Developer: Capcom Publisher: Capcom Release: 06/94 Genre: Action
I have had a tumultuous relationship with wrestling games over the years. The vast majority of the NES titles were embarrassing with only a few standouts. On the 16-bit platforms they fared better but I slowly started to drift away from the genre before its renaissance on the N64. One of the few standouts that I did enjoy however is Capcom’s Saturday Night Slam Masters. This fusion of wrestling and fighting game tropes created something unique for the time that remains enjoyable to this day. And the SNES port is solid too.
What immediately stands out about Slam Masters is the cast. The promotional artwork was created by Tetsuo Hara of Fist of the North Star fame and what immediately drew me to the game. The cast of characters spans the globe Street Fighter style and are a wild bunch. You have your requisite clones in Biff and Gunloc, a Blanka style wild man in King Rasta, and the Great Oni, a wrestler who looks like a Kabuki actor. Since this is a wrestling game you have a few characters that take clear “inspiration” from real life wrestlers. El Stingray is a masked luchador and could be based on literally anyone from Mexico. And Alexander the Grator is Vader in everything but name. The most popular is Mike Haggar from Final Fight as this game expands on his pro wrestling background before his days as mayor of Metro City.
The controls are simple as they use three buttons for attack, jump and pin. Despite coming from Capcom each character only has at most one or two moves that use quarter circle or full 360 motions to activate. Actions like dashing and grappling only require a double tap or being in close proximity to your opponent. Once you lock arms every character has a massive number of throws and slams unique to their arsenal which makes everyone feel distinct. All of these only need a directional input plus attack. Aside from that you can climb the turnbuckle and execute numerous dashing attacks too. They pack a lot of actions in to two buttons yet it still manages to feel intuitive.
Despite the simplicity of the controls there are a few quirks that are annoying. To initiate a grapple you press forward and attack. Unfortunately a good portion of the time you will attack rather than lock up. The CPU has no problem tossing you like a salad with reckless abandon which makes solo battle a difficult affair. In the arcade there was an update called Muscle Bomber Duo that addressed many of the original release’s complaints. The pin button initiates grappling in the Muscle Bomber Duo update which makes the game feel great. In addition you can block attacks. These changes while sounding minor are massive and make me wish this was the version ported to home consoles. What a missed opportunity.
Even though Slam Masters is a wrestling game it has the pacing and flow of a fighting game. You have one life bar that lacks the see saw and stamina system of other wrestling games. This means matches can end in as little as a minute but rarely more than three. Weaker characters like El Stingray have to pick apart their opponents while a monster like Titanic Tim can drop you in three slams. This is what began to draw me away from wrestling games at the time, the long back and forth of every match that never seems to end. Here I get to enjoy the gameplay in a quicker format. Mechanically the game is sound but is a little barebones as a package. You only get singles and team matches whereas other titles have different types for variety. But this is not that type of game despite appearances.
For its time this SNES port was the best version of the game. The resolution and character sprites are smaller but otherwise everything else is intact, from all of the characters to content. The game looks great with massive sprites (for the system at least) and great animation. All characters exhibit a ton of personality and there is no slowdown, even in Team Battle Royal. The only major downgrade is the music which is tinny and not that good. The English localization for the SNES takes many liberties with character back stories and changes character names. It also rather infamously implies that Gunloc (Lucky Colt) is Guile’s brother which is a big no.
In Closing
Saturday Night Slam Masters is a fun endeavor and an interesting take on wrestling. Something about Capcom’s art direction married with traditional (for the most part) wrestling gameplay equals a game better than the sum of its parts. The only thing that would have put it over the top is a larger roster but hey that is what sequels are for. It is too bad that one was never ported to a home console like many mid-90s classics.
