OVERVIEW
 
Today, World Wrestling Federation now known as World Wrestling Entertainment or simply WWE is best known for its WWE 2K games with 3D graphics and realistic graphics that fits each wrestler uniquely. However, their first venture into the game industry was not so good. WWF Wrestlemania for the NES was met with what today would be a critical failure. During its time, no one made such a big deal about it as Nintendo NES games were just still a run of a mill where people played it no matter how good or bad and there was no internet to deter anyone from buying the game.
 
STORY
 
You play as one of the six wrestlers in a bid to win the championship. You get to choose from Hulk Hogan, Macho Man Randy Savage, Million Dollar Man Ted Dibiase, Bam Bam Bigelow, Honky Tonk Man, and Andre the Giant. The roster would not make sense today. Aside from the roster size, some bigger wrestlers could have made the roster like Ultimate Warrior and Rick Rude but they were still relatively new at the time. Even the Million Dollar Man didn't have his most infamous theme music at the time so he was given the theme music from Strike Force (Titio Santana and Rick Martel). Luckily for Ultimate Warrior and Rick Rude as well as Big Boss Man, Brutus the Barber Beefcake, and Hacksaw Jim Duggan, they all made the cut for their much better next game, WWF Wrestlemania Challenge.
 
GRAPHICS - B
 
The graphics really are not that bad to tell you the truth, the wrestlers do look exactly like their real life counterparts and it even matches the height and weight of the characters shown in the game and you may not have noticed but the game did take physics based on their looks into effect. Now way in hell would you see Andre the Giant or Bam Bam Bigelow jump onto the top turnbuckle like they way 200-250lbs. Even though they did climb onto the top rope at one point in their career (Bam Bam actually used top-rope headbutt and moonsault finishers during his 2nd WWF stint), they never did it like that. The flashing lights of the title screen was also a good use of graphics as was the sparkling of the title belt in the ending. The only thing I found wrong with the graphics were the attack animations and that was it. Everything else was fine.
 
CONTROLS - D+
 
Oh the horror. The controls function like a kindergarten child was responsible for the programming of them. You got your basic punch and kick which seem to be hard to connect but you also got the wrestlers moving around like they got Down's Syndrome. I am not saying that to be offensive to those who do have Down's Syndrome. I'm just stating the facts based on the wrestlers' movements. One thing I do give this game credit for is that the wrestlers each have at least have one unique feature. The three that stand out the most are Bam Bam Bigelow's cartwheels which he did during his early career, Andre the Giant's barge attack, and Macho Man's 12-6 elbow strike n' Macho Hammer from the top rope including his Ooh Yeah theatrics. The biggest blunder of all is the controls needed to pin the opponent. It is hard to get in position to do so.

SOUND - B+
 
The only good part of this game was the music and the sound. Each wrestler has a unique theme song that plays throughout the match interchangeably. Hulk Hogan, Macho Man and Honky Tonk Man's theme play perfectly as does Ted Dibiase's borrowed Strike Force theme. Both of Bam Bam Bigelow's theme used around the time of release are in the game as well. Aside from the one you here during the match, his first theme serves as the main theme song to the game itself. Andre the Giant never had a theme song during his days in WWF so he was given a rendition of the song Stand Back which was sung by Vince McMahon.
 
REPLAYABILITY - F
 
Why would anyone want to play this game a second time. Even after fighting against a group of friends and playing the tournament, it is not worth putting in any more hours on this game. It is horrid as hell and should be thrown in the trash if you own a physical copy but if you are just possessing the game for collection purposes like I am then keep it with you just for that purpose and that purpose alone. I warn you.
 
OVERALL - D-
  
Even though this game ending up bombing, the next game, WWF Wrestlemanina Challenge, was so much better. It had better graphics and better animations and better music. It also had better wrestlers.This game cannot fight it way out of a paper bag. I'm not knocking on Bam Bam for being in the game he has a cartwheel move implemented into the game. However, they could have used a larger roster size, more wrestlers that could have been added include Junkyard Dog, Iron Shiek, Don Muraco, Kamala, Nikolai Volkoff, and even One Man Gang before he became Akeem but to be honest, I don't know they would have fit into the fold of the game as far as the wrestling moves they were known for at the time that this game had came out.

You wrote an excellent "rant" Azul. You went into deep details to show your frustration about the game (I did not not 5-year-old could program ) and remained very interesting nonetheless. Replayability wise, how would you compare it to others "failures" like ET for the Atari?

Had I been a WWE fan, I think I would have still tried it for the thrill.