WWF Superstars (Europe)

Arcade Video game published 35 years ago:

WWF Superstars (c) 1989 Technos Japan Corporation.

A tag-team wrestling game with 6 WWF superstars to choose from.

- TECHNICAL -

Game ID : TA-0024

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 10 Mhz), Zilog Z80 (@ 3.579545 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Yamaha YM2151 (@ 3.579545 Mhz), OKI6295 (@ 8.5 Khz)

Players: Up to 2
Control per player: 8-Way Joystick
Buttons per player: 2
=> Punch, Kick

- TRIVIA -

WWF Superstars was released in July 1989.

You can choose from the following 6 wrestlers : Hulk Hogan, Randy 'Macho Man' Savage, The Ultimate Warrior, Hacksaw Jim Duggan, The Big Boss Man and The Honky Tonk Man. If you manage to win the first three games you finally face Andre the Giant and 'The Million Dollar Man' Ted DiBiase.

Andre and DiBiase have the only submission maneuvers in the game - The Canadian Backbreaker and The Million Dollar Dream Sleeperhold respectively. Both moves do a lot of damage, taking up 5 life squares unless your partner can rescue you from the hold.

Billy Lee, the main character of the "Double Dragon" series, is visible among the first row of the cheering crowd.

The game also features appearances from Virgil (the manager of Andre and DiBiase), 'Mean' Gene Okerlund (the announcer) and Miss Elizabeth (1960-2003) who appears in a cut-scene when you win the tag team titles.

Wrestler's real names :
Hulk Hogan - Terry Gene Bollea
Randy Savage - Randall Mario "Randy" Poffo (1952-2011)
The Ultimate Warrior - Warrior (born James Brian "Jim" Hellwig but legally changed his name to Warrior in 1993) (1959-2014)
'Hacksaw' Jim Duggan - James Edward "Jim" Duggan, Jr.
The Big Boss Man - Raymond W. "Ray" Traylor, Jr. (1962-2004)
Honky Tonk Man - Roy Wayne Farris
Andre The Giant - André René Roussimoff (1946-1993)
Ted DiBiase - Theodore Marvin "Ted" DiBiase, Sr.

At the time of the game's release, the actual WWF Tag Team Champions were The Brain Busters (Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard) who are absent from the game. DiBiase and Andre (known as The Mega Bucks), never won the tag teams titles.

Also at the time of release, 'Ravishing' Rick Rude (1958-1999) was the WWF Intercontinental Champion but he too is absent from the game.

- UPDATES -

The US version is slightly different, it has the "Winners Don't Use Drugs" screen.

Only the Japanese version has stats and a biography of each wrestler during the attract mode.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* There's a mildly amusing glitch in WWF Superstars involving Randy Savage. Use him & then pick anyone else and play until you face Andre and DiBiase.
1) With Savage as your active wrestler and Andre as the legal man, climb in and out of the bottom of the ring until Andre decides to climb out after you. When you begin to see those first few animation frames of his lumbering descent, quickly walk backwards to the left side of the screen.
2) Dash at Andre so that the instant his final animation frame has him standing on the ring floor you'll have connected with a flying clothesline. For a second, you will have 'pulled' an additional Andre out of the standing Andre's body with that flying clothesline! The standing Andre vanishes once the clothesline has taken its course and the prostrate Andre then becomes the active sprite.

- SERIES -

1. WWF Superstars [Model TA-0024] (1989)
2. WWF WrestleFest [Model TA-0031] (1991)
3. WWF Superstars 2 (1992, Nintendo Game Boy)

- STAFF -

Director: Yoshihisa Kishimoto

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES: