Big Bang Pro Wrestling review by Jason Starnes

As one of the (possibly) last titles to be released for the NGPC, Big Bang Pro Wrestling was certainly a nice surprise. As a fan of wrestling games on the NES, I shied away from many of the newer 16-bit wrestling games for various reasons. So here I sit, years later, playing a handheld system that's quickly losing support, when BAM, along comes BBPW, a simple game that retains the solid control of older wrestlers, and manages to pack in some nice artwork and a large variety of moves.

BBPW's controls, while not always intuitive, are easy to execute. Each character has a punch, a strong attack, and a running attack (which is sometimes the same as the strong attack). When your enemy is on the ground you can run at him and do an elbow drop, flip him over and kick him in the back, or put him in a submission hold. During the game you can also climb the turnbuckle (unless you are fat), take the fight outside the ring, knock over the ref, and even grab a chair from the audience.

The moves in BBPW (the most important aspect of any wrestler) are great, and really make the game. There are four or five moves available to you from the front grapple and two from behind. Another one of BBPW's strengths is that most major moves are created specifically for each character, meaning you'll rarely see two different characters pulling off the exact same move. The animations, while not exceptionally fluid, look great and do a wonderful job of showing the intricacies of each move. In addition to the standard set of moves, each character has a unique signature move, which does not require grappling, but instead is executed by pressing A+B when your character's name is flashing. The signature moves, like most of the moves, are way-cool looking and are a great way to get the blood pumping.

The artwork in the game is nicely done, with the only possible gripe being the slightly washed-out look of the character sprites during gameplay, which we should all be pretty familiar with. The character walk-ins all have custom music, and a slightly tweaked "light show." It won't exactly give you goosebumps, but it's still cool. One of the more shining moments is the signature move, where you get a quick cut-scene of your character's portrait whizzing by. The fact that the portrait is really just a duplicate of the character select portrait (not an action portrait) makes it feel a bit out of place at times, but for the most part it does a nice job of adding a little Tecmo-style flair to the game.

The difficulty of the game is a mixed bag. If you play the game outright and try to be "fair" with the computer, it'll be a tough fight, but if you play the game for a while you'll find a few ways to exploit him. For example, if you are in danger of getting pinned you can simply step outside the ring (where there is no count-out) and safely duke it out until you finally gain the upper hand. Another problem is that it seems almost impossible to get many moves on the computer without smacking him around a bit first. But of course he has absolutely no problem pulling off suplexes and body slams on you whenever he wants :) The signature moves are also a bit too easy to pull off. To be honest, I don't see all these things as being too detrimental to the game. For me, playing wrestling games is all about beating people up, not getting beaten down. It's great fun to smash the other guy in the face, pick him up by his hair, then slam him back down on the mat with a back drop.

BBPW has four basic options: single match, tournament (you set up a ladder of players; kinda pointless, but shorter than a title race), IEW championship (standard race-for-the-title, you have to beat everyone twice), and linkup mode. Linkup play would be great if anyone actually had a buddy with an NGPC. It's funny how the NGPC has linkup for nearly all their games, yet the far more common Game Boy Color rarely has the link feature enabled. There's a couple variations in the game that sound more fun than they actually are--the coffin match and the money pole match. The coffin match is great fun until you realize that if you just stand next to the rope and wait for a grapple, eventually you'll manage to toss the guy in without any effort (this sometimes even happens on the first try). The money pole match is fun until you realize that beating the other guy up has little to no effect on the outcome of the match. Instead, it's all about tapping ABABABABAB as you are climbing the pole. I find that about 50% of the time, the computer will manage to kick me off the pole (which ensures a win for him) even if he is beaten to a pulp. This makes winning the money pole match more or less a (frustrating) gamble.

The characters in the game are great, particularly because of the creative names, like "David," hahahaha. You have your everyman Brian, your fat guy David, your evil giant Dietz, your short stump-o-muscle Mike, your mysterious magic dude Macey, your martial arts expert Sho, your cocky kid Alex, and your shrimp-with-a-mask Eagle. Before each match your opponent will step out with a mike and talk some smack to you. The lines (which are usually customized for each character match-up) are pretty classic, and you can't help but giggle when someone mentions David's "glutinous mass." Let me tell ya, SNKgrish is not bad these days! Especially considering this was meant for Japanese release only. There are also two hidden characters in the game, Josef Steele and Kei (they're in the manual, so NO I'm not spoiling anything!). Watch out for that Vale Tudo!

Most of the elements of BBPW can be classified as "good." The controls, the number of moves, and the characters all measure up well to other wrestlers, but at the same time there isn't really anything superior or innovative about the game. Probably the biggest shortcoming is the lack of a tag-team mode. However, after reading about the wrestlers available for the Game Boy Color, I think we can easily assume that BBPW is the best wrestling game on any handheld system. Despite all the shortcomings I mentioned, I love playing this game, and I'm very satisfied with it. The game works where it counts--it has cool characters, cool moves, and it's easy to play.* I would definitely recommend it.

*Provided you know which buttons do what :)