Wrestle Reviews
Sgt Slaughter’s Mat Wars
Release
1989
Format
Commodore 64
Background
Sgt Slaughter is one of the all time classic characters in pro wrestling. As a kid I hated Sgt Slaughter and my best memories of him are when he turned his back on the USA and supported Iraq. This was a very risky story line that the WWE ran and it has been reported that many people took it very seriously, and Sgt Slaughter received genuine death threats. Being honest as a nine year old kid at the time I hated him more for taking the WWF Championship from the Ultimate Warrior at the 1991 Royal Rumble than I did his political views.
Sgt Slaughter is one of a few celebrities who have been made into a G.I Joe figure. He was also part of the show which I think is very cool indeed. I am sure it was this popularity that made the developers of this game want him involved. I am sure they were devastated when under a year later his character changed on TV to become the American turn coat.
Presentation
This is a great looking game and it has far more going on if you ask me than the original WWF Wrestlemania game on the NES had. The arenas inparticular just look incredible, and there is so much detail going on and there is a decent amount of them also. The actual wrestlers though are not real wrestlers, but there is a fun selection of characters who I might add all look great.
I am sure you may be wondering just what does Sgt Slaughter have to do with this game? Well not great deal if I am honest, and you do not event get to play as him. A little box with his picture in it pops up after matches to tell you stuff, and he also serves as the referee in matches to count the pin falls, but that is all there is. It is a bit of a rip off when you think about it that he is involved in the game so little.
Game Play
Wow this is a very weird wrestling game. When you start the game you are asked to pick a manager. That’s right a manager not a wrestler. At first you need to play as a manager and you go to the auction house. The auction house is like a place where you would bid to buy cattle, but in this game you are bidding to buy a wrestler. You do not get to pick the wrestler you want, you just bid and hope for the best. One interesting thing about this bidding is that if you do not win and have to bid again the wrestler will have less health. So you want to bid a decent amount right from the start. But at the same time this will eat into your overall bank balance.
The idea of the game is that you start off wrestling in a barn and you want to make it all the way to the arena at the top of the town. For some odd reason this town has four different wrestling arenas all within a few feet of it eachother. You do eventually get to wrestling and it’s pretty boring. You just walk around trying to punch which will then stun your opponent letting you then do a grapple move.
The manger aspects of the game are better than the in ring wrestling. As a manager you need to always have some money in order to pay for your match. You can make extra cash by betting on matches or if you want to jump up the rankings faster, you can pay another manager to have one of their wrestlers take a dive.
Final Thoughts
Sgt Slaughter’s Mat Wars is a pretty weird game. It looks amazing and still to this day I am amazed at what programmers could do with the Commodore 64 when it comes to its graphics. I actually think this game would have been better if they just kept it as a wrestling manager simulator and did not make you take part in the actual matches. To me that is the weakest part of this very odd, but kind of fun game.
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