Feb 22 2012
WWE Wrestlefest on the iPhone – A Legacy enhanced or ruined?
For fans of Video Games there have been precious few Wrestling games which have proven to be continuously fun and exciting to play, this is especially true of video games representing the wacky world of WWE. One exception is the extremely popular Wrestlefest coinop arcade game released by in the early 90′s, which used large, colourful and exaggerated spectacular graphics long with simple but tight controls to recreate engrossing in ring action.
The Original Wrestlefest
Wrestlefest is considered a classic by it’s fans and there have been many calls for a modern remake of the game, and now thanks to THQ, Wrestlefest has been remade for iOS devices, but does it live up to the memory of the original game?
The first thing that fans of the original game will notice is that the graphical style of the game has been changed, gone are the large blocky colourful characters of the original and in their place are smaller more streamline images which bear a resemblance to the cell shaded graphics that were popular in the previous generation of console games. For me an element of the atmosphere of the game has been lost with the switch of graphical style, gone are the larger then life superstars replaced with smaller less detailed figures typical of those found in 16 bit games.
The New Wrestlefest
Whilst the control system has remained unchanged, the arcade original benefited significantly from having physical controls, whereas the iOS version relies on a virtual joystick and buttons, this significantly makes the game harder to play especially when the action gets frantic on screen, this is a common problem on iOS games where a touch enhanced control system hasn’t been implemented .
The original arcade game had 2 game modes Royal Rumble and Saturday Night Main Event Tournament, the new iOS version of the games supplements these modes with 1vs1 Exhibition, Road to Wrestlemania, TagTeam and Gauntlet Match modes, extra gameplay modes are always welcome although in reality they add little variety to the game, the multiplayer mode uses Apples Game Centre to find you opponents over the Internet and this is a big selling point for the game, unfortunately in the days after its launch the multiplayer mode has been crippled by massive lag, although this should improve in the future.
The Original Roster
The New Roster
The original Wrestlefest roster was very impressive, featuring the top superstars of the time, in comparison the new game has a mix of current stars and legends although there are a number of big names missing the result is that the game feels like its missing star power, and this is magnified by a number of characters being locked until you make an in game purchase.
Ultimately given the popularity of the original game Wrestlefest is a massive disappointment and this certainly isn’t the game that fans were expecting. However Wrestlefest isn’t a terrible game and if you aren’t aware of the original game then you may enjoy it, but it is far from a great game.
There is always the danger that with older games that were popular in our youth rose tinted glasses take hold and we remember the game as being better then it is, but Wrestlefest remains popular to this day in the world of emulation, and if you have the know how this remains the best way to play Wrestlefest.
Other comments about Wrestlefest from around the TwitterSphere:
By @JakeCian on Twitter: The #WWE game #wrestlefest available on App Store for iPhone RT @WWEgames it’s a really fantastic game!!! Great work!!!
By @_KaJe on Twitter: Thanks for the #Wrestlefest re-release, but I’ll stick with the original. #bejealous http://t.co/RU12lZJk
By @blackberry_MUFC on Twitter: just downloaded wwe wrestlefest ! Pure retro wwe gaming at its best . #memoriesofthearcade
By @INICKCULLMBRAND on Twitter: Glad there is a lite version of @wwegames wrestlefest get a test drive before we buy
By @_FuZ__: on Twitter: I agree with you on wrestlefest, just downloaded the lite version, just another bad remake
About the Author
This has been a blog post by John Lane, John has been playing and enjoying video games since 1982. To read all his Blog Posts Click Here.
You can follow John on Twitter at @videogamejohn
