Holy cow! Who in their right mind would predict that the New England Patriots would win the Superbowl? Not I, and not the majority of NFL fans who aren't Patriot fans. All it takes is for Kurt Warner to have one bad game, and boom, game over. Congrats in full to the Pats though. Let's hope they dump some payroll for next season to make them even better, you know, by trading off the overpaid Drew Bledsoe, who can't take his team to the playoffs, whereas Tom Brady stepped in and did so.
By the way, the Kid Rock song used in the WWF History promos is called "Lonely Road of Faith", for those of you seeking it on your file-sharing software. You're welcome.
I believe it was last week that I mentioned the "Curtain Call" situation in my PDC... yeah, the NWO column! Anyway, it's generated the usual e-mails that say "what is the Curtain Call?", to which I usually have an explanation ready via copy and pasting. You'd figure that the nearly 20 times that I've explained it in the PDC would get to everyone, ya know? But help is on the way... I recommend reading the History of the Clique for full details on the Curtain Call and other issues relating to those darn backstage politicians, HBK, Triple H, Kevin Nash, X-Pac, and Scott Hall.
And by the way, you can check out any past PDC by checking out the republished PDC Archives. All of my columns from 1998 until present are listed, along with all of my Histories, Multimedia Reviews, and those classic Bad Titos.
On the subject of Bad Tito.... I've had a few requests, recently, to write those again. For one, Bad Titos were intended to rip on internet wrestling and not pro wrestling. Like, for instance, I'd rip apart these little kids who'd make up wrestling news for their internet sites. I even had names, such as Monkey and BaBoone in reference to some of those children. However, I don't really care about what else goes on for the internet. Like if someone shows me a new headline one of those kids make up, I'm like, "eh, so what?". I guess the level of bullshit has reached a point to where you can't control it, so why care?
I recommend checking out the Multimedia Reviews section in the PDC Archives. It's HUGE now, with tons of videos, books, video games, and music CD reviews. I'm especially proud of the Book Reviews, because I've reviewed most of the mainstream wrestling books out there. The only ones, now, I need to review are the independent books, such as Gary Capetta's, Arn Anderson, Ted Dibiase, and a few others.
Blah. On to the PDC.
Speaking of Hogan, I find it funny that the WWF is hyping Wrestlemania 18 as the first Wrestlemania in many years for the Hulkster, instead of hyping it for the rest of the WWF's product. It just goes to show you where the WWF's mindset is with Hogan, so if you're on his way to the top, look out!
Also on RAW, we'll find out who Goldust wants to fuc.... I mean, who he's been referring to. Since Hall won't be on RAW, it's your guess on who it could be. I don't believe it could be the Rock, which was a possibility from the "movie star" reference, as the Rock is feuding with the Undertaker. My guess is as good as yours on this.
-With Chris Jericho getting a new entrance theme, the boat is being missed here. No... nothing wrong with Jericho getting a new theme, as with his heel turn, it's the right thing to do. But why the hell does the Undertaker still have his Limp Bizkit theme? It always sets up the fans to give a face impression of him, not heel. And they wonder why he's not too over as a heel. The only way the WWF tries to make up for this is to have the Taker feud with the Rock, which is their only decent idea for this heel turn all along, and that one is too obvious. They did that before, as they placed the Undertaker to fight Rob Van Dam at Vengeance, I believe.
Like this past weekend, there really isn't much news out there to BS about.
The premise for this game is as the title says: tag team wrestling. However, it's somewhat sloppy tag team wrestling, although good in some ways. The tags are smooth, but the best feature of the game is having your partner interfere with the match. Say you're in a submission hold... well, your partner will run in and make the save! Your partner, though, will always run in a pattern, as he'll run from left to right, and then from down to up in an "L" shape. Quite primative. When your partner makes the save, it's likely that you'll get thrown outside.
Yes, I clearly found that you could fight on the outside. Getting back into the ring is funny, though. You'll hop from the outside, over the top rope, and into the ring. I don't know if you can jump off the top rope or not. The control is very very crappy on the game, as it's hard to actually generate offense on the computer. Good lord, the CPU of the game is a bit cheap.
As for the moves, there is a grapple system, which is done by generating it ahead of time and chasing after your opponent until you lock them up. You have 3 options, which is the plus of this older game. First, you could slam or suplex them. Secondly, you could toss them off the ropes and smash them with what looks like a flying headbutt or shoulderblock. Finally, though, you could make your opponent submit! With the submission, that's where your tag partner could run in, making his "L" motion, to make the save.
YUCK at the graphics. I know this is 1986 and all, but man, when you see Pro Wrestling get released, a lightbulb should go off in your head to improve your product. The wrestlers are too block shaped, looking like Atari graphics, which really hurts this game. The sound, too, is even worse. The sounds made by the punches is just scary. In this game, you'll hear the same crowd noises made by all NES games, too. The game even tries to make sound effects of the wrestlers, as they grunt when getting tossed towards the ropes or slammed.
The gameplay for the game is very limited. When you're playing one player, you're always the good guy team (Ricky Fighters), no matter what. In the 2 player game, the 1st player gets to be Ricky Fighters, while the 2nd player is the bad guy team, or the "Strong Bads". You can't switch, whatsoever, nor can you choose different teams other than the Strong Bads or Ricky Fighters.
LAST WORD: Oddly enough, I didn't like this game coming into the review, but as I played it FOR the review, it sort of grew on me. I guess it's not such a bad game, and given the circumstances of the year it was made, it was nearly top of the line for back then. I still say, though, that the gameplay is still a big choppy, as the control isn't very good and the Atari-like movements hurt the game as a whole. Blocky graphics and poor sound too, although it was a decent try on the sound. I'll give it a
Next Review: M.U.S.C.L.E. to complete the trip from 1986.
AOL Instant Messenger: BookerTito - It's recommended that you send your questions or feedback as your first message so that it could be answered, instead of saying "hi", "hey", "what's up" or whatever else. Just get to the point, please, to make it easier since I get drilled with messages.
WRESTLEPALOOZA.com - Audio Show, Columns, News, and more!
KOLTERSHOCK!!! - A site that you shouldn't view with small children present!
X-Entertainment.com - One of the most entertaining pages on the net!
@That's all for today. I hope you've enjoyed Part 2 of the NES Wrestling History. I'll be back, tomorrow, with a RAW review, although I'm warning you now that it could be late (6 or 7 pm). Until then, chill!
Take Care, and Thanks for Reading Daily.