HammerLock Wrestling

For the British promotion, see NWA UK Hammerlock.
HammerLock Wrestling

North American cover art
Developer(s) Jaleco
Publisher(s) Jaleco[1]
Platform(s) Super NES
Release date(s)
  • JP September 30, 1994
  • NA October 1994
Genre(s) Fighting/wrestling
Mode(s) Single-player[2]
Multiplayer

HammerLock Wrestling is a professional wrestling game for the Super NES that was released in 1994. In Japan, this game was called Tenryu Genichiro no Pro Wrestling Revolution (天龍源一郎のプロレスレボリューション).[3]

Named after Japanese professional wrestler Genichiro Tenryu and his faction Revolution, the Japanese version of the game uses the official license of the Japanese wrestling promotion Wrestle and Romance.[4]

Gameplay

The game features simultaneous views of the crowd, the ring and a close-up of the action.

The player can choose from 12 fictional wrestlers and compete in four different modes of play.[5] Movesets for this video game have been inspired by Lex Luger, Hulk Hogan, Abdullah the Butcher, Road Warrior Hawk, Yokozuna, and Stan Hansen.[4] There are also 60 different moves to choose from as well as unique finishers for each wrestler.[5]

Exhibition mode allows up to four different players to compete either against each other in singles match or in tag team format. There is also a round-robin tournament with six different wrestlers competing to become the league champion. A standard tournament for up to eight players is also used as an alternative to the round-robin format. The Top Ranking Match puts the players against the other eleven wrestlers in an arcade-like tournament to become the champion. The game is divided into three different screens at times. The middle part shows the current action happening in the ring while the top and bottom parts of the screen are used for close-ups of action sequences such as power moves, illegal moves and finishing maneuvers.[5]

Reception

GamePro described HammerLock Wrestling as "an interesting but confusing SNES game." They commented that the division of the screen into three horizontal windows, while aesthetically appealing, makes it hard to stay focused on the action, as well as severely limiting the movements of the wrestlers.[6]

References

  1. ↑ "Release information". GameFAQs. Retrieved 2011-05-31.
  2. ↑ "# of players information". SNES Central. Retrieved 2011-05-31.
  3. ↑ "Japanese title information". Hardcore Gaming 101. Retrieved 2012-01-10.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 "Overview of Japanese version" (in Italian). Puresu Mission. Retrieved 2012-02-10.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 "Release information". MobyGames. Retrieved 2011-05-31.
  6. ↑ "ProReview: Hammerlock". GamePro (64) (IDG). November 1994. p. 160.