Pro Wrestling!  - The Review.       

          Welcome to the V.W.A sports arena! Tonight we promise to bring you the very best in good ole 8-bit NES professional wrestling action. It's a full night of back breakers, body slams, pile drivers and brain busters! Oh my! We're bringing you the hottest names in the V.W.A roster history. Grappling greats such as Fighter Hayabusa, Star Man, King Slender, Kin Corn Karn! Giant Panther, and The Amazon. They'll be squaring off in a tournament for the V.W.A  Championship Title and trophy! Sunday, SUNDAY, SUNDAY!!!.. Would have been an awesome entrance for Pro Wrestling on the NES had there been the capabilities, but then again who wants to read all that slowly scrolling down your television set? Not I. Instead we're greeted with a title screen that for some reason always reminded me of the circus, and baseball of course. Anyway. I'm not sure if this was the first wrestling game released for the NES but it's definitively one of the best wrestling games released for the system. Pro Wrestling was part of the NES black box sports series, and features some pretty amazing things for a game of it's time. I still remember finding my first copy of this in a thrift shop where I used to buy video games when I was a kid. And the feeling of how stupid my brother and I felt for picking up WrestleMania the week before this because it was WWF. Big mistake there. After picking up this gem for the Nintendo I started to realize that the cover art was like a book, never a good judge for a game. So what's all the hype about, you're asking? Well for the most part a lot of the glory is sort of subtle here. It's there, it's brilliant, it's what makes the game. But it's so well done that you don't really think about it while playing the game. Lets just jump into the review and I'll explain it all there. 

      Graphics:7 The graphics over all are pretty decent. Being one of if not the first wrestling game on the NES (this was actually the first wrestling game on for the NES) They put a tremendous deal of effort into the game's design. From the crowd to the camera man that moves around following the action in the ring. The wrestlers themselves and the referee are all designed well. Each character sprite has a different skin tone which is pretty cool visually, and a nice way to differentiate one wrestler from another. They all have their own unique heads as well as moves! The moves look great for it's time. The animations for the various moves have two to three different animation frames, that mixed in with the sound effects culminates into a rather pleasant experience for the player. The referee follows your progress through the match and will even run and dive on his stomach to count a possible pinning situation. The animations for him is just perfect. I especially like the way he will have to run from across the ring sometimes which will give you a split second longer to try and kick out of a pin. The title screen looks like a circus add or something with it's banner and different colors. The character selection screen is greatly detailed as you get to see a nice pic of the wrestlers. I give the graphics 7 Mongolian Chops out of 10

      Sound:6  The sound's not to bad, but it's nothing spectacular either. At the title screen it's the same musical piece as on many other sports games in the black box series. Which is another reason it reminds me of the circus.. And baseball. The character select screen has it's own little tune as well, which is nice for a change. In ring the song is just a two minute loop of the same thing over and over. But thankfully you won't focus on that so much as you'll be trying to execute your devastating grappling holds to conquer your opponents. The sound effects for the hits and slams and other various moves are decent but sound like stock noise. My favorite being when you brain buster someone, I swear it sounds like an 8-bit rendition of throwing a bucket of water on someone. Then there is the referee's counting, which is all just bleeps and bloops but is done well enough that you can swear you almost hear him. The crowd goes wild of course when ever you pull off one of your characters signature moves. Of course you have to be playing one of the good guys to make the crowd "pop" with a signature move, but they also go nuts at the end of a match as well. I give the sound 6 Flying Knee Smashes out of 10
     
     Addictive:9 Wow! Yeah this game is so addicting, you've no idea! Especially two player mode. Which I believe is where this game achieves the most memories. I could spend hours at a time playing through matches with a friend on this when I was a kid. And now that I'm all grown up I could spend hours at a time playing through matches with a friend. That being said playing it single player mode wasn't with out it's fond memories either. Pro Wrestling definitely had it's replay value. Playing through and trying to beat the game alone would give any beginner a hard time. Not hard enough to drive you off but just enough to bring you back for more every time. And of course after you win the title and cycle through a few more matches with out losing, (1 loss loses title and places you back in rank 2, If you go back to rank 6 it's game over.) You will get to face a secret wrestler. A boss fight, if you will. I give the addictive game play 9 Back Brain Kick's out of 10.

