In wrestling game circles, WWF No Mercy 64 is usually considered untouchable. However, there are no franchise wrestling games that get that same treatment. Hold up! There is one and it’s just getting the proper respect on its name in the decade. Fire Pro Wrestling is the godfather of wrestling games.
Most features we appreciate in the WWE 2K games had their start in Fire Pro games. Also, the franchise introduced many fans to wrestlers they’d never seen on TV before—something the WWE games never did. Let’s check out three of those features.
Fire Pro Wrestling: Gave Us Limb Damage
The first inklings of limb damage in wrestling games came via Super Fire Pro Wrestling on SNES. A few years later, THQ and AKI would add this to their games with it being first noticeable in WCW/nWo Revenge. After targeting an area for so long, eventually, your opponent would either slow their movement and hold their leg, arm, head, or ribs.
Fire Pro didn’t have the animations for this at the time but this was factor in the game. In creating a wrestler, you’ll notice you have stats for limbs. The more points you can put on it, the harder it’ll be to injure that wrestler.
By Final Fire Pro Wrestling for GameBoy Advance’s Japanese market, its Management of the Ring mode had a body maps for all talent in the game. A body part would start at green, go to yellow, then orange, and finally red as damage piled up.
Sitting that wrestler out would let them rest up. The body map would make a debut in WWE SmackDown: Here Comes the Pain a year later. As a bonus to this, SmackDown vs. RAW 2006 was the first WWE game to feature stamina as a mechanic. Stamina and needing to manage it had been a feature in Fire Pro games since Super Nintendo.
Fire Pro Wrestling: WWE Universe/GM Mode – Already Done
Tossing it back to Final Fire Pro Wrestling, the game’s Management of the Ring mode had a lot more going for it than GM Mode did. Not only that but that was developed, released, and worked perfectly on Spike’s first attempt. It took some years for THQ and Yuke’s to get this mode right then they took out the competitive aspect.
Fire Pro Wrestling: Create-A-Wrestler
This is a feature that every fan of wrestling games love. They can make wrestlers not in the game, they make their own wrestler with far too much entrance attire on, all the finishers, and some kind of entrance involving the lights dimming. Note, if you’re feeling attacked because you’ve either made a CAW like this or this is the CAW you regularly play with—yes, you’re being attacked.
The feature wasn’t in WWE games until WWF Warzone on the PlayStation and Nintendo 64. Surprise! This feature was in Fire Pro titles since Super Nintendo—and it was more in-depth for the period than Warzone a few years later.
