When it comes down to Sega Saturn there are many people feel that the console was highly underrated and largely overlooked as it related to the 90’s decade in countries like North America. There were a handful of gems on the Sega Saturn console that many people never really got a chance to play mainly due to the popularity of the PlayStation and the Nintendo 64 game console back in the 90’s. It should also be noted that the late 90’s was great time to be a fan of pro wrestling in relation to both television and video games. From ’96-’99 we got to see classics such as WCW vs The World, WCW/nWo Revenge WCW World Tour, WWF Wrestlemania 2000, WWF Warzone for consoles such as the Nintendo 64 and PS1. However, we did not see a ton of high profile pro wrestling titles on the Sega Saturn during the late 90’s. One of the very few pro wrestling titles to appear on the Sega Saturn was All Japan Pro Wrestling featuring Virtua from 1997. All Japan Pro Wresting featuring Virtua was an arcade styled sports game developed by Sega AM2 Sega Enterprises Limited and Scarab and was the first video game within its series which was eventually followed by two sequels which would later appear on the Dreamcast console. All Japan Pro Wrestling featuring Virtua had a small roster consisting of twelve different characters such as Johnny Ace, Jun Akiyama, Kenta Kobashi, Giant Baba, Steve Williams, Stan Hansen, Mitsuharu Misawa and others.
All Japan Pro Wrestling featuring Virtua felt like an arcade version of a pro wrestling game from the N64 era of the late 90’s. In All Japan Pro Wrestling featuring Virtua each character had health bars and game featured Japanese commentary during matches. The 3D animation in relation to the in ring action and character moves surpassed the likes of WWF Warzone, WWF Attitude and WCW Mayhem in terms of quality. However, for all its strengths All Japan Pro Wrestling featuring Virtua was lacking in variety in relation to match types as players were only allowed to engage in one on one gameplay. All Japan Pro Wrestling featuring Virtua was lacking in game modes that allowed stipulations like Tag-Team, Battle Royale and Cage match to occur. Despite, its drawbacks All Japan Pro Wrestling featuring Virtua was a pretty cool game for the Sega Saturn and felt like somewhat of a prelude of what was to come in relation to gameplay for classics such as WWF No Mercy and WWE Smackdown: Here Comes The Pain during the 00’s decade.
Gaming Hearts Collection 