When gamers hear wrestling game, they immediately think about WWE licensed games from EA. They think wrestler creator, crazy stage entrances, flying chairs, steel cages, and a bunch of button-mashing to subdue your friend.

WWE was responsible for the wrestling game boom of the 1990s, but it also opened the floodgates to new wrestling game franchises. Some of them were around before the first WWE game, others found either little success or became a cult classic. Some of them aren’t even focused on American wrestlers! Here are some wrestling games players probably forgot about.

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10 Giant Gram 2000

Giant Gram is dedicated to the Japanese wrestling scene. Many iconic Japanese wrestlers are featured in this game alongside some well-known American wrestlers such as Bruiser Brody. In terms of gameplay and presentation, Giant Gram doesn’t deal with Western conventions of wrestling: “steel chairs, steel cages, ladders, tables” etc.

There is a gameplay mechanic where players can build up an on-screen meter by executing combos and reversals. When the meter is full, the player will enter a “‘Burning Rage’ which allows them to initiate devastating combos and other moves to defeat opponents,” according to Giant Bomb.

There were only three games in the franchise, and Giant Gram 2000 was the last one in the series.

9 King of Colosseum II

A lesser-known video game duo published in the early 2000s and developed by Spike before they were Spike Chunsoft Co. Released on the PlayStation 2, this game had some backlash due to their other, much older, wrestling game franchise: Fire Pro Wrestling.

King of Colosseum was Spike’s first foray into 3D game development. The first iteration had “lukewarm reactions” according to GameSpot, but Spike stepped it up for the series’ second entry. Like Giant Gram, this game focused on the Japanese pro-wrestling (puroresu) while also having some popular American wrestlers available to unlock (e.g. Hulk Hogan, Chris Benoit, Brock Lesner) with slightly altered faces to avoid copyright.

While KOC2 had the wrestling game staples (multiple game modes, wrestler creation, etc.), where it shined was the refined opponent AI and well-designed grappling system.

8 Wrestling Kingdom series

A standard and licensed wrestling game series released for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox 360. Yuke’s, the developer of the WWE 2K series, developed Wrestling Kingdom. While the first game was well-received, it had a PR goof when it released. “The Xbox 360 version of the game was temporarily recalled in Japan due to it not saving properly to the system's hard drive,” according to Wikipedia. Oof.

The second entry, Wrestle Kingdom 2: Pro Wrestling Sekai Taisen, didn’t expand on the core gameplay or campaign mode much. Yuke's did add an extras section where players could view wrestlers’ bios, video interviews, championship history, and even autographs.

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7 The Simpsons Wrestling

It’s not a far-out concept to have a Simpsons wrestling game—that sounds awesome! Unfortunately, the game had more publicity for being universally panned rather than an enjoyable experience.

The Simpsons Wrestling was a PlayStation and PC game published by EA, Activision and Fox Interactive (depending on where it was published). You had classic Simpsons characters, voiced by the same voice actors from the show, brawling it out with their own original moves and specials.

But again, what was more interesting was how much hate this game got. WatchMojo.com declared this game the worst Simpsons game ever, and IGN delivered these final words in its review:

“I feel sorry for anyone who buys this, and what's more, I feel sorry for the Simpsons license, which deserves more. Shame should hang like a noose on everyone who worked on this title.” Y-i-k-e-s.

6 Ultimate Muscle Series

Like some fighting game franchises, this series is based on an anime/manga series by the mangaka duo Yutedamago. Ultimate Muscle, or Kinnikuman, follows a buff alien named Suguru Kinniku. In order to retain his birthright and the title of prince of his home planet, Kinniku must participate in a wrestling tournament.

Naturally, a series like this was screaming for a video game adaptation. The first game came out on the GameBoy Advance in 2002, and the most recent entry is Kinnikuman: Muscle Shot, a mobile game released in 2015. Ultimate Muscle: Legends vs. New Generation is the game commonly cited as the franchise’s best, having memorable characters, explosive finishers and good-ole-anime action.

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5 WCW/nWo Revenge

Overshadowed by the immensely popular WWF (now WWE), WCW boomed with entries in the 1990s to directly compete against the professional wrestling juggernaut. Like WWE-based titles, WCW used licensed wrestlers from their own organization. The result was 10 games released between 1989 and 2000.

WhatCulture deemed WCW/nWo Revenge the best game in the franchise due to the polished gameplay, fully modeled arenas and the ability to tweak wrestlers’ costumes. While there are no more entries for the franchise, wrestling game fans still keep WCW in their hearts.

4 Virtual Pro Wrestling 2

VPW2 is a beloved game in the wrestling game community. Developed by popular wrestling game developer AKI Corporation and Asmik Ace Entertainment. Unlike previous puroresu entries, there were no American fighters available to unlock. This is all for the Japanese.

21 wrestlers from the All Japan Pro Wrestling license were included in this game along with some other popular wrestlers who had their appearances altered. There are 98 wrestlers total in the roster. Giant Bomb noted that VPW2 “has the largest roster of all of AKI's wrestling games. Players can create up to 16 custom characters, bringing the total amount of characters to 114.

3 Saturday Night Slam Masters

Developed and published by Capcom, this wrestling game series started as an arcade. Saturday Night Slam Masters was released in 1993 with two more entries coming later that year and in 1994 respectively. Only the original Slam Masters were ported to the SNES and Sega Genesis in the mid-1990s, however.

One of the most appealing parts of the video game was the art design by Tetsuo Hara, who was behind the Fist of the North Star manga. It was a very simple fighting game; it had three button inputs, a few basic game modes, as well as fighters from various backgrounds, ethnicities and nationalities like Street Fighter or Tekken.

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2 Def Jam: Fight for NY

A cult-classic wrestling video game from bring hip-hop legends from the early 2000s together for an electric time. Def Jam: Fight for NY (New York) was published by EA and available for the PlayStation 2, Xbox and GameCube. Notable characters include Snoop Dogg, Ludacris, Ice-T, Lil’ Kim, Flavor Flav, and Carmen Electra.

The mechanics were different from their wrestling game contemporaries like WWE and WCW. Players had to take into account their character’s consciousness while fighting, as it affects their character’s ability to recover from heavy damage. They could also interact with the environment in many ways, including “slamming them into the wall headfirst… [or] ramming a door or gate in their face,” according to Wikipedia.

1 Fire Pro Wrestling

This is a series that dates back to 1989! The Fire Pro Wrestling series has over 15 games in its 30-year history. While various developers tackled the series throughout its lifetime, the main appeal of the game comes from its ability to make wrestling into competitive and competent gameplay.

Instead of button-mashing techniques, which are prevalent in most fighting and wrestling games, Fire Pro employs a timed grappling system to allow both creative and strategic freedom for players. Players can’t just throw themselves at the enemy; they need to pace their moves, be able to make up for error and time their more powerful attacks.

The most recent entry is a remaster of Fire Pro Wrestling World, which is available on PC and PS4.

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