wwf-wrestlemania/WWF.DOC

From: osengbou@bert.eecs.uic.edu (Oudom Sengbounouvong)
Subject: Midway's Westlemania game - pretty cool
Date: 25 Apr 1995 05:33:03 GMT

Well, went down to North Pier's Time-Out arcade when I heard that they 
had the game there.  That game is pretty cool.
  
Graphics looks kinda like those crappy SNES/Gen. WWF games, except the 
sprites are cooler.  The sprites are small like NBA Jam.  They should 
have had NBA Jam style scaling, that would kick ass.  All the characters 
look like they are supposed to.

The characters are as follow: Shawn Micheals, Doink the Clown, The 
Undertaker, Lex Lugar, Bret the hitman Hart, Yokozuna, Bam Bam Bigalo, 
and Razor Ramone.  The controls are like this.
     
   o o o
    \|/        (P)       (PP)
  o--0--o           (B)
    /|\        (K)       (PK)  
   o o o

 - 8 direction   P is punch 
  joystick       PP is power punch
                 B is block
                 K is kick
                 PK is power kick

Pressing Punch and Kick together makes them run.


The crowd are the designers - I recognize Turmell, Divita, and Groskie 
(at least I thought it was them).  

Remember how in NBA Jam, basketball was taken to extremes like everyone 
can go above the rim and shattering the backboard?  Well, in 
Wrestlemania, the wrestlers were taken to extremes by the wacky WWF 
standards.  It's pretty funny.  
Shawn Micheals - has a bat that he uses as a move, does a Cammy like leg 
 grab.  When he gets hit, hearts fall out of him.
Bam Bam - mister fire!  His punch/kicks makes the attacking part of him 
 be on fire.  His on the top rope jump causes the opponent to burn and Bam 
 Bam emerges from the mat like the liquid Terminator except he is on fire, 
 not liquid.  He also has a fire-colored shadow neck breaker move.
Yokozuna - his slams look painful to the victim!  Ouch!  When he gets 
 knocked, food comes out or something.  Looks like ham and fish and 
 stuff.  He has his get on the ropes and crush you move and other cool 
 slams that shakes the ring.  He throws salt and leave you open for a bit.
Lex Luger - his arms transform to metallic things because he is supposed 
 to have a mental plate in his arm.  They just pushed that to extremes.  
 He has a back breaker and other cool slams.  Dumbbells come out of him 
 when you hit him.
Bret Hart - has this eye gouge where huge eyesball fall out of the 
 opponent.  It's funny.  He has this excellent uppercut and new bash.  
 When he gets hit, hearts and his sunglasses fall off.
The Undertaker - he can shoot grey ghosts that makes you dizzy.  He has 
 this shadow choke move.  He also has this neck thrust that causes you to 
 fly up very high.  He has this light sabre type stick that he hits you with.
 Skull and bones fall off of him when hit.
Razor Ramon - his hands turn into blade-like as he chops you.  He has his 
 finishing Razor's edge move.  Cool slams.
Doink the clown - His hands turn big and he has a clown hammer as his 
 extremes.  Don't remember other things.

They use DCS sound compression and we get commentary from Vince McMahon 
and Jerry 'the king' Lawer.  The king is very annoying.  After playing a 
while, the voices are quite repetitive.  Howard Finkle does the 
introduction speech ("Welcome to Wrestlemania by Midway..."). 
You can random select your character in the selection screen.  Now, on 
gameplay-
2-players - you fight against each other like a fighting game.  Those who 
play Slammasters know what to expect.  It's best of three falls.  You can 
throw people out the ring and fight out there.  There's one timer that 
counts down from 99 seconds, I believe.  There's your standard life meter 
and a combo meter.  When the combo meter is full, you can do a Killer 
Instinct type(ULTRAAAAaaaa Comboooooo!!!!!) combo.  There's bars that 
appear to tell you how to do something and what you did.  Some moves 
causes 2x damage, etc.  The slams I saw could be repeated over and over 
again like Jax's slams.  You can grab your opponent and do a special 
slam.  Your opponent if being grabbed can do a reversal move.  The dash 
moves are pretty effective.  There are throws too, I believe.  The block 
button is cool as you can block all those cheap moves like throwing 
salt.  When you are on the mat, you need to tap your recover bar to get 
back up so your opponent don't keep on stumping you.  Unfortunately, 
there aren't tag matches or fight for priority grappling like WrestleFest 
by Technos Japan.  You can't through your opponent to the ropes but you 
can control your run - forward or back, bounce off the rope.  About the 
props that fall off you when you are hit - you know how in Mortal Kombat, 
blood flies out?  That's the same kind of thinking.  Sweat flies out on 
regular moves and cool props specific to the characters fly out on 
stronger moves.  To win each fall, your opponent's energy bar must be 
empty and there is a prompt that tells you to pin him! and you basically 
slam on them.  No, there is no ref. to do pin counts, there aren't any 
pin counts.  It's crazy, yet cool.

Vs. Computer -
You have a choice of fighting for the intercontinental championship or 
WWF heavy weight championship.  The people who played the computer just 
played for the heavy weight championship.  The catch is, you have to 
fight two computer opponents at the same time!!  The computers are pretty 
stupid as you can beat on while the other just stands there. Once in a 
while, he might attack you.  You can get the computer to accidentally do 
a move on his partner and it's hilarious!  Don't know if there is a last 
boss or not.   

Well, all in all, they seem to base it more to Capcom's Saturday Night 
Slam Masters than Technos' WrestleFest.  That and a Mortal Kombat/NBA Jam 
twist.


