Technos Japan > THQ...Yeah, I Said It!!

Technos Japan made a lot of great video games during their history, but nothing in their library was stronger than Double Dragon...unless you were a fan of their WWF games. In the late 80's and early 90's, Technos crafted 2 masterful arcade wrestling games featuring the WWF's top stars. While Acclaim and LJN was making a mockery of the WWF name with crap like Wrestlemania and Steel Cage Challenge, gamers with good sense were avoiding those games for WWF Superstars and WWF Wrestlefest. the only problem those games had was a lack of singles matches. The tag team action there though provides great action for anyone up to try it out.

The first game, WWF Superstars, only features six playable characters, but it retains all of the unique "attitude" of the wrestlers featured. if you are good enough to beat the opposing teams in the first few matches, you get a title shot against the team of "The Million Dollar Man" Ted Dibiase and Andre the Giant. The games cast almost reads like a Hall of Fame Class: Hulk Hogan, the Ultimate Warrior, The Big Boss Man, "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan, The Honky Tonk Man, and "Macho Man" Randy Savage. Everything Superstars lacked was present in Technos' second WWF game.

WWF Wrestlefest hit arcades a few years later, but it was leaps and bounds ahead of it's predecessor. Wrestlefest featured 10 playable characters, and unlike te first game, in addition to the Tag Team mode, players could also fight it out in a battle royal. This time around, players are attempting to usurp the Legion Of Doom from their seat at the top of the Tag Team mountain. the playable superstars this time around were: Hulk Hogan, Ultimate Warrior, Earthquake, Sgt. Slaughter, Axe, Smash, Ted Dibiase, Big Boss Man, Jake "The Snake" Roberts, and Mr. Perfect. Each character did a lot of the moves he did during matches on TV, which added more to the experience of playing with a particular character. Each character also performed his trademark finisher, although Slaughter's Cobra Clutch and Dibiase's Million Dollar Dream are the same move, so Slaughter's move was altered, everything else was pretty spot on.

The best part of these two games was that a player never felt like they had to button mash to do moves. most of the WWF games in the past featured a button mashing mechanic that was actually quite annoying. Even current day WWE offerings from THQ have button mashing crappy little mini games as a part of their gameplay.

This year's E3 had an announcement of a more arcade WWE title coming out soon called WWE All Stars. Hopefully, this new title features some of the magic that was captured in those Technos Japan games. If not, it'll end up in the bargain bin just like Legends of WrestleMania.