WWF WrestleMania

WWF WrestleMania is the first WWF (World Wrestling Federation, now named the WWE) game released for the NES. The game centers around the annual WWF pay per view event WrestleMania and was developed by Rare. The game was published by Acclaim who continued to release licensed WWF games for the next 12 years. WrestleMania is the first licensed WWF game and the first wrestling games to use actual wrestlers. 

The game was released in 1989 and features the following six wrestlers from the WWF: Hulk Hogan, Andre the Giant, Macho Man Randy Savage, The Honky Tonk Man, Bam Bam Bigelow, and Ted DiBiase the Million Dollar Man.

All wrestlers have basic attacks like punches and kicks, headbutts, a running attack, a backwards attack, a body slam, and a move off the turnbuckle. The attacks are somewhat different for each wrestler.

Randomly an item will appear that will restore stamina each character gets a different type of item and only that character can get that item. 

If a wrestler takes enough punishment they will become red and angry which allows them to inflict more damage. 

Game modes include an exhibition match that can be played against another player or the computer and the tournament mode. 

The tournament mode is a tournament in which the player's wrestler must defeat the opposing 5 to win the championship. In a tournament up two six players can play in the series of 1 on 1 matches. As each player must fight each opposing player this mode lasts for 15 matches. The player who wins the most matches is the champion. In case of a tie, the player who had the shortest matches wins.

Players can either play a single exhibition match (one player versus the computer or two players head-to-head) or a tournament. In a single player tournament, the player chooses one wrestler and must defeat the other five in a series of matches to win the championship. In a tournament with two or more player-controlled wrestlers (up to six can play), each wrestler faces every other wrestler once (fifteen total matches). At the end of the tournament, the wrestler with the best record wins the championship. In the event of a tie, the wrestler in the tie who achieved the single fastest victory during the tournament will be declared the winner.

 

This game was followed up by 3 additional NES games including: WWF Wrestlemania Challenge, WWF WrestleMania Steel Cage Challenge and WWF King of the Ring.