Arcade Archives: The Big Pro Wrestling!

[tepidsnake]

This week's Arcade Archives release is... Well, it's listed as Tag Team Wrestling but for clarity's sake, we're calling it The Big Pro Wrestling! (Technōs, 1983)

Arcade Archives (previous-gen consoles)

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Arcade Archives 2 (current-gen consoles)

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Despite using the Data East-distributed English name for the game on digital storefronts (Tag Team Wrestling), only the Japanese ROM (The Big Pro Wrestling!) is included. There's two slight edits to the game- the text under the wrestlers on the team name entry screen, which read "New Japan Pro Wrestling and All Japan Pro Wrestling Approved" is gone, and the intro jingle that plays after you start a game is missing, as it was based on Micheal Masser and Mandrill's Ali Bombaye, a song from the 1977 film The Greatest that was used as Antonio Inoki's entrance theme (he had his own version too!) . No special Preference Settings for this one either, but the manual lists how many button presses it takes to select each of your grapple moves, which will be important. One dip switch setting is of note- the screen will invert in two-player mode when you tag to the second player if Screen Inversion is switch on, so if you're on Switch, you can play this as a cocktail cabinet game and get the real experience!
 

Oh no, an arcade wrestling game! I'm so out of my league here! I'll do my best though. Believe it or not, this is often cited as one of the first wrestling video games ever made, and as pointed out by ohfivepro, the game's planner, Takashi Yoneda, loved pro wrestling and was a newcomer in the industry, who wanted to make a wrestling game because none existed at the time, and not only was it a hit, but Technōs would also make bank with more arcade wrestling games many years later, so this pioneering work paid off. Sunny and Terry, the underdog player team, must face off against the heel team Bloody Mask and Mad Bull Giant (who's immune to some moves because he's so big) in a tag team match, complete with getting out of the ring (watch out, Volence Caesar Sr. might show up if you're outside the ring to cause trouble), tagging in and out and all the hits, grapples and throws you can handle.

As for how it plays, it's quite strange at first, and a lot of people are flummoxed by the move selection system- once you get into a favourable clinch (as a hint, the position of you and your opponent's hands is important!), a little menu will pop up and you have to press the Select button to cycle through moves like headlocks, body slams and piledrivers, with more powerful moves near the end of the list requiring more mashing- but all things considered, it kinda works! You only get a few seconds to select your move, so it's not sometihng that massively slows things down, and you eventually get the hang of it. As this is a tag match, you can also switch to your other character which is essential to stay in the match, as you'll eventually wear out, becoming slower and more prone to getting pinned. I'm not a huge wrestling person (Ring of Destruction is more my scene) but even I gave this more than a few goes, and there's obviously a lot of love for the sport here, with an impressive amount of detail for 1983 like the audience moving around, the little intro with the referee and managers and the crunched-down voices that are really charming.

This rerelease does have a big problem though- as mentioned, this is the Japanese ROM, which actually matters here. The moves you select are in Japanese with no English in sight. The manual does try and help you out here, as it lists every move as well as how many button presses it takes to execute it. You'll eventually learn what wach move is but this is really unfortunate for a wider audience who might be expecting the old English Data East release given the game's storefront title. This has happened in the past- Liquid Kids and Tecmo Stackers use their English names but don't include the English ROMs- but this is definitely more affected by the lack of an English mode than most. There is at least one case where the English version was patched in later- Ninja Emaki- but if I understand it right, getting different versions of games in these ACA rereleases is contingent on finding a PCB and also making sure there's no legal hurdles (which is why there's no Midway or Atari versions of many Namco games on ACA) so while I am a little hopeful this can be updated to add the English ROM, I wouldn't hold my breath.

... By the way, it's the NES port that has the heel team called the Strong Bads, not this arcade version. Sorry!

If you want more information, Retro-Wres has a rather long write-up on this game, so I'd better defer to the experts on this one.