Welcome to the world of RetroMania Wrestling! This a guide for the newly released RetroMania Wrestling game for Steam. This is the official sequel to the highly popular, WrestleFest which was released in the early 90s. The developers tried their best (and succeeded) to recapture that fast-paced, wild gameplay from the arcade days.
RetroMania Wrestling Controls
Computer Keys
- Arrow Keys: Move Wrestler
- A: Taunt
- S: Tag
- C: Strong Grapple Move
- X: Medium Grapple Move
- Z: Weak Grapple Move
- V: Run
- Right Shift Key: Pause
- Double Tap Arrow Keys towards the ropes to Enter and Exit the ring.
- Tap Z while moving towards the corner to climb the top rope
- Double Tap UP while on the top rope to climb to the top of the cage. (Cage Matches Only)
- Press V and a D-Pad key to whip your opponent.
Xbox/Steam Controller
- D-Pad: Move Wrestler
- Y: Run
- X: Weak Grapple Move
- B: Strong Grapple Move
- A: Medium Grapple Move
- LB: Tag
- RB: Taunt
- Double Tap D-Pad towards the ropes to Enter and Exit the ring.
- Tap X while moving towards the corner to climb the top rope
- Double Tap UP while on the top rope to climb to the top of the cage. (Cage Matches Only)
- Press Y and a D-Pad key to whip your opponent.
TIP: Each wrestler will have a momentum bar beneath their health bar, it fills up red and has 3 levels. Level 1 will allow you to execute weak grapples, attempting medium or strong grapple moves before having built the appropriate momentum will result in an automatic reversal. You can execute medium grapples once 2 red bars are full, strong grapple when the red bars are completely full. When the red meter blinks it indicates you can use your special move.
RetroMania Wrestling Game Modes
- Story Mode: Story mode sees you take control of Johnny Retro as he is coming back from an injury caused by Zack Sabre Junior. You can shape him as a Heel (Bad guy) Babyface (Good guy) or a Tweener.
- 10-Pounds Of Gold: In this mode, you can select any of the 16 available wrestlers and complete a series of matches (5) to challenge Nick Aldis for the NWA World’s Championship. Once capturing the world’s title. You then will defend it in 5 matches to stake your claim as the undisputed NWA World’s Champion.
- Retro Rumble: This is a Royal Rumble-style match. You can have up to 16 wrestlers compete. They will enter the ring at whatever time interval you choose until there is only one man left standing.
RetroMania Wrestling Match Types
- Single
- Tag Team
- Tornado Tag Team
- Six-Man Tag Team
- Eight-Man Tag Team
- Triple Threat
- Fatal 4-Way
- Steel Cage
- Falls Count Anywhere
- Retro Rumble
RetroMania Wrestling Roster
- Austin Idol
- Big Stevie Cool
- Blue Meanie
- Brian Myers
- Colt Cabana
- Hollywood Nova
- Jeff Cobb
- Johnny Retro (John Morrison)
- Matt Cardona
- Nick Aldis
- Nikita Koloff
- Road Warrior Animal
- Road Warrior Hawk
- Tommy Dreamer
- Warhorse
- Zack Sabre Junior
RetroMania Wrestling Arenas
- RetroMania
- School
- The Ballroom
- Japan
- Warehouse
- Beach
- NWA 70th Anniversary
- NWA Powerrr
- House Of Hardcore
- Stevie Richards Fitness
- Universal Wrestling College
- Pro Wrestling Tees
- Major Wrestling Figure Podcast
- Hell
- STOMP In Paradise
- Too Many Games
- British Arena
Final Verdict: 8/10
RetroMania Wrestling is a lot of fun and that should be the goal of any video game. It offers the most unique arenas in wrestling games in many years, a well-varied roster, simple gameplay, and just the right amount of nostalgia. It is not without negatives, however.
You can complete the story mode in about an hour or less, 10-Pounds of Gold can get redundant, and it is a small roster at a time where wrestling game rosters have ballooned up to over one-hundred playable characters.
While it is not expected that a simple independent developer could have such an enormous roster given the limited resources of “free agents” these days, a roster of 25 to 30 characters and the inclusion of female grapplers would have improved the game quite a bit.
Even with these cons, I have spent about 10 hours with it and have encountered no bugs and the only glitch is if you select your player to come out second, you will have a double and your selected opponent will be nowhere to be found.
I give RetroMania Wrestling an 8 out of 10. Highly Recommended.