By Joseph Walter
Back in the 90s, during the height of the "Monday Night Wars" between WCW and WWF, many of my friends were totally enamored and, although I never truly watched the product, I enjoyed playing with the action figures, going to the WWF restaurant in NYC and, especially, playing the incredible video games.
The N64 was blessed with easily the greatest wrestling games of all time, but they're so much more than just "great wrestling games;" they're some of the best games on the system, period.
.... but this is not one of them.
The precursor to what would be the legendary roster of AKI-developed N64 games, Virtual Pro Wrestling for the PS1 (known as WCW vs. The World in America) was a very basic and clunky version of what exponentially better games would end on the Nintendo 64. That said, no matter how lame the game is, this intro is beyond bad-ass.
Out of nowhere, a futuristic wrestling arena emerges from another dimension, and series of quick cuts to our metal man and arena clearly build up the idea that this gentleman is being imbued with unparalleled power from the emergence of this high-tech ring.
This causes the man to pose and look threatening... and his poses are so powerful and his threatening aura so potent, that fire erupts from the will of his spirit alone.
Oh, and then there's that bitchin' sound track to accompany whatever the hell is going on. Those epic synths and that shredding guitar are unmatched (though all the N64 follow-ups have some fantastic music, too. Well, maybe not all.)
God these were great times.