"There are some cool wrestlers in All Japan PW, plus Wolf and Jeffrey"

I think this game was made by Sega. No idea. Mostly strong points to this game, but there are some minor nitpicks. Jeffrey McWild and Wolf from Virtua Fighter make an appearance in the game as well as about 10 other wrestlers. There are some non-Jap wrestlers but its mostly Japanese characters.

Graphics: 10/10

Clear and crisp. Although there aren't very good face definitions, the visuals are cool. There is a crowd but you don't see much of them until the end when the camera focuses on your character afer u win or lose. All of the moves look really cool when executed (esp. power bombs). All the wrestlers were motion-captured (not sure 'bout Wolf and Jeffrey) so the finishers look like their real-life counterparts.

Gameplay: 9/10

The moves sytem acts a bit like Attitude and Warzone. A combination of button presses and joystick movments = a finisher and most of the moves. Thankfully, on the arcade machine there's a list of ome moves for each character. There are only 3 buttons: Attack, Hold and Throw. Tap the joystick twice in a direction to run. The Throw button can only body slam someone when up close, so use Throw after pressin Hold and a direction. Actually, Throw can also be used to pin. It's not too hard and there's a sense of satisfaction when u pull of a move successfully (and deliberately).
Sadly, All Japan PW is sort of a button masher. However, button mashing won't get u anywhere, as the combo moves are usually the powerful moves.
AJPW features reversals and the way cool damage system. You start off at 0 on the Damage Metre. When u get whacked long enough, you go to level 50. The moves for this level are stronger than level 0, but are no way as strong as level 80 or 100. Finishers usually become available at level 50, thankfully.
Lastly, the bone-breaking feature. If you smash your opponent hard enough, you can break one of his bones. I think if you break all of his bones the ref stops the match. I dunno.

Sound: 8/10

Grunts, ring noises, etc. When you break a bone there's a cool explosion-like sound, but when you go up levels on the Damage Metre there's a real annoying 'ding' thats incredibly loud. When you get pinned, the crowd chants the 1-2-3 along with the ref.
Nice end-of-match music though.

Replay: 8/10

After you beat the singles mode and gett the title it gets a tad boring. But with other people to challenge you, its pretty fun.

Overall: 9/10

I really like this game, the wrestler have such original finishers that it can be played again and again (until u finish it). Buy it or rent if for a long time.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 05/09/00, Updated 05/09/00