15. "WWF Wrestlemania: The Arcade Game" (Arcade/Genesis/Snes/PS/Sega Saturn) 1995
Finally, in this first part of the walk down memory lane is "Wrestlemania the Arcade Game." You may have guessed it already and yes; it was developed as an arcade game. It did also appear on all the other major consoles of the time. "Wrestlemania the Arcade Game," is very different from the rest of the games that came out before it, even the previous arcade installments. It was released by Midway and very noticeably took a visual queue from their ever-popular Mortal Kombat series. As a result, the character models looked great and to that point were probably the best representation of the real wrestlers in a video game. The action was a lot faster paced, and for lack of a better word more "arcade" like compared to the other WWF simulations of the time. Although based on wrestling, it's really more of a fighting game that just happens to take place inside a wrestling ring. There are real wrestling moves in the game, but it consists mostly of the strikes, combos and special moves that are more commonly seen in fighting games. Each wrestler even has their own weird special move. Undertaker for example can cast spirits at his opponents while Doink the Clown can electrify them with a hidden joke buzzer. The Intercontinental Title finally made an appearance in this game too, as well as a mode that let you go for the WWF Crown. Both modes consisted of a different mix of singles and handicap matches to pave your way to the titles. Keeping in line with the other games, there was the standard Wrestlemania Challenege, where you are pitted against every wrestler in the game in one mode. Understandably the Arcade version of the game was the best one, with the other incarnations suffering from slow down and other issues. It's a very different game from the other ones we've looked at so far which wasn't necessarily a bad thing. It's a fun game while it lasts, though as noticed it is more of a Mortal Kombat style beat 'em up than it is a wrestling simulation. It was one of the last games to appear on the 16 bit time frame of consoles, but was also ported to the PsOne. A decent game to go out on, "Wrestlemania" was a teaser of what we could expect from the next generation of consoles, which really brought out the best in wrestling games.