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Escape From Mount Stupid: Wrestling Games

Danny O'Dwyer
By: Danny O'Dwyer, Video Journalist

This week we enter the world of pro wrestling games and attempt to filter the slobber knockers from the low-blows. Can you dig it, sucka?!

The wrestling genre has been so monopolised and stagnant for most of the past decade that it's easy to forget just how many great games have been made. As Johnny and I researched in preparation for writing this episode, we kept coming across quality games we had completely forgotten about. People in the office would hear us talking about them and come over to tell their personal wrestling game history. I don't think a single person mentioned a wrestling game released this millennium.

Some of the best gaming nights I've had have been with the new WWE titles. A few years back, some of my childhood friends started watching pro wrestling again and inevitably got back into the games too. So now when I fly home to Ireland I'm expected to learn the latest game's control scheme in a matter of minutes and battle it out with a group of experts. More often than not I'm the first one thrown out of the Royal Rumble, but it never stops the experience from being fun.

Maybe that's the key to a classic wrestling game. Perhaps our fond memories aren't really about the games themselves, but rather the times we spent playing them with friends and siblings. Are wrestling games, like their fighting game cousins, primarily designed for local multiplayer? It's an interesting line of thought, but I'm not sure even a crate of cool beer and the company of my best friends could make playing Rumble Roses enjoyable.

I'll guess I'll have to test it out next time I'm home.

Danny O'Dwyer
By: Danny O'Dwyer, Video Journalist

Danny has been a GameSpot community member since 2005. Since joining the staff as a video journalist in 2011 he has lost touch with most of his friends and family. He looks forward to the day achievement points become legal tender so he can return to Ireland and fix its broken economy.

179 Comments

  • juiceair

    Posted Mar 27, 2012 7:03 pm GMT

    2 segments I couldn't stop LOL on......"Shaking up a can of soup" and "Skyrim version of Macho Man". Great feature though.

  • thrice00

    Posted Mar 27, 2012 5:40 pm GMT

    2. WWF Royal Rumble (SNES) Oh yes!!!! A Classic!

  • TongLong

    Posted Mar 27, 2012 5:19 pm GMT

    Awesome! I loved the Rumble Roses bit!

    Fire Pro will always be my favourite! I remember rockin it on the GBA FINALLY after reading about the series in import magazines for years. Finally playing Fire Pro D is one of my favourite videogame memories of all time! Going through the Kings Road mode and hitting all the different promotions with your selected wrestler or team was amazing! I never got sick of the Vader/Don Frye/Kenta Kobashi/Toshiaki Kawada team and the non-stop stream of CRITICAL!s that would follow!

    The AKI, N64 games are second overall for me. GIant Gram and King of Colosseum were also a lot of fun. Giant Gram 2000 was such an awesome game, I'm really surprised Sega never did anything more with the GG engine, it was really unique, and it was SO rewarding pulling off your ultimate finisher only with perfect timing and the right lead-up of moves (Misawa's Tiger Driver '91 or the Emerald Frosion!)! Oh Dreamcast, you were so awesome

    I'm not a fan of the SD vs Raw games, and haven't followed the soap opera for years now, but I'm holding out hope that there will be a game developer with the cojones to put out a great wrestling game with no-name wrestlers some day...

  • SHEETBIKE GameSpot staff member

    Posted Mar 27, 2012 5:05 pm GMT

    @GodGundamNT1 - Saying the WWF or WWE made its debut / came into its own / had a reboot doesn't mean he thinks they made the games themselves, it's a reference to the franchise. It's exactly the same as saying Uncharted made its debut on Sony consoles. Where the word ported is used in the video, it means the game in question came out on one platform before the development team worked on bringing it to other consoles and / or computers. Do please sit up and listen before calling anyone an idiot.

  • sickzero

    Posted Mar 27, 2012 4:54 pm GMT

    Great work Danny! When can we expect to see a Zelda instalment ?

  • ch4real

    Posted Mar 27, 2012 3:25 pm GMT

    So yeah if u make games that its almost the same every year, you would probably lost alot of gamers, learn something about this "CALL OF DUTY".

  • Omega_Zero69

    Posted Mar 27, 2012 3:18 pm GMT

    i enjoyed the show 10+ years ago, Austin 3:16.

  • GodGundamNT1

    Posted Mar 27, 2012 3:17 pm GMT

    This guy, Danny O'Dwyer is an idiot he claims that the "WWF/WWE" made those games and that games were "ported" he has no clue what he is talking about and he is abusing the word port.
    Try to be more informative instead of misinforming gamers and give credit to the actual programing dev teams and publisher who went and made those contracts with what was then the WWF (WWE) to make those games possible.

