16 days 16 bit: Day 9 - Saturday Night Slam Masters

16 days 16 bit

I'm Chris, Editor at PC Games, and lately I've been catching up on 16-bit games that I missed or want to relive back then. I let you share my experiences with 16 days 16 bit.

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Day 9: Saturday Night Slam Masters

I've been a wrestling fan since I was a child and accordingly I've played pretty much every show sport video game since the mid-90s. However, a title that many referred to as an "absolute classic" never made it into the module bay of my consoles. Until now! Finally, finally, I'm catching up with Capcom's Saturday Night Slam Masters that so many people rave about. And probably rightly so, although after a short time I know that I won't quite join in these cheers, because despite the wrestling premise Slam Masters is a classic beat em up - and I'm really bad at beat em ups.

16 days 16 Bit: day 9 - Saturday Night Slam Masters (4) Source: PC Games Of course I knew what I was getting myself into, but I wanted to give it a try, since the title is considered so good . The beat-em-up masters from Capcom brought their parade discipline into the wrestling world and it worked really well. Even if I have to play on the easy level of difficulty, still get pissed off again and again and still can't manage to perform certain actions after a while, I can't deny that Saturday Night Slam Masters is a great game. Above all, it captures the world of wrestling better than many other real wrestling games at that time.

So the rudimentary story of Slam Masters even goes into the territorial time of the sport and you fight in the "Crash Carnival" named tournament for the championship title in global wrestling hotspots such as Mexico City, Tokyo or (at that time completely justified) Hanover - even if the German city is misspelled in the game. The promotion you are competing for is even called CWA, but has nothing to do with Big Otto Wanz's Catch Wrestling Association, but stands for Capcom Professional Wrestling Association.

The field of participants in the tournament is typically wrestling Muscle-packed giants, high flyers, technicians and so-called big men. Mike Haggar from Final Fight can also be selected, but I especially like the character Alexander the Grater, who was clearly modeled after Big Van Vader.

The Controls are relatively simple: there is a button for attacks, one for jumping and one for pinning. In contrast to other beat em ups, the opponent is not automatically knocked out when the energy bar has been beaten down, but has to be covered first.

The offensive actions differ depending on how you stand towards the opponent and for how long you keep the key pressed and in which direction you press the control pad. For example, you perform punches and kicks, but also suplexes and power bombs. That's really cool, but far too often the moves that I want to do just don't work. This is probably due to my inability to play the genre of classic beat em ups (after all, I'm great with brawlers!), But it gets on my nerves when my face gets polished because of it.

16 days 16 bit: day 9 - Saturday Night Slam Masters (7) Source: PC Games With some characters I just don't stand a chance against some opponents. After all, after a defeat I can choose a new wrestler who might be more likely to exploit the opponent's weaknesses. Sometimes there are really cool fights with spectacular actions or simply an open exchange of blows.

That is really cool, but still there is no real wrestling feeling. I miss the typical transitions and a real match flow. Saturday Night Slam Masters is just a beat em up and, despite the topic, not a wrestling game. Maybe I'm too strict, because the real wrestling games from that time didn't exactly implement the sport in a glorious way, but I rate the Capcom title from today's perspective and without any nostalgia bonus.

Finally, I can say, I like Saturday Night Slam Masters, although when I was gambling, lust and frustration were balanced for me. I can understand why the title is so popular, but my brief foray into the CWA ring is enough for this format.