1990 · BlueSky Software · Sports

Mat Mania Challenge

Atari exclusive

Wouldn't you know it, you drew Bruno the Sledge, five time champion and all-around bad guy, as your first opponent in your quest for that elusive Atari Wrestling Federation championship belt. Ever since he lost his title to Eric the Flaxen Saxon, Bruno's been terrorizing the AWF circuit.

Released: 31 December 1990
Platforms: Atari 7800
Genres: Sports
Developers: BlueSky Software
Publishers: Atari Corporation
Modes: Multiplayer Single-player
Perspective: Third person

About

Mat Mania, known in Japan as Exciting Hour: The ProWrestling Network or simply Exciting Hour, is a 1985 wrestling video game developed by Technōs Japan and published by Taito for arcades. It is a spiritual successor to the 1983 arcade game Tag Team Wrestling, also developed by Technōs Japan, but published by Data East. The arcade game was a commercial success in Japan and North America, becoming the highest-grossing arcade conversion kit of 1986 in the United States.

An updated arcade version with a two-player competitive mode was released in 1986 as Mania Challenge. Atari Corporation released an Atari 7800 port in 1990, Mat Mania Challenge, which includes features of both games and lacks others. It was ported to the X68000 by Denpa with Shusse Ōzumō (1984). Mat Mania was re-released by Hamster Corporation for the PlayStation 4 as part of their Arcade Archives series in 2015 and the Nintendo Switch in 2019.

Keywords

wrestling

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

The game is presented in the guise of a televised pro-wrestling broadcast, the Taito Wrestling Association (TWA) (Technos Wrestling Association in the Japanese version). The intro sequence and subsequent intermissions portray a disheveled pro-wrestling host, Cory (Nari in the Japanese version). His hair is unkempt and his sleeves rolled up as he manically announces the particulars of the upcoming bout.

The player controls a wrestler who makes his way through the ranks of the TWA, challenging various thematically colorful opponents, before finally challenging the champion in the fifth match. Upon ascending to the championship, the player is presented with a championship belt in a presentation ceremony. The player must then defend his title against the previous five opponents, drawn at random.

Reception

In Japan, Exciting Hour was the highest-grossing table arcade unit of October 1985. In the United States, Mat Mania was the highest-grossing arcade conversion kit of 1986, and the year's third highest-grossing overall arcade game.

Legacy

Mania Challenge is an updated version of Mat Mania released in 1986, a year after the original. It adds a two-player competitive mode, where the first player takes control of the main character from the original game, now named Dynamite Tommy, while the second player controls a new character named Hurricane Joe, who plays identically to Tommy. Mania Challenge also adds several countering techniques to the player's move set from Mat Mania such as countering a headlock with an atomic drop or a suplex, or throwing drop kicks. However, the character roster was reduced to only three opponents in the single player mode: the Insane Warrior, the Golden Hulk and the other player character controlled by the computer (Dynamite Tommy or Hurricane Joe), repeating those three opponents in subsequent loops.

Mat Mania was released for the PlayStation 4 in March 2015 and Nintendo Switch in December 2019 by Hamster Corporation under their Arcade Archives label under the name of Mat Mania Exciting Hour.