  • bielzabob

    Posted Mar 27, 2012 2:49 pm GMT

    never been a fan of wrestling games, looking at this i dont think I've missed much

  • BBGUN06

    Posted Mar 27, 2012 2:33 pm GMT

    Personally, I Prefered the Attitude era days in WWF/WWE. But the fact is I still love the games, and I still watch the Shows. While the story is corny and just unnecessary, I still like to see the fake action going on. I heard that WWE 13 is going to focus on the attitude era, so I am really interested in that.

  • Fly-Sky

    Posted Mar 27, 2012 1:42 pm GMT

    the future of wrestling games doesn't seem bright. i see that more people are becoming less interested. in the past of w-games, they were pretty good but as i look into my 'magic globe' i see nothing. lol. not to say that they are bad.

  • Guest_1001

    Posted Mar 27, 2012 12:57 pm GMT

    I can't believe you mentioned "With Authority". I remember that game! Good times ...

    I'm glad you had the Extreme Warfare series in here too. It's insanely deep but also insanely time-consuming. It's also very funny, since you get messages about Scott Steiner no-showing events and you can choose to do nothing about it. Just like real life!

  • bluefox755

    Posted Mar 27, 2012 12:56 pm GMT

    @shanethewolf guess you missed the sarcasm sir =P I think wrestling is cheesy and dumb, but a lot of my friends like it, nothing wrong with it, just not for me Very entertaining video though.

  • Sahle123

    Posted Mar 27, 2012 12:46 pm GMT

    Great video!

  • oldschoolvandal

    Posted Mar 27, 2012 12:28 pm GMT

    Great show Danny!!
    Never played many wrestling games, just had a few brawls in the last millenium with friends over .....orange juice... Oh boy...I'm getting old!!! hahahaha
    After I reached drinking age the wrestling games were not the most fun to compete over.

    Looking forward for the next!! At least among my friends CS does divide opinions.
    Cheers!

  • El_Esbirro

    Posted Mar 27, 2012 12:11 pm GMT

    best wrestling game all time, wcw vs nwo and revenge. Those 2 games just blew it open...on the NES the best were Pro Wrestling and Tecmo World Wrestling, which had the referee, an announcer and it had the FIRST Finishing move Dramatic cut-scene once you performed them.
    Now, due to wwe owning everything, everthing is stale. no competion = boring. look at madden for example.
    If they made a game with the complete control controls you had on wcw vs nwo series, plus a very well made and lengthy career mode with a bunch of options and a ton of wrestlers (i don't care if they are bogus wrestlers), we would see a real good wrestling game...for now it's all bland and generic.

  • hoopstar13

    Posted Mar 27, 2012 11:39 am GMT

    Good article. You forgot WCW Revenge as the predecessor to WM2000/No Mercy in the history portion. I think the ability of a company to make a GREAT wrestling game has little to to with the current product. In wrestling the history and "nostalgia" will always be a great selling point. I watch WWE by default, but that doesn't mean that THQ or whichever publisher/developer can't improve their products by leaps and bounds. They are complacent because even if some other company created a great "generic" wrestling game its the trademarked characters that sell it.

  • ssorrekrab

    Posted Mar 27, 2012 11:22 am GMT

    @sheetbike Do you keep it in case your beard escapes it's cage while your not wearing it?

  • WCK619

    Posted Mar 27, 2012 11:12 am GMT

    WWE's need to control the wrestling industry as a whole has lead to their own demise. Their video games are only as innovative as their core business. And their core business has been watered down, family-friendly certified, and redesigned specifically to be marketable and merchandised. Mainstream lowest-common-denominator produced content is the best way to make money and the worst way to innovate.

  • laktobran

    Posted Mar 27, 2012 11:03 am GMT

    one word LOL...
    They missed WWF Wrestlemania that wuz all so so cool and awesome
    U need 2 mention something like that

  • suffering-evil

    Posted Mar 27, 2012 10:55 am GMT

    @warhawk-geeby not even gonna be a jerk about it bro, your absolutely right about that. do both football and american footbal, cause soccer to me was pretty non existant in the video gaming world, until FIFA series took over, that game sells just as well even better than Madden or nba live or 2k

  • -Fromage-

    Posted Mar 27, 2012 10:42 am GMT

    Good video.

  • SHEETBIKE GameSpot staff member

    Posted Mar 27, 2012 10:18 am GMT

    @ssorrekrab - actually, that whip is mine. Take from that what you will.

  • 23Jarek23

    Posted Mar 27, 2012 10:05 am GMT

    lmao @ two grown men with their mouths full.

