N64 Wrestling Games 14 Plus Years Later

There was a time where I was obsessed with Pro Wrestling. I watched it non stop! WWF, WCW, ECW, Japanese, Indy, and everything else. In a time were most Pro Wrestling games weren't that great, it wasn’t until the days of the Nintendo 64 where we had quite possibly the best wrestling games ever made (in my opinion of course). AKI developed a very easy to use and a very fun wrestling engine. As they continued to make more games, they progressively got better. They make it easy with one attack button and one grapple button. You can hold down the grapple button to do hard grapple to perform another set of moves. Moves are executed by using the A or B button plus you can use a D-Pad direction to do different moves. The C buttons can be used to run, tag, pin, and other misc things. Wiggling the joystick will up your spirit (which acts as your life meter). It’s also used the joystick to perform your finishers. I could go on and on, but you get the idea. In preparation for Wrestlemania 30, which is this Sunday, I decided to undust my old N64 wrestling games and play them for the first time in YEARS!

First one I played for WCW vs. NWO World Tour. I remember it being my first game I bought when I got my N64. Still have it CIB (complete in box). It's not as fancy as the later AKI games, but I still consider this one to be my favorite. It has a pretty limited roster but the game just looks more, clean. Plus, Ultimo Dragon is the man!

Next was WCW/NWO Revenge. This is the sequel to WCW vs. NWO World Tour. A much bigger roster with different venues to choose from. It has limited customization, but its there. The engine is slightly different enhancing graphics and other features. Apparently I was obsessed with Juvi, because he held like every title.

And on to the mac daddy, WWF Wrestlemania 2000. I can't even tell you the amount of time I spent playing this game back in the day. It took everything Revenge did and amped it up by a lot! I had more fun customizing wrestlers than anything. I found custom guys on my game like Bret Hart (was with WCW at the time), British Bulldog (same), Sabu (ECW), Headhunter A (Japan), Headhunter B(Japan), and ones of my friends and I. Plus the Road to Wrestlemania mode was the true mode that put you in the boots of a wrestler, working your way to the top! They have you compete in all the TV shows and Pay-Per-Views. I was a bigger WWF fan at the time, so going from WWF Attitude to this game was like night and day!

I can't talk about WWF No Mercy because I don't own it! :(

I also dabbled with a New Japan Pro Wrestling import game which isn't very good. While streaming these games, the chatters told me to check out Virtual Pro Wrestling (Japan import) which is on the same engine as Revenge/WM2000. I think I will!

Thanks for reading. Always fun to go back through memory lane!

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