Zen-Nippon Pro Wrestling (series)

Zen-NipponProWrestlingBoxShotSNES.jpg

is a series of wrestling video games based on the professional wrestling promotion All Japan Pro Wrestling. The games were developed by Natsume and released for the Super Famicom and Game Boy. The second game in the series was localized for Western markets and released under the name Natsume Championship Wrestling. Subsequent 3D games based on All Japan have been released, including two using the Zen-Nippon name, but none of them were developed by Natsume.

Games

The following is a list of games released in the Zen-Nippon Pro Wrestling series. The second game of the series was published in North America as Natsume Championship Wrestling. The music of the four SFC titles was composed by teams featuring Kinuyo Yamashita and Hiroyuki Iwatsuki.

Japanese Title

English Title

System

Year

全日本プロレス

Zen-Nippon Pro Wrestling

Super Famicom

July 16, 1993

全日本プロレス’ 世界最強タッグ ダッシュ

Zen-Nippon Pro Wrestling Dash: Sekai Saikyō Tag

Super Famicom

December 28, 1993

全日本プロレス ファイトだポン!

Zen-Nippon Pro Wrestling: Fight da Pon!

Super Famicom

June 25, 1994

全日本プロレス ジェット

Zen-Nippon Pro Wrestling Jet

Game Boy

July 15, 1994

全日本プロレス2 3・4武道館

Zen-Nippon Pro Wrestling 2: 3-4 Budōkan

Super Famicom

April 7, 1995

Summary

The video game is based on the Zen-Nippon Pro Wrestling League and features the likenesses of their most famous stars during that era. Following the template established by the classic video games of the genre, the game allows players to play as any of the 16 wrestling stars and then throws him to the ring to fight opponents until one emerges victorious. These wrestlers include Shohei Baba, Tsuyoshi Kikuchi, Stan Hansen, and Naoya Ogawa. The player can attack his opponent with several moves (unique to each character). Upon "locking-on" by getting close to the other wrestler, the player can execute grapples and throws. The game uses 2D graphics from a heightened camera view and includes a plethora of game modes including single-player championship and tournament modes (with single or tag team variants for both), two-player versus, team battle, and a training mode where the player can learn the basics of the game.

Legacy

In 1994, Human Entertainment developed and published Zen-Nippon Joshi Pro Wrestling Kounin: Fire Pro Joshi All-Star Dream Slam for the Super Famicom. Two 3D games using the Zen-Nippon name were released for the original PlayStation, Zen-Nippon Onna Pro Wrestling (also known as All Japan Women's Pro Wrestling) and Human Entertainment's Zen-Nippon Pro Wrestling: Ouja no Kon. Sega later released a series of 3D arcade games also based on All Japan.

See also

  • Fire Pro Wrestling
  • List of Super Famicom and Super Nintendo sports games

ja:全日本プロレス (ゲーム)