5 retro WWE video games worth revisiting while in lockdown

#2. WWE WrestleMania: The Arcade Game

Yeah, this game was kind of insane

Some of you may remember the early-to-mid 1990s, when Mortal Kombat hit arcades, then home consoles, and kind of changed everything in the video game business. This is neither the time nor the place to discuss the role the game played in the formation of the current rating systems implemented on games around the world.

But, one thing it did do that's relevant to this piece is popularize the use of digitized performers in games. Basically, it took footage of someone actually doing something and then put it in the game. You... probably know what I'm talking about, I'm probably spending way more time describing this than I need to.

Anyhoo, Midway, the company that - well, what do you know? - also developed and published the Mortal Kombat games, did the same for WWE WrestleMania: The Arcade Game. More a fighting game - which is quite apropos, all things considered - than a straight up wrestling game, WrestleMania featured stars like Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, and The Undertaker beating the snot out of each other in, well, fighting game fashion.

The game has special moves, like Undertaker hitting his opponents with a literal tombstone or Doink the Clown wielding a giant mallet, that - as you can tell - are absolutely ridiculous, and awesome. Other wrestlers featured in the game include Lex Luger, Razor Ramon, and Yokozuna.

Eventually, in 1995, Midway released the game for home consoles such as the Super NES and the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive, as well as consoles from the following generation like the Sony PlayStation. So, there's plenty of ways to play this one, including - as my buddy, YouTube gamer SNES Drunk, puts it - "any way you can".