Review

WWF Super Wrestlemania

By: Smee Lesko | February 07, 2008

Before the release of WWF Super WrestleMania for the SNES and Genesis, there was WWF WrestleMania for the Nintendo Entertainment System. Come 1992, WWF Super WrestleMania was released for the SNES, and, later the Sega Genesis. That same year, 1992, also saw the release of a couple other WWF games for the NES; WWF WrestleMania Challenge and WWF WrestleMania: Steel Cage Challenge, which also saw a release on the Sega Master System. While notable in that they incorporated what actually resembled primitive grappling systems in comparison to the original WrestleMania's punch/kick simplicity, both games were still pretty bad. Super WrestleMania, on the other hand, ran on more powerful hardware and had the chance to show us better graphics and, hopefully, gameplay.

If you play the SNES version of Super WrestleMania before sitting down to to play the Genesis version, you'll definitely notice a lot of differences when you finally do so. For starters, the opening shot of Hogan on the title screen is now a hand-drawn picture instead of the photo as seen on the SNES. Now this isn't too big a deal and is actually kind of cool, but it'll set the tone for the graphics you'll be seeing for the remainder of your time playing the game.

In-game is where you'll notice most of the differences. The character models seem to be a bit smaller and lack some of the color that the SNES sprites have, thanks to the Genesis' limited color palette. The oddest thing to me was that Macho Man and Shawn Michaels wear the exact same tights, only with different colors thanks to the wonders of palette swapping. (And if you're wondering, and I know you are, Ted DiBiase actually has black knee pads in this version.)

The audience looks a little washed out, and they don't animate at all. The same goes for the announcers at their announce table. I'm pretty sure this has nothing to do at all with the limitations of the Sega Genesis but rather is the result of a quick port. The referee also lacks color depth. Another thing you'll also likely notice is the ring itself. Here, the mat is a solid colored light blue, whereas on the SNES it, again, had "depth" to it. You likely won't care about the ring, but it's noticeably slightly inferior, graphically, to its Super Nintendo cousin.

And that's the theme of the graphics in the Genesis version, sadly; the best comparison I can make is that the SNES graphics look pretty much the same, if not slightly inferior, to later Acclaim releases such as Royal Rumble and Raw (and both games were on Genesis, looking pretty good too), but it's just not the same on the Genesis. Console exclusive wrestler Ultimate Warrior looks comical, too. Overall, the Genesis graphics are decent, definitely passable for its time, but are a clear downgrade from the SNES version. This would change in further games in this series, as the previously mentioned titles for the Sega Genesis were great improvements and not far behind their SNES brothers.

Rounding off the graphics are the announcers who, unlike the SNES version, sit static at their announce tables. Now, I'm not sure, but I'm pretty certain the left announcer is Bobby "The Brain" Heenan, which is pretty cool. The right announcer - I have no clue who he is. It could be Gorilla Monsoon or Vince McMahon, but it comically sort of looks like Jim Ross, even though he wasn't under the employ of the WWF in 1992. Finally, there's "Da Fink," Howard Finkle, how introduces the match participants and, afterwards, the winner(s). For the longest time, I thought his character sprite was supposed to be "Mean" Gene Okerlund, until one day I realized that since Finkle was clearly shown, in photograph form, during the winner-announcing, he must be the guy in the ring at the beginning, too. Oh well. We'll meet again, Mean Gene. We'll meet again.

Of course the most important part of the game, though, is the gameplay. This game is of course the "early model" for WWF Royal Rumble and, later, Raw, and it feels very similar. You can punch, kick, and grapple from a standing position. Grappling is slightly different from the later games in that you don't have a meter to tell you who's winning a grapple battle; you have to mash away at your button, hoping that you'll get the move. Each wrestler shares the same move set, and there are only three standing grapple moves: head butt, body slam, and suplex. You can also whip your opponent into the ropes, where you can hip toss, clothesline, or dropkick them as they come off the ropes. Despite these move set limitations, I still find the game pretty fun to play. It's simple and to the point and, while lacking in moves, it was still a fairly large improvement over the WWF games we had for our home systems before. If there was one problem I'd point out, it's that the game, or rather the characters, move very noticeably slower than they do in the later Acclaim games. As such, you'll have to time moves like the dropkick, hip toss, and clothesline perfectly, or they won't connect.

