Tag Team Wrestling, known in Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

 as , is a arcade

Video arcade

An amusement arcade or video arcade is a venue where people play arcade games such as video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games, merchandisers , or coin-operated billiards or air hockey tables...

 video game published by Data East

Data East

also abbreviated as DECO, was a Japanese video game developer and publisher. The company was in operation from 1976 to 2003, when it declared bankruptcy...

 and developed by Technōs Japan.

Gameplay

In the game, two professional wrestling

Professional wrestling

Professional wrestling is a mode of spectacle, combining athletics and theatrical performance.Roland Barthes, "The World of Wrestling", Mythologies, 1957 It takes the form of events, held by touring companies, which mimic a title match combat sport...

 tag-teams, the Strong Bads and the Ricky Fighters, battle against each other in tag-team action, or a single player competes in a series of tournaments to win ever larger trophies.

Due to being one of the earliest professional wrestling video games, Tag Team Wrestling has a limited number of wrestling moves and characters. Moves and counters are performed through the use of a real-time, menu-based action-reaction fighting module. After engaging in a grapple, players quickly scroll through a menu and choose a technique to perform. Each of the four characters has a unique move that can only be used against one other "rival" wrestler.

Ports and related releases

In 1984, the arcade game was ported to the Apple 2, Commodore 64

Commodore 64

The Commodore 64 is an 8-bit home computer introduced by Commodore International in January 1982.Volume production started in the spring of 1982, with machines being released on to the market in August at a price of US$595...

 and IBM PC

IBM PC

The IBM Personal Computer, commonly known as the IBM PC, is the original version and progenitor of the IBM PC compatible hardware platform. It is IBM model number 5150, and was introduced on August 12, 1981...

 in the United States by Quicksilver Software

Quicksilver Software

Quicksilver Software, Inc. was founded in 1984 by three Intellivision programmers from Mattel Electronics. Two of the three, William Fisher and Stephen Roney, currently work there...

. U.S. Gold

U.S. Gold

U.S. Gold was a British video game publisher and developer from the early 1980s through the mid-1990s, producing numerous titles on a variety of 8-bit, 16-bit and 32-bit platforms.-History:...

 released the title in Europe for the IBM PC in 1986 and the Commodore 64 in 1987

On April 2, 1986, the arcade game was ported to the Family Computer

Nintendo Entertainment System

The Nintendo Entertainment System is an 8-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America during 1985, in Europe during 1986 and Australia in 1987...

 by Sakata SAS, a company which also developed the Family Computer versions of Karnov

Karnov

is a 1987 platform arcade game developed and published by Data East. It is the debut of Data East's mascot of the same name. After Data East became defunct due to bankruptcy in 2003, Paon, a company comprised with former Data East staff, acquired the rights to Karnov, along with multiple other Data...

and BurgerTime

Burgertime

is a 1982 arcade game created by Data East for its DECO Cassette System. The game's original title, Hamburger, was changed to BurgerTime before its introduction to the US. The player is chef Peter Pepper, who must walk over hamburger ingredients located across a maze of platforms while avoiding...

. It was published in Japan by Namcot as . In North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

, this version was released on October the same year by Data East for the NES , keeping the Tag Team Wrestling title.

Critical reception

Seanbaby

Seanbaby

Sean Patrick Reiley , better known as Seanbaby, is an American writer best known for his comedy website and frequent contributions to video game media outlets Electronic Gaming Monthly and 1UP.com. He is also a regular contributor to the humor website Cracked.com...

 lists Tag Team Wrestling as the fourth-worst NES game ever. 1up.com

1UP.com

1UP.com is a video game website owned by IGN Entertainment, a division of News Corporation. Previously, the site was owned by Ziff Davis before being sold to UGO Entertainment in 2009....

, on the other hand, credits it with introducing the tag-team concept to video games and hails it as a major innovation.

Pop culture

• The Strong Bads provided the basis for the character Strong Bad
  Strong Bad
  Strong Bad is one of the major characters of the Homestar Runner series of animated Flash web cartoons. He is portrayed by Matt Chapman, the principal voice actor and co-founder of the series. Strong Bad enjoys pranking the other characters of the series, along with his ever-diligent lackey pet...
  
   on the popular Homestar Runner
  Homestar Runner
  Homestar Runner is a Flash animated Internet cartoon. It mixes surreal humor with references to retro pop culture, notably video games, classic television, and popular music.The cartoons are nominally centered on the title character, Homestar Runner...
  
  website, which abounds with obscure 1980s popular culture references.

External links

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• Tag Team Wrestling at arcade-history