30 Day Wrestling Challenge - Day 18 Favourite Wrestling Game

May 6, 20205 min read

Every wrestling fan has played a grapple game at some point, but which are our favourites amongst the WSBF crew?

Let's find out!

ROSS CASEY - SHOWDOWN: LEGENDS OF WRESTLING

When coming to think of my favourite wrestling game, all of them came to mind, but the one that stuck as the most fun was Showdown: Legends of Wrestling. It was an independent game from Acclaim that featured you guessed it, the legends of wrestling.

The roster was absolutely stacked, ranging from Hulk Hogan all the way through to Andy Kaufman. The commentary was from Tony Schiavone and Bobby Heenan, the music was created by Jimmy Hart and the game tutorial was via Bret Hart!

You could play classic matches in fully licensed arenas such as the Pontiac Silverdome and the Tokyo Dome or you could play the incredible SHOWDOWN CHALLENGE, which pitted your chosen wrestler through the wrestling magazine grudge matches of the 70's, 80's and 90's.

For example, if you chose Sabu, your first match was against The Sheik. The attention to detail was awesome. Something you didn't get from the AI testing team...

The glitches! Me and my childhood friends Tom, Craig and Mike played this game in fits of laughter without narcotics for literally hours on end. You can't judge how any match will go when the system is completely fucked.

Probably my favourite glitch was when you had a heavyweight wrestler and jumped off the rope - you would fly off the screen and re-appear at some point later in the match whilst Larry Zbysko shouts AIRBOURNE!!!

Man, I wish I still had it.

JCH - PEANUT HEAD ROYAL RUMBLE

At the age of about 12 and my brother was 9 we had a lot of Corinthian figures. Peanut Heads we called them. Which was weird - as they had massive heads.

Anyway the game was give 30 peanut heads the name of a wrestler and stand them on a board. Drop a bouncy ball from above and any peanut head that was knocked over was eliminated from the Royal Rumble.

Last peanut head left, that wrestler won the Rumble and the title.

The title was always on the line.

Hours of fun and by far my favourite wrestling game.

BRUM - WCW/nWo REVENGE (N64)

I wasn't going to do an entry today as (a) I don't play computer games any more so don't know what I'm talking about and (b) everyone would review my pick anyway.

However, on finding out that the rest of the nerds (apart from Shafi) have a gaming taste equivalent to Lance Archer's sartorial taste, and aren't reviewing this, I had to do what was right.

I have played wrestling games before and since the AKI titles and I don't like any of them. As for the AKI N64 titles, the first WCW one was pretty good, and No Mercy & Wrestlemania 2000 had more bells and whistles, but none of them touched WCW/nWo Revenge.

I won't talk about the gameplay because it be like Danny Dyer trying to explain string theory, but it was a shite tonne of fun.

I'm also ashamed to say that this game was my first real knowledge of the Four Pillars of Heaven. I probably didn't stop calling Misawa "AKI Man" until 2006.

I didn't have an n64 so I can't comment on the single player dimension to this but my memories of 4 player 40 man rumbles and hitting an inordinate amount of Diamond Cutters and Even Flow DDTs are still quite vivid.

I also remember us banning the use of Goldberg because you could just do like 2 taunts a spear and then jackhammer someone to win. I guess nothing's really changed there.

I only wish that our banning of Goldberg wasn't restricted to WCW/nWo Revenge.

DANIEL WILDASH - SMACKDOWN vs RAW 2006

Smackdown v Raw 2006 is easily the best wrestling game ever and i'm here to tell you why.

Back in the day before 2K got the rights and slowly decided to drain the living soul out of wrestling games, Yuke's brought out an ever-growing popular series of games called Smackdown v Raw which were fun and for it's time, was a graphical masterpiece. It all also introduced the best mode in a wrestling game of all time. GM Mode - but we'll get onto that later.

Season mode involved a few really great storylines depending on who you selected. From stealing Undertaker's urn, joining RVD in an ECW faction and facing a host of legends whilst at the end aiming for a shot at Wrestlemania for the big one. The cutscenes for the different season mode storylines were also second to none. They did not seem to drag and introduced new concepts to different wrestlers.

The roster had everyone and anyone involved in WWE in the mid 00's. From Eugene to Chris Benoit and Ted DiBiase to Spike Dudley. Even Joy Giovanni was on there! As said before, every wrestler benefited from the upgrade in graphics looking as realistic as they could for the time

Now we get onto GM Mode!!!

GM Mode was a new feature for this edition of SVR and oh my god is it still the best thing any wrestling game has introduced. You took control of either Smackdown or Raw (go figure) as you vied for ratings and viewership just like in real life. All superstars had popularity ratings so if you put 2 popular wrestlers against each other in a big match like hell in a cell, you were guaranteed a good rating for your match and more people tuning in especially if you had built a rivalry up over the last few weeks.

Throw in a championship and you're nailed on for a 4.5/5 star match. The downside of this is you had fatigue ratings too. The more fatigued your wrestler, the higher chance of them getting injured. How in-depth GM mode went into keeping your roster stocked and well rounded with contracts, rivalries, PPV's (this was back when Smackdown and Raw had separate PPV's) has kept this mode still popular to this day.

Xavier Woods and Tyler Breeze even do a series on YouTube for UpUpDownDown based on the GM mode which has been going on for over a year now! Smackdown v Raw 2006 is a game incredibly near and dear to my heart. From playing it on my PSP during summer holidays to sitting in my room playing it on PS2, this game is the Hulk Hogan of wrestling video games.

30 DAY CHALLENGE

DAY 1 - FAVOURITE MALE WRESTLER

DAY 2 - FAVOURITE FEMALE WRESTLER

DAY 3 - FAVOURITE MOMENT YOU'VE SEEN LIVE

DAY 4 - FAVOURITE TAG TEAM

DAY 5 - YOUR FIRST WRESTLING MEMORY

DAY 6 - FAVOURITE FACTION

DAY 7 - FAVOURITE PROMOTION

DAY 8 - FAVOURITE MANAGER

DAY 9 - FAVOURITE COMMENTARY TEAM

DAY 10 - FAVOURITE ENTRANCE THEME

DAY 11 - FAVOURITE MATCH