WWF WrestleMania: The Arcade Game

WWF WrestleMania: The Arcade Game isn't a wrestling simulation but a fighting game disguised as a ring match. The stars of the WWF of the time square off here with attacks that treat physics as a mere suggestion: an opponent can be set on fire, spun to an unbelievable height, or slammed down with a blow that makes the whole screen sink. Progress runs through a series of matches against individual opponents up to a final showdown, and besides regular moves each wrestler has a set of special commands that need to be learned. Classic wrestling elements like pins and the three-count remain, just surrounded by comic-book mayhem. The pace is therefore closer to a straight-up brawler than a wrestling match: blocks, jumps, and quick combos of strikes work the same way as in other arcade fighting games.

Visually, the game relies on digitized figures of real wrestlers, who are bigger, smoother, and more colorful on the 32X than in versions for weaker consoles of the time. The crowd moves, the ring shakes, and strong effects fire off on hits. The audio side leans on the commentator's calls, the wrestlers' shouts, and blows that carry surprising weight; the music takes a back seat and lets the show shine. That very exaggeration is the main asset — the game never takes itself seriously for a moment, and that's exactly why it's still fun today.

At the time, the conversion was received warmly as one of the better versions of the arcade original, with reservations that the roster of wrestlers is fairly small and that solo play quickly slides into repetition. Its main contribution to the genre was showing a way to turn licensed wrestling into brisk arcade action instead of a slow simulation. Today it's an ideal game for two people on one console — plenty of fun can still be squeezed, years later, out of the gap between what really happens in the ring and what the wrestlers perform here. Nostalgia is further fueled by the fact that the developers cast the era's stars in their most famous costumes, so the game also works as a moving memento of a time when wrestling was at the height of its popularity.