Wrestle Angels - Intro

The Wrestle Angels series of games has something of a cult following here in the states, which I happen to be a part of. Most US fans more than likely got accquainted with the series through the Super Nintendo incarnation Super Wrestle Angels, or the more recent PS2 outing Wrestle Angels Survivor. I happen to be one of the former, and now that I've accquired a means of playing the elusive first game of the series, I decided to use my first real entry to show my readers what exactly they've been missing out on.

Game: Wrestle Angels

Platform: PC-9800 (PC-98)

A very plain main menu shows that this really was a first attempt, and while not particularly impressive by today's standards, its simple looks belie an addictive and fun little game.

Here's a brief rundown of the backstory:

The IWWF (International Women's Wrestling Federation) champion, veteran Panther Risako, has been challenged by a group of upstarts representing New Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling (SNJ, for "Shin Nihon Joushi" puroresu). The girls of SNJ issue their challenge based on rules set by "Beauty" Reiko Ichigaya, a fellow competitor who has major pull within the organization due to her status as a corporate heiress. Simply put, two teams of three wrestlers face off in best-two-of-three bouts, with the losing team having to shame themselves by exposing their naked (or near-naked, as is most often the case here) bodies to the cheering crowd.

Yes that's right, the whole thing is an elaborate setup to allow you, the player, to see some pixellated T&A.

I imagine most of you who read up to that last sentence have already labelled me a pervert and closed your browser tabs, but for those of you choosing to read on, know that I was not lying before when I spoke of a great game beneath the lowest-common-denominator stuff.

The options in the main menu are "Single Mode", which allows you to play a single match against the computer, utilizing all but one of the game's cast at their default stats, "Tag Mode" which lets you play a single match under tag team rules, "Profile Mode", which (after switching disks) allows you to view a brief blurb about each of the game's characters; "New Game" Which is where the meat of this package is, and "Load", which lets you pick up a previous story mode file at the start of the most recently-started match.

Since this post is getting kinda long, I'll break up my review of the game into several. Next up, the story mode menu and characters.