'Lego Men' rule Tag Team Wrestling
Waldman's Retro Gaming
By JON WALDMAN --
SLAM! Wrestling
Tag Team Pro Wrestling
1986
Data East/Namco
Since we took a look at the first wrestling game during my last column, it seems appropriate to look at the first
tag-team game this time aroundp. Well, I guess it's better to take a quick glance
becuase looking for too long could do serious eye
damage.
Characters
Are there actual characters here? It's pretty much
impossible to tell. Two tag-teams compete though you
don't know who you are fighting as or against until
after the bout. The team names are also pretty
unoriginal, as you control the "Ricky Fighters", while
the computer players are the "Strong Bads". After
going through two or three matches you'll still be
fighting the same guys.
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One of the "Strong Bads" giving one of
the "Ricky Fighters" the Torture Rack.
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Moveset
The moves here are somewhat limited. While the
grappling is fairly ranged (including DVD, torture
rack and enzeguri), that's about all you can do. The
only striking move you can perform is a punch and you
cannot do running moves or top-rope manuevers. Also,
most moves will result in one or both wrestlers ending
up outside the ring, which gets extremely annoying.
You also cannot reverse any moves which is more of a
frustration than a challenging aspect.
Of course, with tag team wrestling you would expect
there to be a moveset for both wrestlers. Well, there
isn't. The only thing that the outside wrestler can do
is break up a submission manuever. They can't break up
a pin, they can't double team and they can't add
interference on the outside.
Control
This is where my biggest complaint comes into play. In
order to perform a grapple you have to first grab
hold of your opponent (and keep it), then scroll
through a menu list of possible moves. You should
never have to go through so much effort to perform as
simple a manuever as a dropkick.
Graphics and sound
Let's just say there are higher quality graphics on
Atari. The wrestlers look downright terrible, appearing
more like "Lego Men" than grapplers. The animation is
also exceedingly bad. How bad you ask? When fighting
outside the ring, if you execute a DVD, you appear to
jump higher than the ENTIRE ring. Come on! Is it that
hard to produce graphics that look even a BIT
realistic? Let alone that there is litle flow to the
animation making it look incredibly poor.
I've seen better game animation coming out of
mid-90s high-school computer classes.
Overall
Simply put, this game is not worth the electricity to
turn your NES on. The characters are limited, the
moves are complicated and look awful and any expected
bonuses of a tag-team game are non-existent. Do
yourself a favour and avoid this one at all costs.
Rating:
0 out of 5
Previous Columns
Jan. 30 ... Nintendo's 'Pro Wrestling' primative but fun
