Game Name: WWF Wrestlefest
Developer: Technōs Japan
Publisher: Technōs Japan
Release Date: June 1991
Platforms: Arcade
Introduction
As you might have guessed, I used to be a wrestling fan back in the 1980's and 1990's. Being a fan, when I would go to the arcade, this would be one of the games that I would play for hours. A quarter would last me a very long time. Let us see if this game is still fun after all these years.
Gameplay
Back in the 1980's and the 1990's, the WWE (World Wrestling Entrainment) was known as WWF (World Wrestling Federation). The World Widelife Fund had sued the World Wrestling Federation saying that people were being misled when going to their site and they won. So the wrestling company changed its name.
There used to be many WWE wrestling games that were released in the arcade and on home consoles. However, this is one of the few that were only available in the arcade. if you are lucky you can still find some rare machines. Many players, now play the game on MAME.
This game had 2 game modes:
Saturday Main Event
This was a popular Wrestling Show on NBC at the time. That is where the name came from. The premise of this mode was that you would pick one of 2 wrestlers and then you would go through the ranks until you beat The Legion of Doom for the championship.
Royal Rumble
This option was the single player option. in case that you do not know, the Royal Rumble is when 30 wrestlers battle each other until one wrestler is left standing. It is based on the Battle Royal matches where all the wrestlers were in at the same time. The difference here is that for the Royal Rumble is that you start with 2 wrestlers and then every 2 minutes a new wrestlers enters the match. This continues until all entrants are in the match.
The main attraction here are the wrestlers. Here is the list of wrestlers available for you to choose them.
Hulk Hogan
The Ultimate Warrior
"Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase
Big Boss Man
Jake "The Snake" Roberts
Earthquake
Mr. Perfect
Sgt. Slaughter
Demolition Smash
Sample Selection Screen
WWF Wrestlefest - Sample Gameplay
Bottomline
For me this is still a fun game. At this point, it is also a nostalgia thing as this is when wrestlers were characters and not made from the same mold.
My favourite wrestler for the Tag Teams were Earthquake and Million Dollar Man. I still comeback to this game periodically as I find that the graphics were cool and the controls are simple yet effective.
I find like many new sports games, the new games are overly complicated. The wrestling is odd and I find the controllers more confusing then fun. That is why these old games like Wrestlefest, Superstars and Wrestlemania (Arcade) were always fun to play and still are to this day. I think that the game developers should take a step back and see what made these games so much fun back in the day.
One last thing, a kid playing this game now, even if he did not know the wrestlers, could still have fun with the game. Due to the fact, that each wrestler had their own individual characteristics and personality, this makes this game accessible.
Rating: 4.5 Figure Four Leg Locks on 5
What do you think? Do you remember playing this game? Was it fun for you? Let me know below.
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