Bring on the sweat.
PLAYERS: 1-2 simultaneous
PUBLISHER: FCI
DEVELOPER: Nichibutsu
GENRE: Wrestling
RELEASE DATE: April 1990
Not even the talents of Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat can save WCW Wrestling from making a spectacle of itself. And yet, the game begins with such promise. At the outset, you select a single or tag match, then choose from twelve wrestlers. From “Nature Boy” Ric Flair to the Road Warriors to Mike Rotunda, the wrestler list is an accurate representation of the WCW circa ’89. Once you’ve selected your beef tank, you’re shown their move set: a list of eight moves with hilarious names like “Bulldogging Head Lock” and the “Boston Crab.” You select four to use during the match, assigning them to different directions on the D-pad. So now you’ve got your wrestler and your moves. The crowd is cheering, your heart is pounding. The bell rings, and before you have time to button-mash, your opponent has you winded. Yes, as soon as the fight begins, your opponent will blindside you, and it will be difficult to escape from their blows. I tried Ric Flair, Mike Rotunda, and Sting – fine wrestlers all – and nary a one was able to fell Michael Hayes even a tiny bit. Your special, painstakingly created move set is all for nought, as you realize it’s impossible to connect a simple punch or kick. I tried, oh Lord help me, I tried. I imagine the two-player matches are sublime as both players are more-or-less evenly matched; I didn’t try it, so I can’t say for sure. Single-player certainly demonstrates that brilliant introductions do not make for successful ends. You lose, WCW Wrestling.
D
Latest posts by Dylan Cornelius (see all)
- By Request – New Ghostbusters II - April 4, 2014
- The 86 Worst NES Games – Part 4 - April 1, 2014
- The 86 Worst NES Games – Part 3 - March 29, 2014
15 replies on “#713 – WCW: World Championship Wrestling”
I disagree with your review, but I respect your opinion about this game. I for one enjoyed this game very much. WCW: World Championship Wrestling is one of my favorite NES wrestling game. This game plays better with an NES Max. I grew up with My favorite tag team are Road Warriors or Steve Williams/Ric Steiner. Another good wrestling NES game is Tecmo World Wrestling.
I was hoping someone would say they liked the game! Please help me understand: how do you break free from the computer's grasp? I kept trying character after character and none of them hurt the computer enough to do any significant damage. The computer is way too quick! Thanks!
I'll play it tonight or tomorrow and tell you.
Okay, I played it today and last night. First thing you need is a NES Max control so you can use the turbo kick (punching doesn't help). When you fight your opponent you need to keep using turbo kick him ( it works 95% of the time) You can still get the upper hand. Also don't let your opponent switch with is partner (if your playing a tag team match.) What I do is I stand in his corner so he can't make a switch. Also take advantage corner your opponent near the ropes (not near his corner) so your opponent need to get up again and you can use your special attack. You can't break free from the computer's grasp…unless the computer is shocking…or pinning you down you can tap A and B repeatedly so you won't get pinned. If you think the regular opponents are hard try the WCW Master (I can't even beat him).
Did you try it with a regular NES controller? I don't have a Max. I suppose I could turn the Turbo option on my, ahem, other means of playing the game.
I have tried it on a regular NES controller in the past and the results were bad…keep losing. The kicking was too slow and the computer got that advantage.
I beat the WCW master a lot of times; just keep doing Irish whip (Rope-aided) moves for almost 5 straight minutes. He doesn't move away most of the time, so that helps a lot. Picking Mike Rotunda is a good option; his High Knee move is really helpful in this aspect. The Drop Kick works too, but you will be in trouble if you miss more than a couple of times.
The eagle WCW title that you get after beating him is pretty damn cool too.
Thanks for the advice on how to beat the WCW master.
Just like an RKO out of nowhere, I remembered this password out of nowhere this morning (the last time I used it was back in early 2007):
15TH 1BG7 RZN-
It puts you as Mike Rotunda against Ricky Steamboat with only one more match to go after it, before you come face to face with the WCW master.
Hope this password will be useful for anyone else reading it as well, who would like to face the WCW master but don't want to fight 22 matches before that 😉
If you dont think Road Warriors are still intimidating now you are craaaazaaaaay.
Also I really enjoyed this game as a kid and actually was thinking about last night because I was watching some old school wrestling. Loved when your ghostly tag team partner would come in to break up a pin and when an illegal object would be used it would fly off the screen.
I wonder what on earth were they thinking… This was one of my favourite NES games as a kid, but that's because I had turbo controllers. I tried it on PC with a non-turbo emulator, and it was near-impossible. I say 'near' because some of the wrestlers- Hayes, Sting, Dr. Death, and Animal are suckers to Irish whip moves (you can beat them quite easily if you keep doing the 'boot-to-the-face' or Rotunda's 'high knee'); but for the other wrestlers that move away when you try to do rope-aided moves, its impossible to beat them with a regular controller, unless you take them outside and kill time, hoping that they choose not to get in by the 20 count 😉
As much as I love the game, the fact that they overlooked such a serious issue, they kind of deserve the below-average ratings this game gets everywhere.
It seems like a potentially awesome title, but the fact that you need to have Turbo on to get anywhere is a deal-breaker for me. A game should stand alone without Turbo, Game Genie codes, or any other features to help you play it.
I love that there's this much level of strategy discussion going on here for a WCW game from 1990.
I liked this game when I was a kid, but we always had 2 players so I never challenged the AI. If you basically NEED turbo to make any progress, that's not cool on the developer's part. Same goes for Fester's Quest. Boo.