WWF European Rampage

A call from a friend in the room: "Come on, wrestling's on now!" Yeah, that was the tone people used about games like this back in the nineties. WWF European Rampage from 1992 on PC is exactly that kind of thing — a title that dressed itself up as a professional wrestling simulator, while in reality it was more like chaotic two-player fun with a controller in your hand.

It's a wrestling game where you can take on the legends of the era — stars from European shows including that famous British scene. The goal is simple: throw your opponent to the ground, keep him there for a while, and victory is yours. The game builds on previous attempts on Commodore 64 and other systems, so the concept already had its run.

The mechanics are brutally straightforward, and that's precisely what makes playing it weirdly fun. You attack, defend, grab your opponent, and then deliver fate-sealing blows. Keyboard controls are cross-wise illogical, the animation of the wrestlers is embarrassingly stiff, but when it comes to that ritualistic pixel-arena beating, you stop caring about the graphics. The problem comes later — the game then revolves around alternately mashing two or three buttons, which gets monotonous even when played with a friend. The AI opponent in single-player just stupidly blocks and begs for hits — it's neither challenging nor fun.

What was interesting about it? The atmosphere. Wrestler names got passed around, the soundtrack made it clear you were there, the sound of hits was almost comically pronounced. In 1992, a game like this deserved a spot on people's disks — it wasn't the best thing, but it was real, playable, with cast members from TV. But today it looks like visiting a puppet theater with a computer dimension.

It's aged quite a bit. You can revisit it in a browser mostly for nostalgia and curiosity — to see what everyone thought made it such a great game. With a friend on the keyboard, it means a five-to-ten-minute trip back to the nineties. Playing it solo though isn't anything you wouldn't play better in any more modern wrestling simulation. But that's precisely the piece of history that stays here.