Wrestling has had very awkward history with gaming. We started out with some questionable WWE and WCW games, and Nintendo and Sega put out wrestling games of their own. These early wrestling games have not aged particularly well, and while we later got some great WWE and WCW games, for a long time it seemed like we would never have a game that let us truly go wild in the ring. That is until Capcom unleashed Saturday Night Slam Masters upon us all.
Saturday Night Slam Masters was a unique experience in that it combined the experience of the squared circle with the style of Capcom’s traditional fighting games. It was an experience in the arcade that was unmatched with only Wrestlefest and Midway’s WrestleMania Arcade coming anywhere near it.. You had characters both original and pre-existing such as Mike Haggar, which was actually the first time Mayor Mike was in a fighting game and not just a beat em up, and characters with ties to the Street Fighter franchise as well. The action was intense and fast paced and playing with several people was a blast and it was here that Capcom did things they had not done before with their fighting games.. These new ideas directly led to later fighting games such as Power Stone and other beloved fighting gems.
In today’s era, with online gaming, 3D fighters and modern wrestling games, Saturday Night Slam Masters is a series Capcom should revisit. It could be an over the top wrestling action game that uses mechanics of 3D fighting games, to blend the genres, or a stick to the original style while incorporating modern ideas.. Considering this was one of Capcom’s first fighting games to use more than just 2 players, it is surprising they have not revisited the series for the modern esports scene. Imagine including the Death Match modes from the Sega Genesis port, and having online matches with as many as 12 players if not more.. I would love to see Capcom go revisit some more of their experimental fighting games and this would be a perfect choice to revisit. Considering How bad some recent WWE games have been, Capcom has a real opening here.