Jesse "The Body" Ventura Wrestling Superstars (Genesis) Playthrough - NintendoComplete
129A playthrough of Human and Dreamworks' 1992 wrestling game prototype for the Sega Genesis, Jesse "The Body" Ventura Wrestling Superstars.
Played through the World Championship mode as Jesse Ventura.
Jesse "The Body" Ventura Wrestling Superstars was released in Japan as Thunder Pro Wrestling Retsuden (サンダープロレスリング列伝) as a spin-off of Human's popular Fire Pro Wrestling series, and it is the only game from the series that appeared on the Mega Drive/Genesis, and it is exclusive to Sega's 16-bit console. The prototype was dated 2 March 1992, placing this build of the game about three weeks ahead of the Japanese game's official release. However, despite the US/English localization seeming to be all but complete, the game was never released outside of Japan.
The game stays pretty faithful to the earlier PC Engine games in the series, featuring the line's signature isometric perspective and emphasis on timing over the player's ability to smash buttons as quickly as possible. There is a fair range of moves available to you in the ring, including all of the standard-variety strikes, grapples, and finishing moves. All of the wrestlers are based on real-life figures, though our titular wrestler/politician is the only one referred to directly. The others are fairly clear cariacatures of figures such as Hulk Hogan, Vader, Stan Hansen, and Jushin Thunder Liger.
lt's certainly a cool novelty, and being more-or-less a Fire Pro Wrestling game, it feels pretty good to play. That having been said, wrestling games were still fairly primitive in the early 90s, and this one is no different. The perspective can make for some headaches when you keep whiffing your hits, and some of the contextual actions can get in the way of things you are trying to do, but its generally successful at what it sets out to do and it's a lot of fun.
It also looks far more like an NES or early PC Engine game than it does a Sega Genesis/MD game. There is a good level detail in the move animations and the backgrounds, and the portraits look nice, but the sprites are tiny and a bit generic, and the color is pretty ugly. I do really like the bloody damage marks that reflect your general health level, though. The music is alright, and there are some fun renditions of nostalgic tunes here, but the speech samples are pretty bad. They're about the same quality as you'd generally hear from an NES game.
Still, as long as you aren't too picky about its looks and can handle extremely dated sports games, this unreleased game seemed like a great way to drum up excitement for Wrestlemania, and who doesn't like learning about a "new" original game for a favorite retro system?
So guys, I hope you enjoy my run at sweeping the NJPW's stars as the former governor of Minnesota, Jesse "The Body" Ventura.
PS. Please don't message me asking for the ROM. It's not difficult to find.
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
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