RetroMania Wrestling With Michael Hermann

Developer Interviews

This episode is part of a series of interviews with developers. Check out this page for more of them

Featured Image

Players

Squidge

Jay

MikeH

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Content Warning

At 6:26 I say the words:

Viagra on a pole match

which might prove a little uncomfortable to explain to young ears. It was also an actual match held towards the end of WCWs

World Championship Wrestling

life span as a competitor to the WWE

World Wrestling Entertainment; previously known as the WWF

Mike then brings it up again at 7:14.

Show Notes

We’re joined by a very special guest in this episode: Michael Hermann, of the people behind the upcoming RetroMania Wrestling.

Due to the nature of the games that we discussed in this episode, we decided to use a whole bunch of inside baseball style wrestling terminology

check the end of these show notes for a link to a glossary, if you’d like to know what they all mean

But before we could talk to Mike about his team’s new game, we wanted to talk about the games we’d been playing recently.

Squidge’s Recent Games

• Borderlands 3

• 0 A.D

I’d asked Squidge to check this game out for a special episode that we have coming up

you’ll remember that we first talked about 0 A.D back in October of 2018

Mike’s Recent Games

• RetroMania Wrestling
• Stranger Things 3: The Game

Jay’ Recent Games

• Final Fantasy IX

I’d almost finished the game at the time of recording

about 3 weeks ago, at the time of release

and I talk about a massive mistake that I’d made, after getting almost all of the way through disc three

although the HD re-release doesn’t differentiate between the discs

without saving. But I powered through the situation that I found myself in, and got through it - as I type these notes up, I’m already at the end of the next game that I picked for my Switch

I should make a point of writing about the games that I’ve finished for it, so far

RetroMania Wrestling

The majority of this episode is all about RetroMania Wrestling, how Mike and his team have gone about creating it, which other wrestling games they’ve taken inspiration from, and who they might have signed to appear in the game so far

yup, an indie game has signed some pretty big names

Mike puts our minds at ease, at the very beginning of the discussion by telling us that there will do no Viagra on a pole match - which is good to hear. He also tells us about the relationship between RetroMania Wrestling and WWF WrestleFest from 1991

it’s relationship to that title is impressive in it’s own right

For those who have never played this wonderful title, I’ve included a long play of it here:

source: VideoGaming4U on YouTube

There was a remake of the original arcade game, back in 2012, but it was terrible. Here’s a video of that:

Mike tells us about the earliest versions of the game, which included the use of the Mugen fighting engine, but they were more noodling around to see what he could make with it.

Mike’s Favourite Wrestling Games

Jay:

So you talked about how WrestleFest was one of your favourites, what are some of your other favourites? And are you drawing any kind of inspiration from them, or is it all WrestleFest from back in the day?

Mike loves the arcade titles from the 1980s and early 90s, and some of his favourites from the arcades are:

• Mat Mania - The Prowrestling Network
• Tag Team Wrestling
• Wrestle War

And some of his favourites from the home consoles are:

• Tag Team Wrestling (NES)

MikeH:

All of those 2D games are what I really love

but some of the 3D ones are ok, too. Like:

• Power Move Pro Wrestling (PS1)
• WCW vs. the World (PS1)
• WWF War Zone (PS1)
• Fire Pro Wrestling G (PS1)
• Fire Pro Wrestling D (Dreamcast)

MikeH:

If WrestleFest and Fire Pro had a baby, that would be RetroMania

The Real Stinkers of the Wrestling Game Canon

Jay:

So we’ve talked about great ones that you’ve maybe pulled inspiration from, but what about the real stinkers? The really terrible ones?

That is, without talking about WWE 2K20

because it’s a bit of an easy target at this point

Even though the heyday of the 2D wrestling games was the 80s and early 90s, some of the real stinkers were:

• WWF WrestleMania (1989) (NES)
• WCW Backstage Assault (PS1)
• 3 Count Bout (Neo Geo)
• Saturday Night Slam Masters

Squidge and I then talk about how there will always be a market for the simulation wrestling games

create your own character, show, PPV, etc.

but we (Squidge and I) seem to love the arcadey titles. The whole:

• choose a wrestler
• fight

style of games will almost always win out with us, with WCW/nWo Revenge being the pinnacle of those types of “just get brawling” types of wrestling games

in my opinion

Mike, Squidge and I then talk about how the WWE 2K series of games seem to change just enough of the game between each release

something that Squidge calls the "Fifa Gambit"

in order to justify the price tag - including changing the controls. And as a gamer who doesn’t have the time to spend hours and hours playing these games

although I did just sink 20+ hours into Final Fantasy IX

I don’t have the time to re-learn the controls, each time I want to pick up and play.

