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If you’re a long term fan of pro wrestling video games you may be familiar with the legendary arcade game WWF Wrestlefest. Frequently regarded as the greatest arcade wrestling game ever produced, and also still within the conversation of best wrestling games period, the game was bold, bright and over the top. These attributes completely captured everything fans loved about the WWF at the time, but it was unfortunate that whilst Wrestlefest was a hit with fans in the arcades, it was the case that the contemporary consoles at the time were not up to the challenge of a port of the game.
Instead we got some very average and graphically incomparable NES games, and the closest to a port being the Wrestlemania game that released on home computers such as the Amiga 500 and Atari ST. Licenses changed hands multiple times and by the time that consoles caught up with the arcade, the WWF games had moved on from Wrestlefest.
Roll forward some 30 years and that is where RetroMania Wrestling comes in. A game that was first revealed by YouTuber RTG85 a couple of years ago, this game has built up a following and told it’s development story by building a community of excited fans around it. The initial idea was simply to be a spiritual successor to the WWF game that the developers Retro Soft Studios had loved playing themselves in the early 90s. Those following the game’s development will know that from this initial idea, the game has become the official sequel to Wrestlefest, and also along the way gained lots of connections within the pro wrestling industry to become a highly anticipated indie release.
Graphically the game is very close to the style of Wrestlefest with intentionally big cartoonish like representations of it’s roster. This modern retro approach is now an art style choice rather than a graphical limitation, and is just as appealing as the classic games.
I played this game on the Switch version and it looked great in handheld mode, but just a tiny bit too pixelated on the TV. This wasn’t really an issue outside of the text in the story mode being a bit tricky to read, especially when some of the text moves in a wavy pattern. This is only a minor gripe, and if they get this feedback could easily be addressed in the future.
The game is rich with detail and references for wrestling fans to enjoy. Each of the wrestlers in the game has their own themed arena, and a particular favourite is the Major Wrestling Figure Podcast Arena which looks exactly like the Hasbro WWF action figure ring. Things like this play completely to their target audience. As quite a coincidence, this week we’ll also have a review of the Chella Nick Aldis action figure, and for wrestling fans in their mid 30s this kind of call back to our childhood memories is dripping with nostalgia.
If you’re a die hard fan of wrestling you’ll also enjoy references to the industry with the story mode referencing that established veterans hold down younger talent, and past history of the ECW alumni Tommy Dreamer and the bWo, and the inclusion of Dave Meltzer and Bill Apter, and the chap then runs Pro Wrestling Tees.
This attention to detail is good, but one criticism that comes with this level of fan service is that the game is perhaps too heavily relying on being for the hardcore wrestling fan, and this is most noticeable with the included roster. As a super hardcore life long wrestling fan I know all the wrestlers included, but it’s a real mish mash of wrestlers from different eras, promotions and star levels.
When the game was first announced, it was announced that the game would include the Road Warriors Hawk and Animal, and they are a great inclusion in terms of both star power and that they were in the original WrestleFest as the final bosses to challenge. It does feel a shame that they were the only wrestlers from the original game to be back in this one, but this may be down largely to rights issues. I’ve seen the developers mention on twitter that they tried to include Demolition, but it didn’t work out. Hulk Hogan is currently under contract with WWE and it’s probable that Sgt Slaughter and The Million Dollar Man have legends contracts. Jake roberts is currently with AEW, and the rest of the roster made up of Earthquake, Mr Perfect, Big Boss Man, and Ultimate Warrior have all passed away, and in all cases those gimmick names are all owned by the WWE.
So as you can see, bringing back the other wrestlers beyond the Road Warriors may have been tricky. Still it perhaps would have been good if some other WWF wrestlers form the era had been included. We do have Austin Idol who wrestled in the 80s, but not prominently for the WWF, although current fans of the NWA will recognise him from NWA Powerr. And lastly from the era in which the original WrestleFest came out we also have Nikita Koloff who was quite a big star for the NWA/WCW, but again didn’t wrestle for the WWF. With this being RetroMania Wrestling and the now official sequel to WrestleFest it does feel a missed opportunity to not have more wrestlers form the late 80s/early 90s, as fans who are older and loved that era may be a little lost on some of the next inclusions that I’ll cover presently.
And this is easy for me to say without knowing what costs or contract negotiations that were attempted, but imagine if the likes of Rick Rude, Jim Duggan, Roddy Piper, Koko B Ware, or the Honkey Tonk Man were in the game for extra 80s retro star power. Maybe if the game does well more from the era can be added.
Next up roster wise we have Tommy Dreamer and the bWo – Stevie Richards, Hollywood Nova and the Blue Meanie who are most famously associated with ECW. Of course all three have been in the WWE and also other places, with Tommy Dreamer still being active as part of Impact Wrestling, and his House of Hardcore promotion which is featured in this game. It’s cool to have 4 ECW guys in there and having 3 from the bWo does add another actual tag team along with the Road Warriors, but it is also easy to see the bWo as one thing in the game, and for variety an addition of the Sandman, RVD or Sabu would have felt a bigger inclusion.
Then we have more modern and recent wrestlers famous for their time in the WWE. These are John Morrison, Zack Ryder and Curt Hawkins, who due to WWE owning those names are called Johnny Retro, Matt Cordona and Brian Myers respectively in this game. Of course in the case of Cordona and Myers these are their real names and the names they are now using post WWE, but with Johnny Retro, who is now back in the WWE and therefore the most publicly visible wrestler on the roster his name is a continuation of the many names he has had over the years that have referenced promotions he has worked for including being Johnny Nitro when a protégée for WCW boss Eric Bischoff and when he was Johnny Impact in Impact Wrestling.
