Top 5 Wrestling Games of all Time – Day 1, Brother!

Wrestling Games. They were the fighting games that we grew up on. We talked trash, claimed which were the better wrestlers and when talking didn’t get our point across, we took it to the digital mat and let our fingers do the talking. Those were the days. We would drink our Hi-C boxes in our rooms and re-play matches we saw on Saturday mornings and show each other how they should have ended. Some us even took on the persona of whoever we wrestled as when we battled. Many a time I fake ripped my shirt to show my devotion to Hulkamania and all the Hulkamaniacs out there in the world. Sometimes I would even run around the bedroom, look my friends in the eyes and pretend shake the ropes before I jumped into my seat next to them a la Ultimate Warrior. These were great times… and this feature is dedicated to those simpler times.

I went around the Brutal Gamer offices and collected some feedback from fellow writers on which are their top 5 wrestling games of all time and a little bit about why they felt that why. Obviously everyone will have a differing opinion and our reason for nostalgia may be why we love the games we chose, it might be because the game play overall, it could even the be the ever famed Create a Wrestler option that some of us have poured hours over in several games. In any event, we all have our own personal reasons, but one thing is for certain. Wrestling games hold a special place in all of our gamer hearts. With that being said, let’s begin with resident writer Michael J. and his Top 5 Wrestling Games of All Time.

#5. Super WrestleMania (SNES): “The first wrestling game I ever played and I had a lot of fun with it.  There wasn’t much of a roster to speak of, only about 10 wrestlers, but it was fun to play.  The button mashing grappling was good when played with a friend, and it looked pretty good in it’s day too, although the fact that each wrestler had pretty much identical move sets didn’t allow for much variety.”

#4. WCW/nWo REVENGE (N64): “This was the last WCW game developed by AKI, who developed a string of really good wrestling titles in the late 90’s-early 2000’s.  Revenge was simple enough to play and, as with many wrestling games, great fun to play with friends.  It lacked the ‘Create-A-Wrestler’ mode that it’s competition at the time, Acclaim’s WWF War Zone, had, but it more than made up for it with the sheer number of wrestlers in the game.  Pretty much every WCW or nWo wrestler you could think of was included, which gave you plenty of choices.

#3. FirePro Wrestling (Gameboy Advance): “The Fire Pro Wrestling series had been around for a long time now, and has seen almost thirty releases since the series started.  My first and, to date, only interaction with the series was the first Fire Pro Wrestling release on the Game Boy Advance, and of the handheld wrestling games I’ve played, it’s the best by a country mile, and quite a jarring experience initially, as it played very differently from other wrestling games, requiring tactical button presses rather than simple button mashing.  The game had an incredible roster of 200 pre-made wrestlers, as well as a create-a-wrestler mode.  You could also have MMA fights inside an octagon, which is a cool addition.”

#2. WWF SmackDown 2!: Know Your Role (PS1): “The second WWF game made by Yuke’s, who were arguably at the top of their game at this point.  Know Your Role featured an interesting career mode which also allowed multiple players, which was pretty cool at the time.  Create-A-Wrestler was brought in to this game having not been in the previous release.  For me, this was the most fun of the SmackDown! series to play, and ladder matches and cage matches were a particular highlight.  I put a lot of hours into this.”

#1. WWF No Mercy (N64): “In my opinion, the Nintendo 64 had by far the best wrestling games of any console.  I honestly could have just filled this list with N64 wrestling games and been happy with it.  No Mercy represents the best of the best to me.  It lost a few features from it’s predecessor, WrestleMania 2000, but it gained a hell of a lot more.  The Create-A-Wrestler mode was massively improved, and the ability to unlock new items in the SmackDown! Mall using currency earned in game was cool.  Perhaps my favorite thing about the game was the Championship Mode, which featured branching story lines, encouraging multiple playthroughs to see what else would happen.”

There you have it folks! Our first Top 5 Video Games of all Time! as chosen by one of our Brutal Gamer staff! You see any that you remember? You disagree with any of these? There is a comment section below so don’t be shy! Tomorrow we will have another Top 5 Wrestling Games of all Time list from another Brutal Gamer writer and some more commentary from me, Napalm! Stick around this week as this hellaciously devastating feature continues to unfold! Ohhh yea!