      Story:4  Now you're probably wondering what kind of story there could be here. I mean it's a wrestling game on the NES. To an extent you'd be fairly right in assuming there is none..But hold the phone, Doc. There's more to it than it seems. It IS professional wrestling after all! The only real story to the game is that there is a rival wrestling company who has a champion that challenges your champion. It's actually pretty clever and all if you think about it. So this rival company wants to put the V.W.A to shame by having their champion challenge your character and mop the mat with your face. That's one rare angle for professional wrestling. And it's a perfect story for wrestling. Simply done and to the point. But the best stories come from your imagination which is where I recommend you get them. I know it's a weak excuse for a story but this really isn't the kind of game which is based on a story so it's acceptable. I give the story 4 Pile Drivers out of 10

  Depth:4 There is a little depth here, about as much as your average mud puddle. There is multiple player capabilities, but no tag matches. There is six different characters to use which is nice and adds to that. Plus the boss battle at the end of the game and it's little story. The real depth in this game comes from how many moves there is to do and how every character is unique and has their own moves outside of the common body slam and such. But for depth that's about it. I give it 4 Giant Head butts out of 10 

    Difficulty: 5 Pro Wrestling is pretty forgiving in it's difficulty which is just perfect for it's style of game play. Beginners will be happy with being able to execute a few moves and win a match or two while learning the controls. And experienced players will enjoy the difficulties added in later matches as it starts taking more and more to wear down and pin your opponents. It's one of those games that has a decent middle ground, not to easy that you get bored of it and not so hard to drive you away screaming. I still can't pull off that back brain kick for some reason even though while I was playing with someone else they were able to.. Really..  I give the difficulty 5 Body Slams out of 10

     Overall: 8.5  So over all this is a really great game with some decent graphics and sounds. This was Nintendo's only venture into the business of making wrestling games, which is a shame. It would have been nice to see a part two to this or maybe one with more wrestlers. But if you remember any of the other wrestling games for the NES that all game after this. None of em really captured that feeling like Pro Wrestling did. There are a few others out there which are really nice and they are uniquely done themselves. But for the most part the rest were bad. So bad. This is where I'd normally say I hope you've enjoyed reading this as much as I have writing it. But I think I'll end this with a run down on all the characters. 

  Fighter Hayabusa: This guy wears "traditional" black boots and trunks and only has one specialty being the back brain kick.(very tricky to do) 

  Star Man: This character is dressed head to toe in pink! with a purple star on his mask and purple boots and trunks. His specialties include the flying cross chop (think flying forearm), and the somersault kick, where he flips backwards while drop kicking his opponent.

  Kin Corn Karn: Corny here is a Karate master. His specialties include a Mongolian Chop which replaces your punch and a karate kick to replace your kick. 

  The Amazon: I'm not sure what this guy is, or if he's even human. He is a wicked and cruel wrestler who loves using the head bite and the "outlaw choke" move. But I know what I saw, that was no choke. He was stabbing the other guy in the head with a fork!! Your classic bad guy wrestler.

  Giant Panther: This hulking power house with a full head of hair is the game's Hogan rip off I'm guessing. He'll put you in a devastating Iron claw or a Head butt if he can so watch out!

  King Slender: Slendy is the games technician of course. He has all the basic moves like the other guys but he has the ability to pull off a back breaker at any time in a match to get a big "pop" from the crowd. He's the ultimate good guy of the V.W.A. 
  

SystemOfLies : Very nice, fantastic review! Goes into perfect detail and break down of each category! It flows and goes together perfectly it was incredibly well written!Keep up the good work I want to see more reviews from you like this!

I loved this game as a child! It really is as great as this review makes it sound. And indeed it really is a shame that we never saw a sequel. Great review here, man. Keep up the awesome work.