Aside from the standing moves, it's also possible to stomp the opponent while they're on the ground, or deliver what looks to be a combination of a jumping leg/elbow drop. The same move can also be performed off the top rope. As I previously mentioned, you're unable to knock the referee out in this game; however, you can still fight outside the ring. I don't see a real point in it, however; there are no weapons, and you can only trade punches and kicks. The only reason you'd probably want to throw your opponent out of the ring is because throwing them out actually depletes a fair chunk of health from their meter. It's worth noting that you can exit the ring at anytime in the Genesis version, but can only exit the ring in the SNES version after tossing your opponent out. Also, you can only exit the ring from the two sides, not the front or back.

Other differences in the gameplay between both versions are small. However, the Genesis version seems to run a bit faster. Also, and this may be a big one for some fans, the Genesis version contains signature moves for each wrestler in the game. This is the only thing that differs each wrestler's move set. However, there's a problem; the special moves can be performed at any point. This makes facing British Bulldog pretty difficult, as he'll hit you with his power slam move (which doesn't look like his running power slam) constantly. Also, while the inclusion is appreciated, some of the moves are just weird. Macho Man's elbow looks kind of like a splash, Shawn Michaels does a simple variation of a vertical suplex, and the Ultimate Warrior just does his goofy running clothesline. Still, at least they're in there. The control can get a little tricky on the Genesis, however, as the three button pad makes it so you have to press two buttons simultaneously to pull off certain moves. You'll get the hang of it eventually, but it can be pretty difficult at first.

Being an early 16-bit game, the sound is expected to be simple, and it is. The menu music is generic but it sounds fine, and it becomes catchy after a while. During the select screen, highlighting a wrestler will cause their theme song to play after a few seconds; the song of the victor also plays after the match ends. It's a pretty cool little feature, but of course the quality of the songs are nowhere near their real life counterparts. The music of the Genesis version is, again, much worse than the SNES version. The music sounds more "tinny," thanks to the notably low sound capabilities of the Genesis. Still, the songs are recognizable. No music plays during a match; the only thing you'll hear are ambient crowd noises and the sound of punches, kicks, and slams onto the mat. While these noises don't stand out in any way, they accomplish what they need to and never distract you.

If you didn't know by now, the Super Nintendo and Genesis versions of Super WrestleMania both have a different roster of wrestlers. Some guys appear on both consoles, but some are console-exclusive. Now, this could be either a good thing or a bad thing in your eyes. From a 'good' standpoint, having two different rosters offers "variety" and, if you get both versions, more wrestlers for you to use than if you had just one version. On the other hand, back in the day if you had just a Genesis or just an SNES, you were left out of the loop with some of the guys.

The SNES version contains two more superstars than the Genesis version. If you want my opinion, I prefer the SNES' roster much more. It's all up to certain taste, though; remember that all the guys on the Genesis have their own special moves, too. SNES contains two actual tag teams, plus favorites like Jake Roberts and The Undertaker. Genesis has the popular British Bulldog and Ultimate Warrior, along with the odd inclusion of a young Shawn Michaels. It has no "real" tag team, unless you count Money Inc., with DiBiase and IRS. There's also the perpetual Sega-exclusive Papa Shango.

For such an early game, Acclaim added some decent modes to Super WrestleMania. Besides from singles and tag team matches, you also have four-on-four Survivor Series elimination tag team matches, which I think was the first inclusion of this mode. The Genesis actually wins this category handily, though: it has a one player 'WWF Championship' mode not seen on the SNES, where you try and win the title with a wrestler. Nothing major compared to the season/story modes of today's games, but it was pretty cool back in 1992. Also, when playing one-on-one matches against the CPU, the Genesis game actually lets you pick your opponent, a feature oddly not present on the Super Nintendo.

WWF Super WrestleMania didn't set the world on fire, but I still think it's overlooked by most people today. I thought it was a solid game when it came out and, while it's aged pretty poorly, I still think that it's playable fun. Back then, all a new wrestling game had to do to excite us would be to have clean graphics, a roster of our favorite main eventers (or WrestleCrap stars), and have some good multi-player fun. Now as to whether you should get the SNES or Genesis version, that's really up to you, as both have their strong points. You could probably buy both at the same time for less than $6 now, so go for it if you own both systems. Don't expect an amazing game, but WWF Super WrestleMania was the basis for the greater Acclaim wrestling games we got later on. Reduce the score by one or two if you don't give a crap about wrestling.

Reviewer Score: 7.0   |   Avg. Reader Score: 5.0

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