With WWE 2K15 releasing soon, I thought it was a good time to share this list. I’m a ridiculously huge wrestling fan. I’m more passionate about professional wrestling than eSports. Recently, I caught a lot of heat for not including WWF No Mercy on a list of “10 video games that have stuck with me throughout the years.” So maybe this will shed some light on why it was excluded!

10. TNA Impact!

I know, you’re completely like “WHY?! This guy doesn’t know what he’s talking about!” This list was very tight, especially at this end. Why does TNA Impact make the cut? There is no other wrestling game(and probably won’t ever be one at this rate) that can compare graphically. The game play was extremely hard to grapple, however, it’s visual quality is far above and beyond other wrestling games.

9. Wrestlemania the Arcade Game

If you aren’t aware, this game was Mortal Kombat with wrestlers. This is easily one of my favorite wrestling titles. Until WWE All-Stars released, it was the only title treated as a fighting game. Infinites aside, it’s really fun to play! There’s combos, Fatalities, Razor Ramon, and you can hit Yokozuna with tombstones to make food fall out of him.

8. WWF Raw(Xbox)

Now you just lost faith in my list, but you just don’t understand this game. Yes, it has horrible graphics and bad game play on top of it. Why does it get a spot here? The little things. How many wrestling games give you the chance to interrupt your opponent’s entrance? To my knowledge, just this one! The small things always get me to fire this game up when I have the chance.

7. Royal Rumble(Dreamcast)

This was an arcade game originally. This game has the best version of the royal rumble that I’ve ever played. I wish the royal rumble came on it’s own separate disc these days just so it could be as good. Yes, there’s 8 wrestlers on the screen and there isn’t any lag. They could have probably had more on screen if it wasn’t for the extremely limited roster, and hardware limitations.

6. WWF Attitude

People might not even remember this game, or WWF Warzone. They were awesome for their time! No, I don’t know why there were steps instead of a ramp. The reason I really like this game is the presentation. At the time, this was the only game that had complete wrestler entrances. If you had the game on the PS1, you could even hear Degeneration X’s pre-match speeches!

5. Fire Pro Wrestling(series)

You can not possibly say that you play wrestling games and not mention a game from this series. Fire Pro Wrestling offers the most customization of all the wrestling games.On top of that, the game play actually feels like a wrestling match. You can knock it for not looking like it’s competitors, but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s as close as you can get to the real thing.

4. WCW vs NWO Revenge

I can honestly say that I’ve put months and maybe years of time into this game. This game set the stage for the beloved N64 titles that followed it. The roster was solid, it had limited customization, and it had full entrances, including tag teams! I love playing through the championship mode. There’s also cool things you can find like the NWO spray painted heavyweight title.

3. Wrestlemania 2000

This game is the reason No Mercy wasn’t included on the list I mentioned before. It is also the reason No Mercy is absent from this list as well. WM 2000 was game changing when it came out. It took #4 on our list and made it better. Full entrances, team entrances, actual theme songs, and an amazing create-a-wrestler system. I still play it to this day.

As far as No Mercy is concerned, yes, it’s a great game. Greatest of all time? Hardly. While it took WM 2000 and added features, it also removed some. When you compare it to other titles, it’s head and shoulders above. Next to WM 2000, not so much. This spot came down to one or the other, and I feel that Wrestlemania offers a better all around experience.

2. Smackdown! Just Bring It

I decided to only pick one title from this series. Smackdown vs Raw 2006-08, Smackdown! Here comes the pain, and the original Smackdown! all were considered. If I did not pick this title I would have gone with the WWE Day of Reckoning titles at this spot. Those two games were amazing and highly underrated being on the GameCube.

Why Just Bring It? Aside from being the reason I bought a PlayStation 2, This game had features that are now forgotten. It was the first game where you could fight in the crowd. Not in a corner, literally in the crowd at ring side. You could also have 8 wrestlers on screen at  one time. It did cause all types of lag and frame rate issues, however if it were done with stronger hardware it would have worked.

1. WWF Wrestlefest(Arcade)

I will never get tired of playing this game. I can’t go anywhere that still has the arcade machine because I will be broke in about an hour. There was only 2 buttons and a joystick but you could do so much! The funny part about this game? It featured more in the way of entrances than most games before WWF Warzone. I know that doesn’t mean much to some, but I want the full experience. Also, Ultimate Warrior.

That’s my list! What do you think? I already know somebody is going to want to fight me over No Mercy! However, that’s part of the reason why i love the WWE Universe and these games! Do you have a favorite that wasn’t mentioned? Tecmo Wrestling made it to the top 12 of my list that started with almost 30 titles. Legends of Wrestling is also an extremely honorable mention. That was a great series.