NES Challenge - Tecmo World Wrestling in 1:44:41 [195/714]
3Best wrestling game on the NES. I said it. Pro Wrestling is a close second, specifically for the controls, characters, and overall fun, but this one goes over the top.
Graphics are top notch. sure the ring is plain, but that's fine. The characters are well defined if not just a few skin swaps and minor changes. Music is fantastic. It never gets old and sets a good tone. The little cutscenes are enjoyable but they are a bit much after awhile. The controls themselves are real good - you get 8 directions, a number of common moves, and some specific moves. The challenge ramps up nicely with just some minor spikes. The strength options are a great touch which we abused right in the beginning; I could have just lost some matches through normal playthrough and maxed out, but why bother - just bump it up at the beginning and ride it out.
Using a roster of 10 characters is just right, more than enough and a good variety as all have different strengths and weaknesses. The Japanese had a strategy guide available which showed these but it wasn't released in the US as far as i can tell. The 5 points are Special Move Power, Rage, Number of Moves, Ease of Use of Moves, and Power of Basic Moves. I chose Boris Chekov because he has the Giant Swing move (along with Dr Guido), and he ranks high in Special Move Power, Power of Regular Moves, and Ease of Use. it dips a bit in the Number of Moves (so you don't have to memorize a bunch) and much lower in Rage which doesn't seem to effect the player - basically when you get down to half power, this is supposed to increase your damage, however it seems to only benefit the CPU as they suddenly do tremendous damage and also suddenly win the majority of the grapples. It is possible Rage will help you as shown in my comeback on the Blue King Demon. I was thoroughly getting beaten to the point I had no stamina left and he practically had a full meter, but I suddenly started getting all the grapples; this may have been just blind luck with timing and grabbing him frame perfect.
As for the issues with the game. Number one would be that rubber band effect with Rage. It feels so cheap to skillfully wear down the enemy with a strategy for them to suddenly start throwing you around. One painful example is you kick the opponent and instead of them backing up or momentarily stunned, they close the distance, grapple you, and before you can do anything are being beaten down. I get additional damage, maybe a slow trickle of health increase and speeds up a bit when it gets toward the bottom so you have to work a bit harder, but this feels like crap. The other issue I really didn't like was how quickly the CPU could get up while you struggled even at full health. When I throw someone out of the ring at any power level, they should at least be momentarily stunned; not getting up on the next frame. It would have been nice to see more of a wear down approach, where anything over 25% power, they can get up in a second, but below that it increasingly takes longer. Same should happen with your character. This may be incorporated but feels like you need a turbo controller to make it fair.
My other stink is the awesome power up system. First a great improvement would have been if you could separate the effects; one exercise increases special move power, another reg attack power, and another your defense. Then allow you to keep increasing these like an RPG until you would be incredibly powerful. Also maybe something with speed would help which would actually just effect how quickly the CPU opponent could grab you; give them a bit of a delay.
At the end of the day, this game is just fantastic. There are a ton of options and it offers high replayability. You can choose different characters who all have unique abilities. I'm going to rank this in the Top 250 of the library. You might want Pro Wrestling a bit more just for the ease of gaming and the enjoyable experience, but Tecmo is clearly the more technical and better game.