HammerLock Wrestling
HammerLock Wrestling is a professional wrestling game for the Super NES that was released in 1994. In Japan, this game was called Tenryu Genichiro no Pro Wrestling Revolution (天龍源一郎のプロレスレボリューション). Named after Japanese professional wrestler Genichiro Tenryu and his faction Revolution, the Japanese version of the game uses the official license of the Japanese wrestling promotion Wrestle and Romance.
| HammerLock Wrestling | |
|---|---|
 North American cover art | |
| Developer(s) | Jaleco |
| Publisher(s) | Jaleco |
| Platform(s) | Super NES |
| Release | |
| Genre(s) | Fighting/wrestling |
| Mode(s) | Single-player, multiplayer |
Gameplay
The player can choose from 12 fictional wrestlers and compete in four modes of play. Movesets for this video game have been inspired by Lex Luger, Hulk Hogan, Abdullah the Butcher, Road Warrior Hawk, Yokozuna, and Stan Hansen. There are also 60 moves to choose from as well as unique finishers for each wrestler.
Exhibition mode allows up to four players to compete either against each other in singles match or in tag team format. There is also a round-robin tournament with six wrestlers competing to become the league champion. A standard tournament for up to eight players is also used as an alternative to the round-robin format. The Top Ranking Match puts the players against the other eleven wrestlers in an arcade-like tournament to become the champion. The game is divided into three screens at times. The middle part shows the current action happening in the ring while the top and bottom parts of the screen are used for close-ups of action sequences such as power moves, illegal moves and finishing maneuvers.
Reception
GamePro described HammerLock Wrestling as "an interesting but confusing SNES game." They commented that the division of the screen into three horizontal windows, while aesthetically appealing, makes it hard to stay focused on the action, as well as severely limiting the movements of the wrestlers.[1]