This is part one in a series of [until I run out of games to talk about].

Hybrid Wrestler (or "Funaki Masakatsu Hybrid Wrestler – Tougi Denshou", if we’re going to get technical) was released in 1994 on the Super Famicom in Japan. The game was made by Technos and is an interesting little entry into the wrestling game market. The game was sponsored by Pancrase, which was a wrestling promotion that marketed themselves as "hybrid wrestling", and generally promoted matches with a grappling, mat-based style. Pancrase later evolved into a legitimate mixed martial arts company in the late-1990s, but this was released beforehand, and boy, is it obvious.

Very little is on the internet about this game, and for good reason; it’s relatively obscure and was never ported over here in North America. It also wasn’t as popular as another game series on the Super Famicom, Super Fire Pro Wrestling, and, as such, kind of fell by the wayside. This is kind of a shame, as the game’s mechanics were actually rather good. Now mind you, there really isn’t a lot behind this game. There is a career mode, where you can actually bring yourself up the ranks of three different promotions, each with their own ruleset. There are also tournament, league, and one-on-one matches, but here’s the problem…

… damn if I can figure out which is which. Even the erstwhile GameFAQs doesn’t have a translation guide for this, and Googling comes up with nothing, so I’m kind of in a bind. The most I can play around with is the one-on-one match, which is the first choice in the right column. Here, you are allowed to choose your character, then choose your opponent, and then, you end up choosing your stage.

Now here’s the rub… each stage has it’s own individual rules. The stage on the upper left will give you a Canyon Match, bottom left is a Desert Match, upper right is a streetfight, lower right is a Balcony Match, and the center is a traditional wrestling ring. This is, honestly, where the fun truly lies. But instead of me describing how each match works and just showing you pictures… why not let you see them? I went ahead and captured a match from each stage and uploaded it to YouTube for all to see.

This is the Canyon Match, and really, the rules are pretty simplistic. The ring is on an elevated platform, very similar to a scaffolding. You can’t exit the ring because you’re a few hundred feet in the air. Pinfalls and submissions don’t count. The only way you can win, and there’s video evidence to prove that I’m not making this up, is to knock your opponent through the floor of the ring. The ring seems to have eight hitboxes, and four slams onto that should knock your opponent through the ring.

Here we have the Desert Match, and, well, it’s kind of disappointing. It’s pretty much a regulation match in the desert, surrounded by tanks, like we’re at a very small army base. The only real thing of note here is when I accidentally dropkick the referee to show that, yes, the referee can be attacked.

And now we come to the streetfight mode, which is honestly the most entertaining of the specialty matches. And, as you can see, I’m not joking; this is literally a fight on the street. I ran into the posts on each side to show you that you are kind of fenced in and to see that they do knock you down. You can also pick up foreign objects (although I never figured it out because, um, the entire game is in Japanese and I never found a translation) and be attacked by random passersby, which is cool. The only thing I’m not a fan of is that you can only win by submission. I would’ve liked to be able to win by knockout, but this is perfectly fine.

The Balcony Match is another bizarre mode, similar to the Canyon Match, except that the goal is to basically make your opponent fall off one of the sides, similar to a ringout in, say, Virtua Fighter. It’s pretty simplistic.

Now we come down to the meat of why someone would purchase a wrestling game; the actual wrestling. Here is a traditional rules wrestling match, where you can win by pinfall, submission, or if your opponent is counted out of the ring. Pancrase also has a unique rule set that is prevalent in this game, although for some reason I couldn’t get the mode switched on, where you are only alloted five uses of the ropes to break a pinfall or submission and, once you use those five rope breaks, you cannot use the ropes again or you are disqualified. And now, let’s actually rate the game…

SOUND: The background music is highly enjoyable, and the sound effects were pretty solid. Whenever a wrestler crashes to the mat, it actually sounds like they are hitting the mat in a ring, which was great for the era. I wasn’t very fond of the crowd noise, but I suppose you can’t really have it all. B+.

GRAPHICS: This is where the game really shines, in my opinion. The sprites are lush and colorful, and each wrestler looks like they have their own unique model. The blood and sweat effects are awesome; whenever a wrestler gets cut, you can see blood droplets splatter off of him whenever he is struck, which is really neat.  The sweat functions in the same manner.  There are games in today’s era that don’t have such attention to detail, but when you consider that the game was made by one of the best developers in the world, Technos, there’s really no surprise. A.

GAMEPLAY: When compared to some of the other games of the era, Hybrid Wrestler really seems more like a brawler in the vein of Saturday Night Slam Masters. This isn’t a bad thing; arcade-style wrestling games can be very fun (see fellow Technos game WWF WrestleFest for the arcade) and this is no exception. The controls are a little confusing at times, but the game is very easy to pick up and play. The computer-controlled characters almost seem too easy to beat at times, except in the season mode where you are building your wrestler from a rookie to a champion and your stats are obviously low to start. A-.

OVERALL (not an average): It’s really a shame that this game never received a North American port, or even an English fan translation. This was when Technos was really starting to fall apart as a company, and that is the true shame of it all. I only wish their relationship with the WWF was still strong by 1994. I think taking this engine and putting a WWF touch to it would have an awesome arcade game that would have put WWF WrestleMania: The Arcade game to shame. I feel that this game was better than LJN’s Royal Rumble and Raw games for the SNES and, as such, recommend it. The only hesitation I’d point out is that the game is entirely in Japanese, which will be an exercise in frustration and hurts my overall score. B+.

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