RetroMania Wrestling review

RetroMania Wrestling is the official sequel to the wildly successful arcade WrestleFest; an arcade-only wrestling game developed by Technos Japan which released in 1991. The game, while simulating wrestling matches, featured more of an arcade gameplay as opposed to the most recent wrestling more sim-focused games. Much like its predecessor, RetroMania Wrestling is a pick-up and play wrestler featuring a fast-paced arcade playstyle.

RetroMania Wrestling features a very simplistic, easy to pick up and play-control scheme. You have a light, medium, and hard attack which can be used for hitting your opponent. When getting into a headlock, mashing one of the four face buttons will result in a different type of attack. Although, don’t expect to pull off hard-hitting moves right off the bat.

While the Y button will throw your opponent in the ropes, one of the three other buttons will pull a wrestling move. However, before being able to pull off more damaging moves, you need to build up your meter by doing smaller moves with the X button. As your meter fills up, you’ll be able to use A and then B to put the hurt on your opponent. When your opponent is on the ground, you will also perfect a different type of attack depending on the button pressed.

One of the most interesting features of the game is the definitely unique variety of the roster. While the game was built and promoted around the Road Warriors (a.k.a. the Legion of Doom, Hawk, and Animal; RIP), RetroMania Wrestling features wrestlers from NWA, NJPW, TNA, ECW; among others. So players wanting to pit Zack Sabre Jr. (who’s an NJPW talent) against former ECW wrestler Tommy Dreamer, this is your chance! My only gripe with the roster is the questionable practice of announcing DLC *before* the game releases as they already announced James Storm (from TNA fame), Mr. Hughes (former WWF/E wrestler), and indie favorite and current TNA superstar Chris Bey.

The game features a handful of match types. You’ll have one on one, steel cage, three-way dances, four corners matches, retro rumble, tag team matches, six-man matches and falls count anywhere matches. So there’s plenty of gameplay variety for players to chew on; they even brought back the blue steel cage! Four way matches are a pain in the ass however as there’s always someone fucking up your pinfall or submission attempt. There’s a pretty fun story mode built around Johnny Retro (a.k.a. Johnny Nitro from WWE fame) and a 10 Pounds of Gold mode where your goal is to climb the proverbial ladder and try to take the NWA belt away from Nick Aldis f.k.a. Magnus in TNA.

The game, unfortunately, suffers from detection issues; oftentimes you’ll be on the same level as your opponent but while his hits will land, your won’t. It doesn’t happen a lot, but can understandably feel frustrating when your opponent can get a few extra hits. Another thing is that the button-mashing will make your hand hurt; sure it’s far from what we went through as kids with WWF Royal Rumble and WWF Raw on Super Nintendo and Genesis/Mega Drive back in the day, but a long session might require a break.

Additionally, when all hell breaks loose and everyone ends up fighting on the outside, sometimes, non-legal partners will magically teleport back to their corners after you and your opponent are back slugging it out inside the squared circle. Another nuisance, albeit not that significant, is the zoom in/out of the camera; not only when everyone is outside but also during the Retro Rumble. For whatever reason, when a new entrant makes its way to the ring, the camera zooms out so there’s a small section to see the entrant coming. To be honest, the zoom-out wasn’t necessary.

RetroMania Wrestling looks great. It features a gorgeous pixelated design with uniquely designed arenas with their colors and styling. My favorite is definitely the STOMP arena; it’s set outside near the beach… almost feels like Spring break! The Hell arena is definitely one of a kind. Although, not everything is perfect. While most wrestlers look like their real-life counterparts, some “pixels” are bound to repeat. As I had a team of Johnny Nitro and Jeff Cobb coming to the ringside by side and they looked like twins; aside from the color patterns. The game’s soundtrack was composed by the talented Danimal Cannon. As a whole, the score is a great listen, especially the track that plays during the match. On the commentating side, it leaves a lot to be desired. Don’t expect WWE 2K type of commenting; a single announcer that throws the occasional one-liner… to be honest, I think ECW’s Joey Styles would’ve been awesome here.

So is RetroMania Wrestling worth it? Absolutely. As a now casual wrestling fan who steered clear of 2K’s messy WWE game (the last one I enjoyed was WWE RAW vs Smackdown 2007), I can finally say that there’s a good wrestling game on Xbox platforms! The game is easy to pick up and play and hard to master, there’s a handful of match types and a very varied and unique roster of wrestlers that you won’t probably never see in any other wrestling game. While not all is perfect such as questionable hit detection and very limited commentary, nothing is game-breaking. The game is addictive and will definitely gamers, even non-wrestling fans, hooked for the foreseeable future. Don’t miss out!