Reviews

Welcome to WrestleMania!

Guide one of either Hulk Hogan, the Ultimate Warrior and the British Bulldog up the ladder towards a championship match with World Wrestling Federation champion Sgt. Slaughter. You must defeat Mr. Perfect, The Warlord, "The Million Dollar Man" Ted Dibiase and The Mountie before facing Sgt. Slaughter.

This was a pretty big licence for Ocean to obtain since around this time WWF was growing into a big thing which caught the eyes of many, me included and when I saw this I just had to buy it.

And I wasn't disappointed, now I can have my own WWF matches on my Spectrum with my worst Gorilla Monsoon impression included. Nowadays I like to look at this as a successful game for Ocean, the presentation is excellent, from the intro alone you knew you were in for something really big. The pre-match taunts were also an amusing feature, your opponent give you smack and you return the favour with up to 3 taunts to choose from, and cue another bad impression.

And now to the meat, the gameplay! First thing you'd notice is the ring, and it's impressive, okay it's all white but there's a nice rendition of the old WWF logo slapped on the middle which looks really nice. The gameplay itself is nice but as well as that it is the big letdown as it's very limited, you have a punch, a kick, a dropkick and one special moves, example would be a piledriver for Hulk Hogan which is done via the button mashing meter during a tie-up, reach the top to perform your move. Oh and you can stomp your opponent when down on the mat as well. It's still nice but it is very limited and can get old after a few games...and sore on your fingers.

Oh and the title music is terrific and it remains one of my favourite tunes on the ZX Spectrum.

So in conclusion it's easily the best wrestling game on the Spectrum (though those who loved Rock 'n Wrestle would beg to differ) and it was a highly successful game for Ocean Software.

I actually used to watch wrestling back in the early 90's when we got to see it on VHS cassettes. There was something about it that appealed to me, the pantomime feel of it, good guys vs bad guys, the big time characters, Hulk Hogan ripping his t-shirt, Ultimate Warrior with face paint and running to the ring, Jimmy Hart with the megaphone, Jake Roberts with a snake, Brutus Beefcake cutting hair, it was enough to suck me in and leave me gripped and on the edge of my seat, especially the Royal Rumble events. Then it all got silly with clowns, a bloke from the future and Lex Luger being infatuated by mirrors, so I lost interest after that. This was a pretty ambitious licence for Ocean to take on. The programmers could be forgiven if they knew or understood little or nothing about the product, but they sure done a heck of a good job with this given their supposed personal limitations rather than technical. It's a very accurate representation of the WWF's style and presentation, the taunting especially. They could easily have made a pig's ear of this and make the wrestlers sound nothing like their real life counterparts, but they actually do, and that's an impressive feat. Yes, some of the character sprites are a little off, yes, some of the finishers make no sense, Hogan's piledriver for instance rather than the leg drop, but we knew this wasn't going to be perfect, just make it a playable game for WWF fans to enjoy, and they delivered. It probably doesn't hold up to much nowadays since it's so limited and all but it's still very enjoyable and good fun. And well played to the programmers for making this game stand out, they could easily have made a muck up of it and blame a "lack of knowledge" for it, but they did their best for it, and the results show.