  • MrJorsh

    Posted Mar 27, 2012 10:03 am GMT

    Danny O is one of the few contributors on this site who consistantly produces good material and really understands what us viewers like. Honestly, I play videogames for fun and really don't care about "the issues or deep rooted meaning" of games. I love the light-heartedness he brings to an otherwise disconnected site

  • Nathalmighty1

    Posted Mar 27, 2012 9:27 am GMT

    That was awesome!! Well done!

  • RPG_Fan_I_Am

    Posted Mar 27, 2012 9:24 am GMT

    hmmm soup...

  • warhawk-geeby

    Posted Mar 27, 2012 9:19 am GMT

    @suffering-evil

    Not being picky here.. but you got me excited then with a football based 'Escape from Mount Stupid'. In future kindly refer to it as American football.. then there'll be no confusion!

  • chimera1984

    Posted Mar 27, 2012 9:16 am GMT

    Its all about WWE Wrestlefest - the royal rumble mode was amazing in that game.

  • suffering-evil

    Posted Mar 27, 2012 9:14 am GMT

    Danny keep up the great work, if you ever get the chance do one on the development of football, I would love the recap on John elway football and both tecmo and tecmo super bowl for the NES

  • suffering-evil

    Posted Mar 27, 2012 9:13 am GMT

    One of my personal favorites before the n64 craze of WCW VS NWO, was wrestlemania the arcade game, loved it in the arcades, loved it on the snes and genesis as well!!!

  • Giancarlo GameSpot staff member

    Posted Mar 27, 2012 8:52 am GMT

    @MrWhalo Wow, totally forgot about Tecmo wrestling. It was definitely one of the greats.

  • diabolik_023

    Posted Mar 27, 2012 8:51 am GMT

    don't care about Wrestling games.... MORE HALF-LIFE !!!

  • Tzunoy

    Posted Mar 27, 2012 8:27 am GMT

    Where is that arcade wrestle game with insane combos. the rest is smoke

  • 91210user

    Posted Mar 27, 2012 8:01 am GMT

    oh plz, do a poker series next!

  • Spartan765

    Posted Mar 27, 2012 7:42 am GMT

    Hey how Can i make this come to my fuse?

  • lowkey254

    Posted Mar 27, 2012 5:51 am GMT

    Awesome stuff.

  • wezkilla

    Posted Mar 27, 2012 5:25 am GMT

    isnt WWE on the TV all staged as in the moves nothing is real?

  • Spinnerweb

    Posted Mar 27, 2012 5:25 am GMT

    I love wrestling and wrestling games. Even though most of them suck and are exaggerated and WWE isn't the same without Jeff Hardy, they're fun to watch and play.

  • Left_4_Human

    Posted Mar 27, 2012 5:12 am GMT

    Escape from Mount Stupid MMORPGs please

  • franzito

    Posted Mar 27, 2012 4:59 am GMT

    Nice ode to wrestling, Danny.

  • MrWhalo

    Posted Mar 27, 2012 4:48 am GMT

    I'm surprised Tecmo World Wrestling on NES wasn't mentioned. I remember playing that a lot as a kid, and thinking it was pretty fun.

  • warhawk-geeby

    Posted Mar 27, 2012 4:42 am GMT

    Arrrrrggggh WHAT?!

    I swear WWF Warzone was amazing when I was a kid. Making my own character (Bin Laden) and then fighting other custom characters (President Bush).

    And then Tornado mode with its 4-way beatdown.. Siiiiiick

    Still.. Maybe I was just a fool!

  • ChewieOnIce

    Posted Mar 27, 2012 4:16 am GMT

    Nice Homestar shout

  • supermoonBLADE

    Posted Mar 27, 2012 3:52 am GMT

    cant wait for wrestlemania

  • Maslowo

    Posted Mar 27, 2012 3:23 am GMT

    "...started watching pro wrestling again". Why?

  • ssorrekrab

    Posted Mar 27, 2012 2:50 am GMT

    Lol steve austin walking like a gorrilla that shat it'self.

    Also Danny did you gave Jane her whip back?

  • ssorrekrab

    Posted Mar 27, 2012 2:26 am GMT

    " I'm not sure even a crate of cool beer and the company of my best friends could make playing Rumble Roses enjoyable. "

    I reckon rumble roses is ment for playing alone (or maybe with a can of soup).

  • sanjin3

    Posted Mar 27, 2012 1:43 am GMT

    Seriously - Can't believe this video makes no mention of WCW/NWO REVENGE. That is some of the finest 2 on 2 four friend can have.

  • naryanrobinson

    Posted Mar 27, 2012 1:30 am GMT

    Another great video.

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