Nostalgia, Wrestling, and Video Games

[Talbot]

So, I've recently been overcome by a wave of wrestling nostalgia, and I've decided to buy a wrestling game. But I have a specific list of things I want from that game:

1) Good gameplay (duh. Last game I had was Wrestlemania 2000 for 64, which I thoroughly enjoyed)
2) Royal Rumble and Career modes (Being able to have Pay Per Views, particularly Wrestlemania, is a big bonus, but not technically required)
3) I'm very picky about wrestlers. I don't like most of the really new or really old wrestlers, so I'm looking for the best possible combination of as many of the following 30+ characters as possible with a good enough Create a Player mode to make good versions of the rest:


Most Important Absolute Must-Have Characters (Would really, really like to have as many of these as possible already on the roster. Most of these are either personal favorites or wrestlers with distinctive entrances/themes/costumes)

1)Shawn Michaels
2) Bret Hart
3) Jake the Snake Roberts (interesting sidenote: my cousin)
4) Undertaker (preferably not the weird biker version)
5) Hulk Hogan
6) Ultimate Warrior
7) The Rock
8) Steve Austin
9) Sting (preferably the Crow-looking version)

Still Very Important (These are characters I'd really prefer were on the roster, but I'm slightly more willing to create them myself)

10) Mr. Perfect/Kurt Hennig
11) Owen Hart
12) British Bulldog
13) Marty Janetti
14) Million Dollar Man
15) Randy Savage
16) Scott Hall/Razor Ramone (preferably the Razor incarnation)
17) Diesel/Kevin Nash (preferably the Diesel incarnation)
18) Andre the Giant
19) Yokozuna
20) Crush (less important than the rest)
21) Tatanka
22) Big Bossman
23) Goldberg
24) Mankind/Dude Love/Mick Foley/Cactus Jack (preferably not Dude Love)
25) Roddy Piper
26) 1-2-3 Kid (preferably not the X-Pac/Styxx version, but I'll take what I can get, I guess)

Need To Have, But Could Stand to Create

27) Rick Flair
28) Bam Bam Bigelow
29) HHH
30) Jim Neidhart
31) Jimmy Snuka
32) Vince McMahon
33) Rick Rude
34) Earthquake


I want to be able to do a story-mode that includes a Royal Rumble featuring all or most of the above wrestlers. Is there a game out there that'll let me do that?

Edited to insert tiers of importance in the character list.

[valadil]

The best wrestling games IMO came from the Smackdown series for ps1 and ps2. It was primarily WWE (or was it WWF at the time) though so it won't have all your characters. Can't remember if Taker was a biker at that point or not though.

[Woot Spitum]

Unfortunately, there really isn't a game out there that features most of those wrestlers. Most of the guys on that list are too recent for the Legends of Wrestling series, but too old for the Smackdown vs. Raw series.

If I were to suggest a game, I would go with Smackdown vs. Raw 2010. It features Shawn Michaels, the Undertaker, and HHH from the beginning, with the Million Dollar Man, the Rock, and Vince McMahon unlockable later on. It has an excellent create-a-wrestler mode with entrances for some more guys on your list (Hulk Hogan, Jimmy Snuka, Mr. Perfect, Mick Foley, and Rick Flair). It also features the Royal Rumble.

In addition to this, it also has a mode for creating your own custom storylines. I haven't messed around with it much, but it could be a nice feature if you want to make a story mode more relevant to your custom wrestlers. The main weakness, in my view, is that it takes a good bit of time too level up your custom wrestlers, although you do get experience even outside of career mode.