It’s a great time to be a fan of female wrestling; well, at least on TV. When it comes to video games, it’s not such a pretty picture. We’ve searched high and low to find the best female wrestling video games. Read on to find out!
Five Best Female Wrestling Games
While the popularity of female wrestling is clearly on the rise, the video game world is still lagging a bit behind. While different wrestling games focus on different things, in some way, all of them are incomplete. Whether they focus on the technical aspects of the fights or just straight up arcade-like fun, they always lack something.
Now, with that said, female wrestling games in general tend to be quite lacking. However, we’ve tried to round up the best games that are available.
1. Cutie Suzuki no Ringside Angel (Sega Mega Drive, 1990)
Japanese wrestling tends to be based on emotion. That means there’s a lot of screaming and shouting. The screaming is similar to the kiai, a power shout (usually screamed before an attack). While joshi (female wrestling), is based on a different kind of emotion, where the focus is on the greater narrative and the emotional toll exuded on the wrestlers.
Ringside Angel doubles down on this, almost to the point of absurdity. Damage is based on how in pain or sad your character looks. The developers tried making the characters wide-eyed and cute. This is unfortunately ironic when confronted with the fact that Joshi wrestlers were often forcibly retired.
While filled with problems, the game itself was fairly innovative for its time. The world-building and the use of ring environment are miles ahead of its competitors of the time. Furthermore, Cutie Suzuki is actually one of the first female protagonists in console gaming.
2. Super Wrestle Angels (Super Famicom, 1994)
While technically, Super Wrestle Angels isn’t a wrestling game, due to the scarcity of good choices and the theme of the game, we’ve felt that we needed to include it.
Super Wrestle Angels is more of a turn-based strategy game, with some wrestling elements. We included it in the list because it hits the bullseye of why we play games that are about controlling humans in peak condition.
We also have to mention that the way that the anatomy of the characters is portrayed is at least a bit fantastical.
3. Super Fire Pro Wrestling: Queen’s Special (Super Famicom, 1995)
Any time we talk about wrestling games, it’s almost unavoidable to mention the Fire Pro series. Fire Pro has a hardcore reputation — frightening to casuals, inspiring to the hardcore fans. Everything is about precise and quick timing; you win with precision rather than button-mashing.
Queen’s Special is quite an odd beast in the series, given that the Fire Pro series tended to rely on large rosters of copyright-evading lookalikes rather than real wrestlers. Queen’s Special features a lot of actual Japanese wrestlers.
There are even 16 open slots to create your own character, with plenty of wardrobe options.
Unlike Ringside Angel, Queen’s Special mostly relies on its technical and precise gameplay rather than the storytelling which is commonplace in joshi wrestling.
In the end, Queen’s Special is, without a doubt, one of the best female wrestling games.
There’s even an unofficial English translation on certain emulator sites.
4. Rumble Roses XX (PS2 & Xbox 360, 2006)
Ah, Rumble Roses — if there ever was a poster child for fan service, its this game. The skimpy clothes almost take away from the unique characters and their relationships with each other.
The game is filled with real wrestling moves and utilizes ring psychology effectively. Ring psychology is the simulation of wearing down your opponents, which is often overlooked in other wrestling games.
Rumble Roses often abandons realism for flair. However, in this case, it is a wise choice. The game is aware of what it does well and what it does poorly.
The aesthetics might be offensive to some as the game is basically pandering to men, with scantily-clad ladies fighting each other and unbecoming camera angles.
On the other hand, the game is aware of what it is, and it never tries to hide it.
5. Women Wrestling Revolution Pro (Google Play, 2017)
Created by Fighting Arena, Women Wrestling Revolution Pro was often criticized as a “sexy mannequin fighting” game. These allegations seem true when one takes into account the way it is marketed.
Fighting Arena’s games tend to be clones of each other, utilizing the same engine with recycled assets. They play, feel, and look pretty much the same. This female wrestling game offers nothing new or even typical.
All in all, an uninspired lazy cash-grab effort. Ironically, failing to even be good at fan service. If you actually want almost-nude women fighting each other, you’re better off with a title like Rumble Roses.
