I'm covering another classic WWE game...and this time, there's a more fleshed-out guide for your reading pleasure!
Well, here we are. Another WWE game, and this time around, we get to kick this bad boy around for a few days.
The game is a direct sequel to the 1989 arcade game WWF Superstars, which was also developed by Technos. So why am I covering this one first? Because I played it once on an arcade cabinet back in 6th grade, and I never saw it again...until now.
Don't worry about the Royal Rumble. I'll cover it soon enough. For now, it's time for everybody's favorite (80's) wrestling show...
The game is a direct sequel to the 1989 arcade game WWF Superstars, which was also developed by Technos. So why am I covering this one first? Because I played it once on an arcade cabinet back in 6th grade, and I never saw it again...until now.
Don't worry about the Royal Rumble. I'll cover it soon enough. For now, it's time for everybody's favorite (80's) wrestling show...
Saturday Night's Main Event!
Who are the characters in this game, you ask?
Hulk Hogan
The Ultimate Warrior
Big Boss Man
Jake "The Snake" Roberts
Crush of Demolition
Smash of Demolition
Earthquake
"The Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase
"Mr. Perfect" aka Curt Hennig
Sgt. Slaughter
Road Warrior Animal
Road Warrior Hawk
Fight 1
The characters for the matches are all chosen at random. So I'm just gonna go by what I'm seeing and post my own thoughts on the game as I see fit.
The first match is against Ted DiBiase and Mr. Perfect.
First of all, Technos did a nice job on this game. It's a shame it didn't come out on a home system at the time - the music is perfect for the Genesis/Mega Drive, and you could use two buttons for punch and kick respectively on Super Nintendo.
I always played as the Million Dollar Man during that brief two hours that I was in the arcade that this game was in. Sadly, I didn't know how to tag in my partner, and I couldn't win the Royal Rumble (even though I got pretty far). Who would have thought that his own son, Ted DiBiase Jr., would also be wrestling in WWE and be a former tag team partner with Dusty Rhodes's younger son Cody, at that?
Also, Mr. Perfect aka Curt Hennig died of a drug overdose. And for that, I'm sad. As for Hulk Hogan, he was in TNA, and now he's shilled a hosting site for wrestlers called Hostamania. Meanwhile, the Ultimate Warrior is retired after being fired from WWE three times for various stuff. He now has short hair and comments about his former co-workers and whatnot on the Internet, of all things. Also, people think's he completely insane, and I fail to see why. He's finally entering the WWE Hall of Fame, though. That induction is long overdue.
Every time you win a match, you'll see how many more matches you need before you fight the Road Warriors, Hawk and Animal. Seeing Hulk Hogan punch the number to bring it down by one is slightly hilarious yet very accomplishing. You'd be surprised.
Also, to tag your partner in, you'll have to get to your respective corner and hold the punch button down.
Fight 2
The second match is against Jake Roberts and Big Boss Man. Instead of blue mats outside the ring, there are now orange mats.
Boss Man was a pretty interesting character back in the day. Playing a prison guard (a job he held before he became a wrestler), he started feuding with Hulk Hogan and then Hogan and Randy Savage (the latter while teaming with Akeem the African Dream) before turning into a good guy after refusing to do Ted DiBiase's dirty work and getting the Million Dollar Championship back from Jake "The Snake" Roberts.
Anybody remember the Boss Man's 1999/2000 return to WWE? Y'know, the one where he was Vince McMahon's stooge for a while, wrestling the Hardcore Championship away from Mick Foley and starting a feud with Al Snow after cooking his pet chihuahua? Man, those were the days. Too bad he's dead of a heart attack at 41 years old. That's too soon, if you ask me.
Also, if I remember correctly, I think Jake "The Snake" Roberts is retired. That reminds me...I wish they at least finished that angle where he turned on the Warrior to side with The Undertaker. That would have been nice...too bad the Warrior got fired again. He also had been abusing alcohol for the longest time, but spending time at Diamond Dallas Page's accountability crib really changed him for the better. He relapsed once, but he got back on track pretty quickly. He finally made his first WWE appearance in quite a long time at the end of Old School RAW in 2014.
Also, if I remember correctly, I think Jake "The Snake" Roberts is retired. That reminds me...I wish they at least finished that angle where he turned on the Warrior to side with The Undertaker. That would have been nice...too bad the Warrior got fired again. He also had been abusing alcohol for the longest time, but spending time at Diamond Dallas Page's accountability crib really changed him for the better. He relapsed once, but he got back on track pretty quickly. He finally made his first WWE appearance in quite a long time at the end of Old School RAW in 2014.
Fight 3
This match is against The Demolition, Crush and Smash. This time, it takes place in a steel cage. Unlike the last two matches, Crush and Smash will always be on the same time.
Crush of Demolition became...well, Crush, except with a flowing red mullet and the greatest '80s-looking orange and purple wrestling outfit you'd probably ever see, while Smash became Repo Man. They'd fight each other at SummerSlam 1992, but the British audience didn't get to see it on PPV for some strange reason.
Crush would later wrestle under his real name, Bryan Adams, and join the nWo in World Championship Wrestling in the late '90s. He died of a drug overdose in 2007, even though this has never been officially confirmed. Smash is still around on the independent circuit, and has even brought Ax with him to briefly re-unite Demolition a few times.
Anyway, if you run into that cage, you're going to take damage. I don't care if you're being whipped into the ropes, you're still going to run smack into the cage.
Fight 4
This match is against Sgt. Slaughter and Earthquake. Depending on the machine settings, you may fight another match after this before facing the Road Warriors. The arena here is the same as Fight 2.
Sgt. Slaughter is still around. If there's anything as impressive as his days in the WWE back in the 1990s, it's his days in the AWA back in the 1980s. Catch those matches if you can. He's retired, but he can still work the crowd whenever WWE has him do something.
Earthquake, aka John Tenta, died of bladder cancer at age 42 in 2006. He started out as a sumo wrestler, but quit due to the difficulty of the sumo lifestyle and the fact that he would have had to remove his tattoo via skin graft to enter the higher level competitions (tattoos are associated with gangsters in Japan). He then fought under the name Earthquake in WWE, and formed a tag team, The Natural Disasters, with Typhoon, who happened to be as big as he was. He'd leave for WCW to fight under the name Avalanche due to personal financial difficulties, then come back with less girth, fighting under the name Golga as part of the Oddities. (WWE believed that his reprising Earthquake wouldn't be believable with the weight loss.) He fought one last time at the Gimmick Battle Royal in WrestleMania X-7, then retired a few years later.
Sgt. Slaughter is still around. If there's anything as impressive as his days in the WWE back in the 1990s, it's his days in the AWA back in the 1980s. Catch those matches if you can. He's retired, but he can still work the crowd whenever WWE has him do something.
Earthquake, aka John Tenta, died of bladder cancer at age 42 in 2006. He started out as a sumo wrestler, but quit due to the difficulty of the sumo lifestyle and the fact that he would have had to remove his tattoo via skin graft to enter the higher level competitions (tattoos are associated with gangsters in Japan). He then fought under the name Earthquake in WWE, and formed a tag team, The Natural Disasters, with Typhoon, who happened to be as big as he was. He'd leave for WCW to fight under the name Avalanche due to personal financial difficulties, then come back with less girth, fighting under the name Golga as part of the Oddities. (WWE believed that his reprising Earthquake wouldn't be believable with the weight loss.) He fought one last time at the Gimmick Battle Royal in WrestleMania X-7, then retired a few years later.
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