There's one other Super Nintendo game from the recent Switch Online update. I shall talk about it today. BACKGROUND:
I'm a fan of pro wrestling, and I've played a good number of wrestling games, but I have not heard of this one. According to what I've read, this is apparently a localized version of a licensed All Japan Pro Wrestling game, so this should be interesting. SUMMARY: As one would expect, Natsume Championship Wrestling is a wrestling game. The goal is simple: beat the shit out of your opponent and get the pin. The controls aren't complicated. You have your standard strikes, running attacks (like dropkicks and shoulder tackles), basic grapple moves (like hip tosses and Irish whips), and the ability to bust out a top rope maneuver. The idea is to deplete the opponent's stamina bar by landing these moves, and going for the pin when their stamina is as low as possible. You can also do a bunch of other things, such as counter a running opponent (e.g. bust out a clothesline), punish a prone opponent with stomps or a submission hold, and pick up or drag a stunned opponent. Again, it's not a lot, but the small variety of ways you can kick your opponent's ass in this game is appreciated. The most fun stuff happens when two wrestlers lock up in a collar-elbow tie-up. This happens automatically when two wrestlers approach, and the first one to make an input hits a high impact move. This is where all the fun moves are, like suplexes, DDTs, powerbombs, and even piledrivers. It's a shame you can't manually go into this mode, though, because spamming piledrivers is easily the most fun thing you can do in this game. Unfortunately, the game doesn't teach you how to do any of this, and I spent several minutes getting my ass handed to me as I struggled with the controls. I eventually relented and looked up the controls online, and after doing so, I found myself able to do stuff and actually enjoy the game. I advise doing the same to save yourself frustration. If you're looking to do some ECW shit and bust out some steel chairs, this is not the game for you. While you can go outside the ring, the most you can do is kick your opponent's ass on the outside and hope they get counted out. There are twelve characters, all of whom are fictional, but it's clear many of them are based on existing wrestlers at the time. Each wrestler has special moves that are exclusive to them, so there's reason to try them all out. One of the characters had a moonsault as a special move, for example, and I used him a lot in my playthroughs because moonsaults are awesome. For the tag team modes, all the teams are preset, so you unfortunately can't mix and match wrestlers. Kind of a shame, but this may have been done due to hardware limitations at the time. Even with this caveat, tag team wrestling is still enjoyable, especially since the tag partner can interrupt the action in the ring and cause chaos. There are five modes in the game. Championship Singles is the arcade campaign, where you go against every other member of the roster in order to become champion. Championship Tag Team is the same, except you have a tag partner that you can tag in. There are also Round Robin modes for both singles and tag teams, where you face off against a number of opponents and try to score the most wins. Lastly, there's the Exhibition Match, which is your regular versus mode. Unfortunately, it seems it can only be played in two-player mode (i.e. no vs. CPU option), which is a missed opportunity. Each of the modes have various settings, like CPU difficulty or time limit. I didn't mess around with these, but it's nice to know that there are options. VERDICT: Though you may be better served playing modern pro wrestling games if you want a more robust experience, I still thought Natsume Championship Wrestling was fun despite being much simpler than the games that came after. There wasn't much in the form of modes, and the combat isn't deep at all, but I still had a blast taking motherfuckers to Suplex City and hitting moonsaults from the top rope. I think it's worth playing at least once (especially if you like pro wrestling), but I must warn those interested that the controls take some getting used to. - end -
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June 2024
Derryck
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