World Wrestling Federation Basic Adventure Game is another headscratcher of a licensed game. I don’t know a ton about pro wrestling, that’s Hambone’s beat, but the way I see it, the WWF hit a peak of massive popularity in 1987 with Wrestlemania III that drifted off gradually. It peaked again in 1990, with the debut of the Undertaker and was drifting off again by 1993, when the RPG came out, in the wake of the Undertaker/Yokozuna casket match at Survivor Series. There have always been a large number of RPG nerds who were also into wrasslin’, but I imagine that vast amount of WWF’s fans had never played an RPG. So, in order to cash in on those fans and bring them into the hobby, you’d expect the RPG to be simple. Nope!

Is it a good simulation of the flow of a wrestling match? Sure. Successful hits saddle your opponent with Stun. Certain levels of Stun are needed to perform increasingly devastating maneuvers, which will eventually win you the match. There are mechanics for sucker punches for heels, mid-match comebacks for babyfaces and a system for playing to the crowd. It all comes together pretty good, honestly! But it is too complex and requires too much bookkeeping for casual play. I’m guessing, since there is no advanced version of the game, that all those non-RPG playing wrestling fans still don’t play RPGs.