Tecmo World Wrestling
System: NES
Release Date: April 1990
Developer: Tecmo
Publisher: Tecmo
Genre: Sports
Let’s step into the squared circle in Tecmo World Wrestling! The Tecmo Coliseum is the setting as ten wrestlers compete in a championship ladder for the TWW Title Crown. The first thing you do is choose who you want to take to the title. Wrestlers are fictional, but clearly based on real world counterparts. Akira Dragon and El Tigre are Antonio Inoki and Tiger Mask. Pat Gordon is based on Lou Thesz. Rex Beat is an amalgamation of the Road Warriors. I think Jackie Lee is Riki Choshu and Boris Chekov is Stan Hansen. My money is Mark Rose being Ric Flair and Julio Falcon being Hulk Hogan. Randy Gomez is Harley Race and Dr. Guildo might be Vader? I picked Akira Dragon and renamed him after me. Then it’s off to the gym to increase your stats. If you have a turbo controller, you’re in heaven, but if you don’t, get ready to tap the button as fast as you can as you squat, sit up, and push up with a sumo on your back to get stronger. One power up is easy, but two is incredibly difficult to pull of legitimately, I only did it once.
Entering the ring, the screen is split into two areas. The ring is where all the action takes place. You punch and kick with the B and A Buttons respectively. When the wrestlers close in on each other, a grapple is automatic. A combination of the A and B Buttons with a direction may allow you to pull off a move. Everyone shares some moves like the Brain Buster, Headlock, and Pile Driver. Other moves are specific to certain wrestlers, like the dreaded Power Slam, which the announcer calls the Abominable Arabesh Hold for some reason.
The bottom of the screen show Tom Talker, commentator of TWW, giving the play by play. This is a cool addition that you probably don’t look at a lot while playing, but is a fun extra while watching. When your health gets less than half, some of your moves change into others, like Akira’s Cobra Twist becoming an Octopus Hold. Other moves unlock, like the Jumping Back Brain Kick, at lower health. A big move that is delivered at low health zooms the camera in and gives an awesome animated rendition of the maneuver.
Pinfalls can be difficult to kick out of. (1:06:36) I finally settled on rapidly alternating presses of the A and B Buttons after mashing them was leading to losses with a lot of health left. The AI on the other hand, loved kicking out with no health left. Whenever you hit your opponent with a move, you gain a little bit of health back. I thought this was an excellent way to give some ebb and flow to a match, allowing someone to make a come back if they could string together a series of maneuvers. The top rope is high risk with little reward.
If you lose a match, you’re sent back to your previous opponent and can lose a stat point. It feels like opponents get easier each subsequent time you face them, but it could be taking a more no nonsense strategy. I got to the point of slapping a sharpshooter on every time I knocked my opponent down to wear away their health. I finally won the title after my 47th match, but was then challenged by the final boss, the Earl of Doom, Blue King. He has every super move available to him and ran through me. I tried coming back to him legitimately, but he takes away two strength points when he beats you. I warped back to him and was able to get back in the ring before the count hit 20, officially winning the trophy. Fighting outside of the ring is a strong strategy that can help you get past difficult opponents.
Graphics: 3.5
The move animations are amazing in both the regular match and especially when they are zoomed.
Sound: 3.0
Some of the music has a real Ninja Gaiden vibe. It doesn’t necessarily fit a wrestling match, but it’s good.
Gameplay: 3.0
It took me 25 matches or so to get in the groove, but once I did, I was able to pull off the moves I wanted to when I wanted to.
Difficulty: 3.0
It’s hard until you build your stats up, then it gets hard as you get in the top half of the ladder. Unless you cheese count outs, it’s a challenging time, sometimes unfairly so.
Fun Factor: 3.0
I had enough fun to play for two and a half hours in the early hours of the morning.
Overall Grade: 3.1
Tecmo World Wrestling earns a B. This is probably going to walk away as the best wrestling game on the NES. It’s not perfect, but it’s pretty darn good.