between the two in terms of influence.

As far as the various trademark moves -

Hayabusa's Back Brain Kick is indeed Inoki's nigh-legendary enzugiri (the one he was originally supposed to beat Muhammad Ali with before all hell broke loose and the match wound up essentially birthing MMA). The Inoki equivalent in the vastly superior Tecmo Pro Wrestling also has this as a finish.

Starman's Flying Cross Chop is Mascaras' finisher, but the moonsault dropkick isn't something Mascaras would do, since that would involve taking a bump. Actually, the move's closest to something Sayama would do as Tiger Mask, or Paul London's dropsault in modern times.

Having only seen one Rikidozan match (and GOOD LORD was it awful; the man was worse than Baba), I can't comment on Karn's accuracy.

While Giant Panther is likely based on Hogan on his stats, his finishing moves aren't. The Iron Claw was likely taken from fellow American David Von Erich (who was very popular in Japan, and in fact he died there), and the head butt... well, that was seen as a very generic "big unskilled American" tactic in Japan.

Amazon could also be partially Tiger Jeet Singh, but really he's just an amalgam of various Japanese-based brawlers.

King Slender's finish is... well, a bit odd. Flair never used it (that I can remember); the most popular version that move I can think of is Bobby Eaton's, but it's not like the MX were ever popular enough in Japan to merit inclusion. I seem to recall Billy Robinson using the variant Slender has in this game, but it's been a while.

Interestingly, Slender's version is what's usually credited as the modifier-less "backbreaker" in Japanese-made wrestling games, with the more common versions in North America getting modifiers.

Impossible. I refuse to live in universe where this can happen.

All true! But the fact that no one has a downed finisher comes into play here. That negates the leg drop and the figure four, but looking at Slender and looking at Flair, you can see the inspiration. Same with Hogan, but Panther's less bald.

Also, when is this bitch getting started?

Right now!

Before we start though I just want to explain, for those who have lived a deprived life, how Pro Wrestling works. Like a lot of wrestling games, of that era, you basically just mash the buttons and hope something good happens. It isn't all that bad, but I've never noticed it to be all that precise either.

Here's the breakdown of what A and B do (context sensitive)

A - Kick (standing)
Pin Opponent (opp on mat)
Flying Splash (from top rope)
Clothesline (running)
Flying Splash over the Top Rope (running, opp on floor)

B - Punch (standing)
Pick up Opponent into Grapple (opp on mat)
Double Knee Drop (from top rope)
Knee Lift (running)

To Run - double-tap left or right
Irish Whip - left+B/right+B (grapple) This is throwing your opponent into the ropes
Body Slam - back/up+back/down+B (grapple)
Grapple - walk into Opponent

Most of the wrestlers can also do these while grappling

Belly-to-Back Suplex - left+A or Right+A
Vertical Suplex - up+A (looks kinda like a Brainbuster, too...close call)
Piledriver - down+A

Our character The Amazon has two special moves:

Piranha Bite - left+A or right+A (grapple)
Outlaw Choke - down+A (grapple)

Ok, let's do this!

Let's do this! All to the single short catchy tune this game has! (IT ROCKS!)

Our first match is... hmmm... I seem to be missig most of the pictures for my fight against Fighter Hayabusa... If I recall, he tried to kick the back of my head repeatedly while I cheesed and simply threw him out of the ring, then threw him against the barrier for about a 12 count then quickly ran back into the ring, sadly Fighter Hayabusa didn't make it. Later in the game when I have to defend my title and the opponents get crazy difficult, this will be one of the most effective ways of beating them.



Here's a video of Fighter Hayabusa's inspiration Antonio Inoki tussling with Hulk Hogan, sadly this video does not include Inoki's signature move Enzugiri, which is most similar to Fighter's Back Brain Kick.






Next Round,



I like to think that there is a South American rivalry between these two wrestlers... Both managed to make their way out of their respective markets and in to the much more lucrative American/International market and both would like to pretend the other didn't exist!

Mexico isn't South America!


King Slender for life. No piledriver = no deal.

Noted: Latin America

Oh, you'll see him. See him get his ass kicked by a real Wrestler!

I believe that's the Hogan / Inoki match with the famous finish where Inoki sold being KO's "by accident" by that lariat, giving Hogan the IWGP title since titles can change hands on a countout in Japan.

Amusing tie-in to videogames: Wrestlemania 2000 kept the countout rule, so once you won the world title you could retain in virtually every match in the season mode by simply getting counted out. Needless to say, Aki had been smartened up by the time No Mercy hit, and countouts were turned off in virtually every title match.

Oh, and in case anyone doesn't know, that screencap isn't the back brain kick, that's just the regular standing kick attack. I much prefer the Mat Mania roundhouse to the head (but, then, Mat Mania is the better game all-around even if you only could play as "YOU")

Please. King Slender is the best because he has more moves than any other wrestler (with the exception of Fighter Hayabusa, but his back brain kick sucks). Starman might have a chance against Slender, but Slender will always take down Amazon.

Wasn't it explicitly called a brainbuster in the manual or at least The Official Nintendo Player's Guide or Nintendo Power or something? I know that's what I knew it as and I never watched enough wrestling to know the name of moves like that.

I don't actually have the manual, and haven't googled enough around to find it, so I'm just calling it as I see it in the game.

The actual LP is a little meeehh, but the trash talk is aces.

Two thumbs up!

Amazingly, the only manual scan available online has the pages missing that would explain the names of the standard moves.

Man, it's always so cool to see the Hulkster as a heel. And Japansese wrestling is the best wrestling. I'm trying to remember the match that I saw from their hardcore wrestling circuit where a guy was body slammed onto a bed of nails.

Only so much you can do with this type of game. I wanted to add video but, I haven't found an emulator that outputs video worth watching.

Kin Korn Kan = Killer Kahn, you idiots!!!!

You misspelled "idoit", college boy.