What happens when a bunch of muscle-bound athletes meet the cartridge-based Nintendo 64 head-on for the first time? You get a lot of broken plastic and smashed up electronics if you answer the question literally. But if you understand we’re talking more in the figurative sense, then you wind up with WCW vs. NWO: World Tour which was released on this date back in 1997. And if you’ve got a problem with that, we’ve got some forty of the afore-mentioned muscle-bound athletes who would just love to hear your side of the story.

Prior to today in gaming history, if you owned a Nintendo 64 and wanted to play a wrestling game featuring the likes of Hollywood Hogan or Sting, you had exactly one option: close your eyes, pick up your controller, and use your imagination because there weren’t no such animal. After today, you could have gone to anywhere finer video games were sold and picked up the Aki Corp.-developed, THQ-published WCW vs. NWO: World Tour and returned home to discover your home had been invaded by some of the biggest names in sports entertainment.

The roster reads exactly like a who’s who of 90’s non-WWE wrestling goodness. A total of five stables are crammed into this cart; in addition to the afore-mentioned WCW and NWO, you’ll find members of DOA, the Independent Union, and even a couple faces representing Whole World Wrestling. Each stable includes hidden, unlockable members to compliment the folks already on offer, like Randy “Macho Man” Savage or Diamond Dallas Page. And of course they’re packing their signature moves–what’s a pro wrestling game without Sting’s Powerjack or the Giant’s Chokeslam? Also included (on the off-chance you have friends) is a robust four-player mode to ensure you and three buddies can spend hours kicking the crap out of one another without risking a ride to the local precinct. And it all went down today, in retro gaming history. Enjoy your retro ad goodie:

Michael Crisman

In 1979, Michael Crisman was mauled by a radioactive Gorgar pinball machine. After the wounds healed, doctors discovered his DNA had been re-coded. No longer fully human, Michael requires regular infusions of video games in order to continue living among you. If you see him, he can see you. Make no sudden moves, but instead bribe him with old issues of computer and video game magazines or a mint-in-box copy of Dragon Warrior IV.


If he made you laugh, drop a tip in his jar at http://paypal.me/modernzorker


(If he didn't make you laugh, donate to cure his compulsion to bang keyboards by sending an absurdly huge amount of money to his tip jar instead. That'll show him!)