Completion time: 6:45

The first of many wrestling games to come on PSX Mania, Power Move Pro Wrestling (Toukon Retsuden in Japan) is a story of so much potential, yet so little to show for it. The presentation and gameplay are very well done. It looks impressive for its time, with a plethora of move animations and transitions. The ring announcer is a solid enough hype man for the bout coming up. Mechanically it’s simple enough to pick up and learn, although with more time I’m sure I would be doing more than body slams.

The unfortunate thing about Power Move Pro Wrestling however, is a distinct lack of options and wrestlers. It has an NJPW (New Japan Pro Wrestling) trademark to it, though it seems as if only the moves were represented, as the wrestler likenesses were generic, unimaginative, CAW-looking wrestlers. It’s a shame, as even if the typical NA wrestling fan wouldn’t have known a majority of the names from NJPW, it would have added a bit more personality to the package.

As it is, Power Move Pro Wrestling is an excellent wrestling sim, one that looks like it has layers in its gameplay that I barely even touched. Sadly though, the lack of modes, and the lack of a real personality take down the package overall. I still highly recommend this to wrestling game fans if they can get it on the cheap. There’s depth to the experience, you just need to lower your expectations when it comes to modes and wrestler notoriety. I doubt we’ll play anything better than this when it comes to wrestling game, until the WWF Smackdown! titles start popping up here.

Rating: 7

Twitch VOD: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/995328425

YouTube video: