Game:

Super Wrestle Angels (1994)

Duration: 37:41

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You know, I played this game many years ago when I was waist-deep into importing and completely dismissed it as a mediocre game, not really knowing anything about its origins or any of its real merits. At the time, the Internet was not as developed as it is now (we're talking 15+ years) and there wasn't nearly as much information floating around about video games, much less "obscure" ones. Over the last few years however, a lot of light has been shed on the scene: a lot of titles exclusive to Japan have started to gain small International followings, several classic video games go for insane prices due to growing interest from a new age of gamers and, sometimes, new info comes to light that makes you think twice about things you evaluated in the past.

Wrestle Angels was one of those persistent "special interest" titles from Japan that has quite a bit of history and, while not too obscure, helped introduce a wider audience to what can only be described as "Japan's Most Dedicated Bishoujo Wrestling Simulator". You see, "Super Wrestle Angels" (published by Imagineer in 1994 and developed by Great) is actually a modified port of PC-98's "Wrestle Angels 3" that was released back in 1993, but it doesn't stop there; The franchise began in 1992 with "Wrestle Angels" and ended in 2008 with "Wrestle Angels: Survivors 2". The SFC version modified the series by refining the whole management system and adjusting the game's balance, setting the tone for future works, but removed the photo collections (they weren't the most SFW if you know about PC-98), decreased the venues and prefectures that can be chosen when entertaining a box office (more later), and simplified illustrations for scouting, etc. (hardware limitations).

The game also introduced bugs (don't "scroll" through blank menus or you may crash your game, certain moves like the guillotine drop have improperly scaled damage parameters, etc.), but was successful overall in gaining future followers. Besides having lots of cute girls, the game in its own right is a rather comprehensive and challenging sim... I won't say it's the best, sure, and it's not much fun to watch, but if you enjoy other sims like the vast majority from Koei or others like Princess Maker, Graduation, etc., then this will appeal to fans who want a true wrestling management simulation.

In the game, you play the role of an agent who is trying to build his own Joshi Pro Wrestling empire. Being based on the third game, the story is minimal (though you learn a bit about the wrestlers). You just select the # of players, the # of years to play (this is a slooow game), name your Pro Wrestling federation, adjust difficulty and AP (Activity Points), and then you get a brief snippet of plot and are thrown right into the game. Japanese knowledge is highly recommended, but I'll interpret what goes on during normal game flow. Players can recruit, scout, travel abroad, go on vacations, buy masks for their wrestlers (which affect morale and popularity), return championship belts (either to build fame for other wrestlers or earn some desperate money) or even fire wrestlers from the Human Resources menu, which is where you'll spend quite a bit of time. Players can also upgrade their training gym, sign autographs, buy air time to help promote fights, counsel wrestlers, train many parameters and moves, view competitor stats, schedule fights, and more. You can also rent space at different venues based on your budget (Mode 7 Map), popularity, capacity needs (no point renting big venues if no one will come) and prefecture. Almost everything costs money, AP, or both.

Things can happen randomly such as wrestler injuries, wrestlers quitting and becoming free agents or retiring, fans bum-rushing you, wrestlers taking leave for heartbreak, and more, so keeping a locker room full of girls gets tough fast. The game typically works against you, so save often. The best part of the game is the "wrestling", which is done in a card-battle style with quality illustrations. Players draw random cards that represent different actions such as grapples, strikes, submissions, deathblows, etc., with numbers, stats, and the risks of the moves factoring into attack success rate. You can also use the control pad between actions to select which move will pin, how to tag your partner, and other actions. It works fairly well, though late matches will require a lot more luck than any actual skill. I'm more a fan of the card system from "Dragon Ball Z: Super Saiya Densetsu", lol.

Hindsight is 20/20 folks. The game isn't my fav, but it's not too shabby. The audio/visuals are okay for what they are and there's a good and bad ending. Typical modes like Exhibition, Tournament, etc. also make the rounds. This is a vid showing some things in action. Enjoy.

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