10 Best Wrestling Video Games Of All Time
These are the 10 best wrestling video games ever!
We’re always told by wrestling companies ‘DON’T TRY THIS AT HOME’ which is wise, but also a bit unfair. Mick Foley made his name by jumping off of his house so why can’t we all?
Luckily for us, video games exist. A portal to different worlds, video games allow us to do anything we want, whether it be stamping on turtles as an Italian plumber, or lacing up a pair of boots and getting it on in the squared circle without fear of a broken jaw.
Everyone has their favourites, whether it’s the classic LJN games of the Hulkamania and New Generation eras, the N64 classics, the SmackDown series, 2K series, even the half-arsed ECW games - there’s something for everyone.
Sometimes it gets a bit, well, weird. For every SmackDown vs. Raw you have a WWE Crush Hour. For every WWF Attitude, you have a WCW Backstage Assault, and let’s not even mention WWF Royal Rumble for the Dreamcast.
Some wrestling games, though, just get it all right. A perfect blend of replayability, varied gameplay, and great graphics, these are the games that enthralled audiences when they were first released.
So here we have it, 10 of the best wrestling video games ever made.
10. TNA IMPACT!
Starting out with a divisive entry.
TNA IMPACT! came out in 2008 when TNA was at its creative peak. It boasted a roster featuring Kurt Angle, AJ Styles, and Shark Boy amongst others, and featured arcade-like gameplay which had become rare thanks to the SmackDown vs. Raw series becoming a more in-depth simulation rather than a classic gaming experience.
Made by former Mortal Kombat head honchos Midway, TNA IMPACT! firmly had its roots in the beat-em-up genre, for better and for worse. Yeah you could plod around as Scott Steiner and throw massive ham-fisted clotheslines at everyone, but IMPACT! really came alive when playing as the X Division, especially when playing the Ultimate X game type.
IMPACT! was clunky at times, and the amount of moves wasn’t exactly stellar, but the gameplay was fun and easy and was a throwback to what wrestling games were and how they should be. It was meant as a ‘first in the series’ and was primed to expand and grow, but Midway went out of business a year after IMPACT! was released, and the chances of a sequel, unfortunately, went up in smoke.