All of these current wrestlers are good inclusions for current fans to be able to play as and it’d be great to see some more contemporary stars known for their time in WWE added as DLC.
But of course we do have some more current generation stars, and one thing that is good about including the following guys is that as their careers are still taking shape, they may later turn out to be as big as the likes of Ultimate Warrior and Sgt Slaughter in WrestleFest.
Nick Aldis is the current NWA Worlds Heavyweight Champion and was also a World Champion in TNA Wrestling. He is a big get for the game as it also gives the game it’s 10 Pounds of Gold Championship mode where you challenge Aldis as a boss character to become the worlds champion. Colt Cabana is currently in AEW’s Dark Order and was also part of the NWA recently. He did have a forgettable run in WWE, but Cabana is a king of the indies and like Aldis has gained his level of fame without the WWE.
Rounding out the launch roster is Jeff Cobb, Warhorse, and Zack Sabre Jr. Cobb, who made a couple of appearances for AEW to wrestle Jon Moxley, is more known for his time in Ring of Honour and NJPW.
Warhorse famously wrestled Cody Rhodes for the AEW TNT Championship last year and is an up and coming indie star who has a retro style Ultimate Warrior/Road Warrior ish gimmick. Warhorse is notable for being in the game after the developers ran their IndieMania competition to include an indie star on the game and Warhorse got the most fan support.
Lastly Zack Sabre Jr is a British wrestler currently signed with NJPW and is seen as one of the best technical wrestlers currently in the world.
So over all, the developers can be proud of a great mix of eras and companies represented, but as I mentioned earlier it may be a little too unfocussed and disconnected for many casual wrestling fans. If the roster was double this size with this split across different promotions and time periods it would be much better as there would be a sense of various warring factions, but hopefully DLC will remedy all this. It’s already announced that Mr Hughes, James Storm and Chris Bey will be added as DLC, and time will tell who else may be added down the line.
So after that in depth examination of the roster, let’s get onto the game play, as ultimately it doesn’t matter if you have a WWE level roster if you put out a WWE 2K19 quality game…
Fortunately the game plays great! The game plays similar but not exactly like WrestleFest. The game gives you weak, medium and strong attacks and approaching your opponent will trigger a grapple which can lead to lots more moves depending which level attack button you press combined with the direct button you press.
It’s fun to experiment to see the different moves, and quickly I was finding which strategy worked for me to dominate my opponents. Also the variety of grappling, strikes and ground moves works well to create fun to watch arcade wrestling matches.
Each of the wrestlers have varying move sets which give incentive to play through the game multiple times to see each of them take the NWA gold form Nick Aldis. As it is you can’t play as Nick Aldis to challenge for the 10 lbs of gold which is a shame, as a palette swap ring attire could have made this possible and the story mode is played only as Johnny Retro currently. It would be good to see all wrestlers get a story mode in the future, and it may be good if each got their own unique ending story screen like you may find in games like Street Fighter.
In my play through I got a “to be continued” end screen at the end of the story mode which was surprising as the story suggested there would be a final boss fight was about to happen. I won’t give the minor spoilers here as to what happened or why I expected it, but I do feel like there was some explanation to why this ended on a to be continued screen. If there will be an update or season pass or something they could clarify that, but felt odd that the main story mode would end this way.
In addition to regular matches you also get tag, and multi man tag matches, falls count anywhere and cage matches. And of course you get the Retro Rumble which echos back to the Royal Rumble mode in WrestleFest. These are all fun to play, and whilst I did feel like I’d seen most of what the game currently has to offer within a few hours, it’s worth remembering that this is designed to be an arcade wrestling game, so this is to be expected.
There are a few things I would like to see improved upon in the gameplay in future updates. If you attempt to pin a downed opponent or put them in a submission hold and you don’t win from it, you will get knocked to the mat and it will actually give your opponent the chance to put a move on you or pin you. This may have also been true of WresleFest (I’m trying to remember) but lacks logic. I did actually experience where I lost a match with the move that finished me off being that my opponent kicked out of when I was trying to pin them.
It also felt grabbing a steel chair put you at a disadvantage at times as it was often to easy to pick up a chair by mistake, or opponents could easily dodge or grab you in a grapple when you have the chair. These thoughts on improvements for gameplay are hardly deal breakers, and as it stands just mean that I change my strategy for play. I don’t go for a pin until I’m sure I’ll get it and use steel chairs sparingly.
The music in the game is very retro in style which fits everything else about the presentation, and the game does include commentary and limited amounts of voice over work. These sound suitably retro in their quality, and I’ll be honest I wouldn’t have minded if these have sounded sharper or if there was extra commentary in there. It was fun to see the promos with Nick Aldis in the Ten lbs of Gold mode, and they get bonus points for the faithful recreation of the smashing the numbers to count down how many matches there are until the championship match from WrestleFest.
Conclusion
Over all RetroMania Wrestling is a really solid arcade wrestling game. It knows exactly who it is for and plays to that audience really well. A few gameplay tweaks would be great in an update, and the roster is good in ways, but lacks a clear direction to appeal for casual wrestling fans. Most importantly, the gameplay is a lot of fun, and I can see this game being one that wrestling fans will return to over and over again for years to come for bursts of retro inspired wrestling action.
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