Let’s take a look at WWF WrestleFest arcade – the classic arcade wrestling game. WWF was huge in the UK in the early 90’s with top stars like Hulk Hogan & The Ultimate Warrior attracting us to the WWF & into arcades to play this classic Technos arcade game.
WWF Wrestlefest is a wrestling arcade game released in 1991 by Technos. The game provides up to 4 player wrestling action in two arcade game modes: WWF Royal Rumble mode & WWF Saturday Night Main Event tag team mode.
Discovering the WWF
In the 1980s if you asked a UK kid what wrestling was then Big Daddy and Giant Haystacks would probably get mentioned. That changed when satellite TV spread across the nation as UK kids discovered the WWF.
I reckon it probably would have been 1990 when I brought my first silvervision WWF VHS videotape. It was the best of Hulkamania and my younger brother and I loved it. Soon we were buying and renting WWF VHS tapes and my brother started getting the Hasbro action figures. It seemed that from out of nowhere everyone was into American Wrestling.
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Discovering WrestleFest Arcade
We went on holiday in 1991 to a holiday camp that pumped Sky TV into each caravan, this was a year before my dad finally caved in and got us Sky TV. We were on holiday and could watch WWF Superstars and other WWF programs that Sky showed and it was fantastic. But then we went into the arcade on site and we discovered probably the best Arcade Wrestling game ever made – WWF WrestleFest.
WWF WrestleFest is the pinnacle of arcade wrestling games in my opinion.
WWF WrestFest Arcade captured exactly what the WWF (now WWE) was all about in that period in the early 1990s. Over-the-top personalities in massive sprite form beating each other up.
WWF WrestleFest by Technos
WWF WrestleFest Arcade by Technos was the follow-up to WWF Superstars which I cannot only ever remember seeing in an arcade after discovering WrestleFest. To be fair though I only got to go into arcades on summer trips to the coast so that’s probably why. WWF Superstars is a very good game in its own right but I found it difficult compared to the button bashing fun of WWF WrestleFest.
WWF WrestleFest was distributed as a dedicated four player cabinet or as a conversion kit for two three and four player cab. Technos even recommends in the operator’s manual which three and four player arcade cabs to convert. I wonder how many arcade owners actually converted the Simpsons or Ninja Turtles?
WWF Wrestlefest – The Wrestlers
The big names were there such as Hulk Hogan, the Ultimate Warrior, Jake the Snake Roberts and the Legion of Doom just to name a few. It was fantastic.
12 characters featured but you could only select the Legion of Doom if you entered as player two when someone had to reach them as opponents in the tag team option of the game. The only other proper tag team to feature is demolition in their early 1990s form of Smash and Crush.
Featured Wrestlers
Hulk Hogan
The Ultimate Warrior
Jake the Snake Roberts
Mr Perfect
Sgt Slaughter
The Million Dollar Man Ted DiBiase
The Big Boss Man
Earthquake
Demolition (Tag Team) – Crush and Smash
The Legion of Doom (Tag Team) – Hawk and Animal
Game Play
Unlike the WWF Superstars arcade game, you had two game types Royal Rumble or Saturday Night’s Main Event. The first being the classic Royal Rumble match although in this you can eliminate opponents with pins and submissions as well as throwing them over the top rope.
The tag-team game mode allowed you to select two wrestlers and try to reach the Legion of Doom to win the tag team titles. If successful you then face another series of matches defending your titles to complete the game.
My favourite mode of course is the Royal Rumble match. Playing this for the first time with the ring announcer starting the match, the wrestler entrances and the mini clips of the wrestlers about to enter the match following an elimination was (and still is) awesome. Royal Rumble mode is an absolute riot to this day. I play this all the time on my MAME arcade cab, I love it!
Pay to Play
Technos weren’t stupid and the game was designed to make money. This was helped by allowing players to add credits during the game which allows you to replenish your health when things aren’t looking good.
The finishing moves are great fun too with the Ultimate Warrior delivering his famous Gorilla Press and Splash Combo, Hulk Hogan has his Atomic Leg Drop and even Ted Dibiase’s Million Dollar Dream sleeper hold makes an appearance. My favourite finishing moves are Jake the Snake Roberts DDT and the Earthquake’s devastating Earthquake Splash. Be careful though not to get on the end of the Legion of Doom’s Doomsday Device in the tag-team match though.
Wrestling Memories
This was a time when American wrestling was new and exciting to UK kids and it was great to see other wrestlers who were popular faces or evil heels at the time in the game as well such as the Big Bossman, Mr Perfect, the Million Dollar Man and Sgt Slaughter.
Over the next few years, the WWF would bring SummerSlam to Wembley Stadium in 1992, some average licensed games would hit the new 16-bit systems and my brother, and I had access to regular pay-per-views and programs through Sky TV. I don’t think it ever felt quite as exciting and new as it did in 1991 when we first discovered this arcade classic that is WWF WrestleFest.
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More Arcade Memories
Thanks for reading this post about WWF WrestleFest. You might also like the following posts covering some classic arcade games.
You can also find my Top 10 Arcade Games of All Time Here.
Keep it Retro.
Daz
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