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   _/  Oudom Sengbounouvong  _/   eMail: osengbou@eecs.uic.edu         _/
  _/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
             Kombat Web: http://icarus.uic.edu:80/~osengb1
           Arcade Games Tester: Street Fighter the Movie(SFM)
 
                     
From: olsospe@elof.acc.iit.edu (Spencer K. Olson)
Subject: Re: Midway Wrestlemania game [_very_ new]
Date: 25 Apr 1995 06:22:12 GMT


Well, I have gotten several e-mail responses, on this subject, so I will
elucidate a bit.

This game has been in production for a very long time indeed. The software
is (c) 1994.  The release is scheduled for the summer, so as not to compete
with MK3.

Effectively, it's a fighting game, only with wrestlers.  Joystick moves
around the ring, and the characters don't jump much, except off the
turnbuckles and during running attacks.

Punch           Power Punch
        Block
Kick            Power Kick

Basic button setup is as above.  If you tap Punch+Kick at the same time,
your character will start to run.  Advantages: additional attacks, which
tend to do more damage.. in addition, most attacks initiated after bouncing
off the ropes do double damage. Disadvantages: You cannot block while running.
Also, there is a small window when coming off the ropes when you cannot
stop running or initiate an attack.

When doing most attacks, your character will tend to seek out his opponent,
making vertical alterations as needed.

Basic moves everyone has:
Forward, Forward+Power Punch: Hair grab.  Acts as a setup for further attacks,
and _cannot_ be blocked.  However, your opponent can reverse a throw if you
are attempting to throw him!  It's all a matter of speed and timing.

Back, Back+Power Punch: Attempts to throw your opponent into the ropes.
Moving your joystick and tapping buttons can recover your motions faster if
this move is used on you..

Back, Back+Punch: A basic throw for all characters, usually a hip toss.  This
can only be blocked if the joystick is down and away.

Turnbuckle attacks: You can climb up on the turnbuckle by going to the upper
left or right corner and holding the joystick in the appropriate direction.
By hitting any button, you can attempt to come crashing down on your
opponent.  This move is unblockable, and aimable... fortunately, it is also
easy to avoid.  If you miss your opponent, you will take a bit of damage.

Blood: There ain't none!  In fact, we've told Mark and Sal that we don't really
want any...  after all, you don't see blood in the WWF anymore... if you want
blood in wrestling, you watch the WCW, where they still use branding irons and
such on each other... The closest thing to blood is when Shawn Michaels does
his Arm-Breaker move, and some yellowish marrow-looking substance comes out..
The guys arm gets pretty funky for a second or two, too... The characters do
sweat a lot, and spit up a lot.. Indeed, different characters have different
things popping from them.. Doink has bright balls and bowling pins, Undertaker
skulls and bones, Razor Ramone: razor blades and gold chains and, of course,
Yokozuna with hams, turkeys and fish...

Geez, there's so much to this, I don't know how to go through it all...

The Power Punches are funky, and still need tweaking... Razor slashes out with
a huge straight razor, Shawn Michaels takes a swing with a baseball bat, and
Bret Hart has a very Cageish uppercut... the range and recovery are being
fixed, however.

The designers have stated that there are probably going to be finishing moves,
indeed one is already in there, sort of... Bret Hart can do his patented
'Sharp shooter' leg hold, but it doesn't actually do anything yet...

Under the life bar, there is another bar, initially empty, which fills up
when you do certain types of moves. When it is full, you can do one 'Flashback'
combo, so nicknamed by the local players because it gives you KI flashbacks...
You grab your opponent's hair, and then usually do Forward, Forward+some
button. Then, by using other buttons, you can a long, painful combo.. usually,
you just tap the buttons in time, and in a clockwise or counter-clockwise
direction.

Also, when grabbing your opponent's hair, you can do various throws, depending
on the character you are using. As stated before, your opponent can reverse
your throw by doing the motions for his throw.

Some moves can be 'pogoed', which means that, by tapping a button repeatedly
after one occurance of the move, you can repeat it, usually up to a total
of four times... sometimes only the first activation builds up the meter,
sometimes all three or four.

It is possible to be thrown over the ropes, or to be knocked off the
turnbuckle out of the ring... if your opponent does not join you, you will
slowly start losing health, although you do get a warning before it starts.
The designers have stated that they are already considering putting chairs
and such outside to use on each other, of course ;^)

There are two vc. CPU modes: Intercontinental Championship, and Heavy Weight
Belt [which is apparently harder to get, since you only fight the USA
competitors instead of the whole world..? Just something that's always bugged
me for the longest time..] In the former, you get four matches of one-on-one,
followed by two matches of two-on-one, followed by a single match of three-
on-one, which I have never seen anyone complete, although this is probably
the end of that ladder... The Heavy Weight belt is much more fun and complex.
You have the same four-two-one ratio, but you start with two-on-one, and
progess up to a match where it is still three-on-one, but where you cannot
take a fall; supposed to be a Royal Rumble of sorts...

Note that with more than one CPU opponent, the will occasionally attack each
other, especially if you keep both of them in a straight line to one side of
you...

As stated before, this is all goofy enough so that it makes you laugh as hard
as real wrestling does at 2 in the morning...

Final thought... Bret Hart has an Eye Rake move... where he rushes up and
attempts to claw at his opponent... if it succeeds, two or sometimes four
huge eyeballs pop out and roll off screen.. well, huge for eyeballs anyhow.

Umm, I could give you an idea of what sorts of moves are available, if you
are curious, or if there are any more specific queries, I'd be happy to
relate them to you all...

Spencer "signing off for now, and somewhat ill" Olson
olsospe@elof.acc.iit.edu
torgo@io.com