WCW Wrestling

WCW Wrestling
Cover art featuring The Road Warriors
Developer(s)	Nichibutsu[1]
Publisher(s)	FCI, Inc.[1]
Series	WCW
Platform(s)	Nintendo Entertainment System
Release date(s)	NA: April 1990[1]
Genre(s)	Wrestling[1]
Mode(s)	Single-player Multiplayer (up to two players)

WCW Wrestling (a.k.a. World Championship Wrestling) is a wrestling video game that was released in April 1990 for the Nintendo Entertainment System. The Japanese version was released in 1989 under the name Super Star Pro Wrestling, with a different lineup of wrestlers.

It was the first (and, to date, only) video game based on the National Wrestling Alliance (at the time, WCW was a member of NWA). After The Road Warriors left WCW for the World Wrestling Federation, WCW continued to advertise the game in their own catalogs with a mock-up cartridge showing Sting on the label, though no such copies of the game with an alternate label are known to exist or believed to have ever been manufactured.^[2] To date, the game has sold over 100,000 copies.

Gameplay

Each wrestler in WCW Wrestling has eight "selectable" moves, two Irish whip moves, and a finisher.

Selectable moveset

WCW Wrestling differs from most wrestling titles in that the player selects his or her moveset prior to the match. Each wrestler has a menu of eight moves (with each wrestler featuring a unique moveset), of which the player may choose four (each move selected is assigned to a direction on the D-pad).

Playable characters and final opponent

Playable characters in the game are Ric Flair, Sting, Lex Luger, Mike Rotundo, Road Warrior Hawk, Road Warrior Animal, Steve Williams, Kevin Sullivan, Rick Steamboat, Rick Steiner, Eddie Gilbert, Michael Hayes, and the opponent that is wrestled at the end of the game is a masked wrestler named the WCW master^[3] (since the final opponent is 525 pounds and 7'4, and wears the same wrestling outfit that Andre the Giant wore, it just might be him).

Irish whip moves

These moves are performed by first initiating an Irish whip (throwing the opponent into the ropes by pressing left and B or right and B) and then pressing either A or B when the opponent is near. Each wrestler has a different Irish whip moveset (though these moves are not selectable in the moveset menu).

Finishers

Each wrestler has his own finisher move. These must be performed in the middle of the ring and can only be accomplished when the opponent had two squares remaining on his health meter. The move is performed by pressing A and B simultaneously. Finishers deliver significantly more damage than a regular move and are likely to end the match in a knock-out or submission.

Super Star Pro Wrestling

Cover of Super Star Pro Wrestling

Super Star Pro Wrestling is a 1989 Japanese professional wrestling, or puroresu, game made by Nihon Bussan and published by Pony Canyon for the Nintendo Famicom system. Released December 9, 1989, the game features play for both one- and two-player modes. It was released a year later in the United States as WCW Wrestling on the Nintendo Entertainment System, with different wrestlers.

The game featured several puroresu legends of the era, including Giant Baba, Antonio Inoki, and Stan Hansen. There are some inaccuracies in the game, mainly with the birthdates of some wrestlers, and Big Van Vader's hometown and date of birth are not listed in order to protect his gimmick. The only two wrestlers to appear in both Super Star Pro Wrestling and WCW Wrestling are Road Warrior Hawk and Road Warrior Animal.

Other games

WCW Wrestling was the working title for at least two other WCW games. One was a canceled game for the game.com handheld system. The other was a sequel to Electronic Arts' WCW Mayhem, intended for release on the PlayStation 2 platform (the game was later renamed WCW Mayhem 2, and eventually canceled when WCW was sold to the WWF).

References

External links

• A Japanese review for Superstar Pro-Wrestling, the basis for WCW Wrestling
• WCW Wrestling at GameFAQs