Nintendo
WWF King of the Ring

Graphics:
Sound:
Gameplay:
Overall:
3.64
4.18
6.55
6.00
Votes: 11
Reviews: 1


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Reviewer: Nathaniel Date: Jun 23, 2008
I've been a wrestling fan for years, and have seen many wrestling video games. Some were great...and others, well...were this one.

Graphics: 3
Yes, bad. The crowd doesn't do much; the whole ringside area and the ring are just too plain. The wrestlers themselves are nothing special either; there's hardly any detail at all to them, and they have no facial features. They kinda remind me of a primitive form of Dural from Virtua Fighter. The movements are very stiff, even for NES. I think this game looks more rushed than any I've seen on NES.

Sound: 4
Believe it or not, sound made a 4 ranking. Why? Because Bret "Hitman" Hart's entrance theme is so catchy, no matter how stripped down it gets here. But it's really the only saving grace as far music goes. The sound effects, such as punches and kicks are pretty primitive. I think the hit sound fx in Kung Fu might even be better, at least not as crunchy-sounding. The only other saving grace for sound besides Bret Hart's catchy theme is the bell. It actually sounds kinda...sorta...relatively like a bell.

Gameplay: 4
Maneuvering and landing hits, and timing dropkicks and flying elbows isn't too horrible in this game, but it does take practice if you've never played a low-end NES wrestling game before. Assuming your replay value ranks high, you won't need practice at all.

Overall: 4
Speaking of replay value...the ending when you win the tournaments is the typical NES one-screener. King of the Ring shows a plain crown, and the other shows a belt. In other words, if the ending was better, or if you got more for your efforts, the game might not be so bad. The one thing for me as a kid as far as games went, was the ending. No saving grace for replay value for me, I'm afraid.

If you have played other wrestling games on NES, and hated them, you must learn to appreciate them. This one, to me, is a rushed piece of junk, not even worthy of beating out WrestleMania. This game just wasn't necessary at the time, as most of the characters in it, like Macho Man and Hulk Hogan, were due to leave anyway. Lex Luger never really got that popular, and left shortly thereafter. I'm glad I sold this one years back, but if you're still a die-hard wrestling fan, might as well have this one in the fold with the other wrestling games.