Pro Wrestling NES Review - Good and simple

Although this game features only six fictitious wrestlers, it is one of the funnest wrestling games out there, arguably the best for the NES.

Options are simple, in one-player mode, you select a wrestler (Fighter Hayabusa, Giant Panther, Kin Korn Karn, King Slender, Starman, or The Amazon) and fight your way up the VWF ranks. Each wrestler has his own unique special move(s), and when you pull them off, the crowd lets out a big cheer! Win enough matches, and you'll get a title shot (the champ is King Slender, unless you're playing as him, then it's Giant Panther). If you can beat the champ, then you have to defend your title against the wrestlers you beat on the way, and the matches are much tougher. If you can defend the title successfully ten times, then you take on the champ of the VWF, The Great Puma! The Puma is especially tough, since he can perform all the wrestlers' special moves, plus his own, the dreaded Bulldog.

In two-player mode, you take on a human opponent in a best two-of-three pinfall match for bragging rights.

The gameplay is very solid. Action can take place in the ring or outside. There are a variety of moves, including classics like the body slam and the pile driver, and each wrestler also has one or two unique specical moves, like King Slender's Back Breaker or Starman's Flying Cross Chop. There are also rope moves such as the lariat, and turnbuckle moves performed from the top rope. Matches are won by either a three-second pin fall or a 20 second disqualification outside the ring (also, in the one-player mode, matches have a five-minute time limit, and if it expires, you lose).

This is a really fun game. It's one of the first games I ever owned for NES, and years later, it's still fun.

-Pricetag