Let's be honest here: wrestling is essentially one big television drama, and that's no way an attempt to belittle the incredible athleticism of the men and women involved. It's Eastenders with a mullet and tight pants, complete with plot twists and a cast of larger than life characters to root for. These heels and faces are the reason we come back week in, week out.
Natsume Championship Wrestling's biggest problem is that it doesn't have characters as such, just a suite of bland meat-heads of varying height, tweaked outfits and slightly different haircuts. Where are the mad personas? We want someone with a bit of personality, not some chap called K. Bruto who looks like a bloated Eddie Van Halen after eating a very large carvery dinner.
Their move sets are largely the same too, save for each wrestler's unique finisher and a few aesthetic differences here and there. Some fighters prefer a running clothesline to a dropkick, for example, but the effect is largely the same – you're still knocking some bloke down to the canvas. It just feels a little flat and lacking in imagination.
Aside from the familiar move-sets Natsume's combat mechanic is quite technical, and we actually had to consult an online fan FAQ to really understand all of the conditional moves and little nuances required to win our first match. The first encounter was a slaughter that saw our six-foot behemoth tossed around like a frisbee until they got pinned. It was embarrassing.
But the more time you spend with this game, the more it starts to reveal a degree of depth. In something of a missed trick there is no practice mode to help you learn the ropes – all you get are two-player exhibition matches, so you have to be prepared to learn through several crushing defeats before it all clicks. The first rule is to not mash buttons when locked into a clinched grapple and, instead, simply input your next move before the opponent does to punish them. Spamming commands will make you lose out every time.
It only gets more layered from there, as there are different commands for picking up your foe when they're laid flat out or stunned in a sitting position. Things you would think simple – such as climbing up on the turnbuckle or tagging in your buddy during a 2v2 match-up are complex and require a trip to the manual or, again, a guide to fully understand.
This is both a plus and a minus in our book, because depth and technicality are rarely negative features in fighting games, but when those rules are obscured, it can often sap the fun out of your experience. All we're saying is: be prepared to invest time into learning this game. Once you know the rules solo play almost becomes redundant on easy and normal modes, because you'll figure out how to time commands so that you win every grapple.
We almost perfected our way through every round of the game's Championship Tournament mode, which shouldn't really happen, but for some reason the CPU mostly tries to throw you. All you have to do is input your next move as soon as their arms lock and you'll never fail. Hard mode narrows the throw window considerably, but chances are you'll still win constantly.
And so it falls to multiplayer to pick this game's broken body off the mat and into the squared-circle of fun. Up to four players can participate here – although the original SNES cart allowed for six with controller port extenders. There are 2v2 tag matches and a round robin mode that can be tailored to include a selection of wrestlers.
It's much more fun with a second person because the grappling feels less mechanical, and it really does become a game of discipline and patience. If you mash inputs to break out of a clinch first you'll easily fail and eat a suplex sandwich for your carelessness, while level- headed players will get their timing down and dish out the hurt before their buddy.
There are some cases where mashing is encouraged and is actually quite fun – such as getting up after a throw, breaking out of submission holds and trying to shrug of your opponent when pinned. There's always something endearing about local play games that involve a degree of mashing, as it creates tension in the room and a playful competitiveness that's often lost in modern online fighters. To that end there's certainly a degree of rose-tinted nostalgia tucked into this game's tight black trunks.
Conclusion
This is no Fire Pro Wrestling, but Natsume's effort is worth looking at if you're a fan of the sport, and if you have other people to play with. You should absolutely avoid this one if you intend on playing solo, however, because it really does become soulless quite fast, thanks in part to the bland roster and predictable CPU.
Natsume Championship Wrestling is passable, but it's surely no slobberknocker – whatever that means. We're not exactly sure.
Comments 14
Think I'll wait for the n64 wrestling games on the vc before I get my wallet out thanks. If that ever happens?
Give me N64 WWF No Mercy for Wii U VC and I'll never ask for any wrestling games ever again. Besides, that's the only wrestling game that matters over all.
"Let's be honest here: wrestling is essentially one big television drama"
Um, no? Wrestling is essentially an age-old Olympic sport. It's sad most people nowadays associate it mostly with the WWE and such, and it doesn't help that you would open a review with such a statement.
@KeeperBvK I completely agree
Give me N64 WWF No Mercy for Wii U VC
Not gonna happen.
@steamtrain cough Wrestling! cough
@steamtrain Oh. xD
@KeeperBvK I know that dude, but I'm clearly talking about the form of wrestling - fake or not - depicted in the game
@steamtrain "like"
It's kind of sad that I had to create an account to say this. Dave, you should have done some research, or at least read the previous review for the Wii version at NintendoLife.
The reason why characters don't look 'larger than life' is because they're based on REAL wrestlers. This game is actually a port of a Japanese game under licence of All-Japan Pro Wrestling, and puroresu as always been more 'serious' than its American counterpart, especially in AJPW. K. Bruto is actually Terry Gordy, who was very popular in Japan as well as Stan Hansen ('Python' in the game). Actually five of the wrestlers in the game are from the US.
Great timing for the review after Sting's WWE debut. I keep hoping we will get one of the two awesome GBA Fire Pro games. Best wrestling series ever IMHO.
This was from a time period when wrestling games were finally becoming something special in Japan. As was pointed out already, this one was actually an AJPW game. I think I picked up the Japanese version of this game earlier in the year along with Super Fire Pro Wrestling X Premium, which I did have back in the day and wanted to have again. Sounds like this one was good for its time, but the lack of wrestlers and content would definitely limit its long-term appeal.
WWE games suck! They should make a wrestling game that's not in the WWE universe. I think it's to dark and evil. And WWE games have sold out to the THQ guys who can't make the movement and hit detection feel right.
I love the original Japanese version of this game, a shame we never got the superior sequels: http://youtu.be/VIUROylKxtc
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