Beast Wrestler

Beast Wrestler
DeveloperTelenet Japan
Publishers
ComposersShinobu Ogawa
Takaharu Umezu[1]
PlatformSega Genesis
Release
GenreFighting
ModesSingle-player, multiplayer[4]

Beast Wrestler[a] is a 1991 fighting game published for the Mega Drive in Japan and North America. The cover art was made by Yasushi Nirasawa, in his position as a model-builder for Hobby Japan magazine.[5]

Gameplay

Two beasts battling each other.

Beast Wrestler is a wrestling video game containing two modes: Match and Tournament. Match is a single-round that can be played with two human players or one player and a computer opponent. Tournament has multiple rounds and requires the player to fight every beast in the game.[6]

Reception

The presentation, although generally the most-well received aspect of Beast Wrestler, garnered a mixed response. Joystick called it the best part.[11]

Paul Rand of Computer and Video Games found the premise of monsters in a wrestling game interesting, but strongly dismissed its gameplay as "dull, simplistic and annoying in equal parts", heavily attributed to unresponsive controls.[9] He also criticized the unsuitable music and visuals.[9] Although appreciating the monsters' design, he was critical of the sprites' animation, shadows, their identical sizes, and flickering.[9] Mega also found it a "tedious" experience with very few attacks to experiment with.[14] He disliked the graphics, such as the "boring empty ring-type arena thingy" and choppy animation.[14]

Entertainment Weekly's Bob Strauss called the gameplay tedious, despite its "thumb-busting array of holds and throws".[13] He lauded the presentation such as the "electrified, three-dimensional playing field" and "appropriately gruesome creatures (which look like something out of a David Cronenberg movie)", although also joked, "When the monsters tangle it up in the ring, you're reminded of those intricate mating rituals Marlin Perkins used to narrate on Wild Kingdom."[13]

Notes

  1. ↑ Japanese: ビースト・ウォリアーズ; "Beast Warriors"

References

  1. ↑ Beast Wrestler Archived 2011-12-05 at the Wayback Machine at Project 2612
  2. ↑ "Software List (Software Licensee Release)". Sega Hardware Encyclopedia (in Japanese). Sega Corporation. Archived from the original on April 4, 2025. Retrieved May 15, 2023.
  3. ↑ "CES Special Report: Genesis and SNES Games for 1992". GamePro. No. 33. IDG. April 1992. p. 20.
  4. ↑ Beast Wrestler at RF Generation
  5. ↑ Nirasawa, Yasushi (Dec 28, 1992). Creature Core. Hobby Japan. p. 56. ISBN 4-938461-76-5.
  6. 1 2 "Game: Beast Warriors". Games-X. No. 34. December 1991. p. 22. Archived from the original on January 15, 2022. Retrieved January 15, 2022.
  7. ↑ "Naturkatastrophen". Aktueller Software Markt (in German). March 1992. p. 119. Archived from the original on January 15, 2022. Retrieved January 15, 2022.
  8. ↑ "ビースト・ウォリアーズ". Beep! Mega Drive (in Japanese). November 1991. p. 35. Archived from the original on January 15, 2022. Retrieved January 15, 2022.
  9. 1 2 3 4 Rand, Paul (February 1992). "Beast Warriors". Computer and Video Games. No. 123. p. 87. Archived from the original on January 16, 2022. Retrieved January 15, 2022.
  10. ↑ Famibo, Tofuya; Tsūshin, Hamamura; Watanabe, Miki; Taco X (November 15, 1991). "New Games Cross Review". Famicom Tsūshin (in Japanese). No. 152. Japan: ASCII Corporation. p. 39.
  11. 1 2 Trazom (January 1992). "Beast Warriors". Joystick (in French). No. 23. p. 141. Retrieved January 15, 2022.
  12. ↑ "Beast Warriors". Console XS. No. 1. June 1992. p. 127. Archived from the original on January 16, 2022. Retrieved January 15, 2022.
  13. 1 2 3 Strauss, Bob (June 12, 1992). "Beast Wrestler". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on October 25, 2021. Retrieved December 18, 2021.
  14. 1 2 3 "One-on-One Beat-'em-Ups". Mega. No. 15. December 1993. pp. 76–77. Archived from the original on January 16, 2022. Retrieved January 15, 2022.
  15. ↑ Mark; Paul (February 1992). "Beast Warriors". MegaTech. No. 2. pp. 52–53. Archived from the original on January 16, 2022. Retrieved January 15, 2022.
  16. ↑ Ellis, Les (February 1992). "Beast Warriors". Sega Pro. No. 4. p. 38. Archived from the original on January 16, 2022. Retrieved January 15, 2022.