| Saturday Night Slam masters | |
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Promotional flyer for Saturday Night Slam Masters featuring an illustration by Tetsuo Hara |
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| Developer(s) | Capcom |
| Publisher(s) | Capcom |
| Designer(s) | Tetsuo Hara (illustrations) |
| Platform(s) | Arcade, Sega Mega Drive, Super Nintendo Entertainment System |
| Release date(s) | July 13, 1993 (Saturday Night Slam Masters) December 1993 (Muscle Bomber Duo) September 2, 1994 (Ring of Destruction) |
| Genre(s) | Wrestling |
| Mode(s) | Up to 4 players, cooperative (2v2) |
| Cabinet | Upright |
| Arcade system | CPS-1 + QSound |
| Display | Raster resolution 384×224 (Horizontal) |
Saturday Night Slam Masters, known in Japan as Muscle Bomber - The Body Explosion (Japanese: マッスルボマー ザ・ボディー・エクスプロージョン), is a 1993 pro wrestling arcade game released for the CP System by Capcom. The game features character designs by manga artist Tetsuo Hara, famous for Fist of the North Star.
The game was followed by an updated version titled Muscle Bomber Duo in 1993, and a sequel called Ring of Destruction: Slam Masters II in 1994.
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The original Slam Masters plays like a traditional wrestling game, only the game used a view similar to that commonly used in the fighting game genre. The game uses a three button configuration (grab, attack, and jump).
Each character has two special attacks: a non-grappling technique and a finisher. When an opponent's life meter is depleted, he must either be pinned for a three-count or forced to submit. Defeating all of the other wrestlers results in winning the championship belt, which must then be defended against the entire roster.
There are two game modes: Single Match, where the player fights in a series one-on-one matches against the CPU; and Team Battle Royale, where the player and another partner (controlled by another player or by the CPU) competes in a series of two-on-two matches. The game can be played by up to four players.
The game features a playable roster of ten wrestlers. Only eight of the wrestlers are selectable in the Single Match mode. The remaining two: Jumbo and Scorpion, are non-playable boss characters in Single Match and selectable only in Team Battle Royale. In the English localization, Capcom changed the names of all the characters and modified much of the backstory. The English names are used in this article, followed by the original Japanese names (when they differ) in parentheses.
A Japanese wrestler who dresses with a kabuki-like theme. He is apparently a rival of El Stingray.
A huge English wrestler who uses both his size and strength to intimidate his opponents. His backstory explains that he was once a tag team partner to Birdie of the Street Fighter series.
A Mexican luchador who amazes the crowds with his high-flying speed and techniques. He's based upon the Mexican wrestler Lizmark, who is very popular in Japan.
An Australian wrestler who has a merciless attitude in the ring. He resembles real-life wrestler Big Van Vader.
A wild jungle-like man who acts like a beast in combat. He is always accompanied by his pet monkey, Freak, who happens to be his "manager".
A sadistic wrestler who enjoys making his opponents bleed in his time. He is the right-hand man of the Scorpion.
The original Slam Masters was ported to the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Sega Genesis and FM Towns Marty. The SNES version retains the Team Battle Royale mode (which can be played with the multitap for up to four players), while the Genesis version replaces it with an exclusive Death Match mode. The Genesis version is also the only version of the game that allows the player to select The Scorpion and Jumbo for the Single Battle mode. In contrast to the arcade version, which only used Tetsuo Hara's artwork for promotional illustrations, the console versions of Slam Masters for the SNES and Genesis uses Hara's actual artwork in the game.
Muscle Bomber Duo - Ultimate Team Battle, released in Japan as Muscle Bomber Duo - Heat Up Warriors, is an updated version of the original Slam Masters which eliminates the Single Match mode from the original game, focusing solely on the two-on-two Team Battle mode. The same character can now be chosen by more than one player and each wrestler now has two additional special moves: a dual side attack and a vacuum move. Duo is the only game in the series to retain the Muscle Bomber title for its international releases.
Although the players can choose and pick their team as they please, there are five "official" combinations that the game will recognize and give a name to. The official tag teams are as follows:
Ring of Destruction - Slam Masters II, released in Japan as Super Muscle Bomber - The International Blowout, is a sequel to Slam Masters released exclusively for the arcades as a CPS-2 game. The game's format was changed to play like a traditional one-on-one 2D fighting game (similar to Street Fighter II), with the action restricted to one plane. The game's configuration was changed to a five-button setup (two punch buttons, two kick buttons and a grappling button). The objective of each match is to deplete the opponent's life bar in two out of three rounds. It is no longer necessary for the player to pin their opponent to win a match, although all the other moves have been retained.
All ten characters from the original Slam Masters returned, along with four new selectable characters:
In the Street Fighter animated series episode "New Kind of Evil", Mike Haggar appears in a fight against Blanka, and the human forms of the three guys who become monsters resemble that of Gunloc, The Great Oni, and Jumbo Flapjack.