MikeH:

I wanted [RetroMania Wrestling] to be more of a pick-up-and-play, I don’t want to have to memorise combinations of buttons. I know that I have a "weak", "strong", "medium" and "run", and that can basically play the game

What About Match Types?

For those who aren’t into pro wrestling, there are many different types of wrestling match. So we asked Mike about the different match types that are included in RetroMania Wrestling. There are quite a few, apparently:

• Singles

  1v1 in a fighting game sense

• Tag

  2v2, similar to the tag match type in Tekken Tag - but can also be a tornado tag match

  • 2v2
  • 3v3
  • 4v4
• Retro Rumble

  totally not a Royal Rumble 😉

• Ten pounds of gold match

  think: Ladder match

• Three-way and Four-way matches
  • Singles matches, but with three or four wrestlers in the ring at once

With each of those types (possibly minus the Ten pounds of gold match) being available as an elimination match or a cage match variant.

Which is a healthy choice of matches, if I’m honest.

MikeH:

There’s a couple other, kinda unique match types that I would love to add. Maybe a casket match, maybe a Viagra on a pole match. But we want to keep adding on to the game, post-launch. Basically anything that’s being done, or has been done in wrestling is fair game.

What About the Roster?

Wrestling - along with fighting - games live and die on their rosters. If there aren’t enough good quality characters to play as, then people wont play them. With RetroMania Wrestling being an indy title, I wasn’t expecting to see some of the names included on the roster that Mike was able to tell us about

at the time of recording, there were still a few names that he wasn’t allowed to mention

• The Road Warriors
• Tommy Dreamer
  • via his House of Hardcore branding
• Nick Aldis
  • and a few other NWA wrestlers, soon to be announced
  • they also have the NWA Power license, too

• Austin Idol
• Colt Cabana
• Zack Sabre Jr.
• Jeff Cobb
• Johnny Retro
  • aka WWE’s John Morrison
• The bWo
  • Big Stevie Cool
  • The Blue Meanie
  • Hollywood Nova

They also reached out to Twitter, asking folks to nominate their favourite indie wrestlers vie the IndieMania hashtag:

Due to the recent changes at Twitter, we are unable to embed tweets at this time. We apologise for the inconvenience.

This culminated in Warhorse being added to the roster.

MikeH:

He has a very cool look. Kind of a metal Ultimate Warriorish, Metallica, Slayer vibe thing going.

Mike is hoping that they can have 15-16 wrestlers available at launch, with more coming as DLC. With the DLC being “as free as possible”:

MikeH:

We’ll just continue that roster and keep going it, in a combination of free and paid DLC. We definitely want to do as much free as we can… if the game is gangbusters, then we’ll do as much free as we can. But if we want to get some bigger named guys… we would have small fee for DLC.

The Nick Aldis/NWA commercial that Mike references can be found in this tweet

I couldn’t find an official YouTube version, sorry

Due to the recent changes at Twitter, we are unable to embed tweets at this time. We apologise for the inconvenience.

What Formats Will It Be Released For?

MikeH:

All of ’em. So we are approved for Switch, PS4, Xbox One, and Steam.

’nuff said, I suppose.

MikeH:

As far as a release date: July 14th is the release date we’re shooting towards. But I’ll preface that with saying, "It’ll be done when it’s done"

Can I Pre-order?

In short: yes.

MikeH:

We are available for pre-orders right now … on the Switch and Steam. On our website we have a $5 discount for pre-orders. And then we’ll be on all e-shops for pre-order when we’re 30 days out.

So right now it’s just on our website, but once we’re 30 days out we’ll be on Nintendo eShop, and Steam Store, and PS4 Store, and Xbox One Store.

External Links of Interest

• Support us on Ko-Fi
• Our Facebook page
• Us on Twitter
• 10 Worst WCW ‘On A Pole’ Matches

  seriously, that actually happened

• Glossary of professional wrestling terms
• RetroMania Wrestling
• MAME on WikiPedia
• Mugen fighting engine

Music

Links to the music used in the podcast can be found below. Definitely check them out, because they're amazing tracks by awesome musicians.

• Intro music is Behind the Lines by Ian Sutherland
• Spoiler Break music is Spectrum (Subdiffusion Mix) by Foniqz (BandCamp)
• Pallet Cleanser music is Breath Deep Breath Clear (Wu Chi) by Siobhan Dakay
• Outro Music is I N e e d Y o u 私の側て by G.H (removed from BandCamp)