Konamicember- Let’s Get Into The Squared Circle In The Main Event!

Hey Arcaders!

We’re about three games from the conclusion of this three month journey- and it makes me sorta sad. But I know how to cheer myself up- Let’s talk about the best wrestling game outside of the WWE (of for us old timers- WWF) that you probably never played- but you should- THE MAIN EVENT!

Via Wikipedia-

The Main Event, known in Japan as Ringu no Ōja (リングの王者, “King of the Ring”), is a professional wrestling arcade game released by Konami in 1988. A player selects two different wrestlers as their tag team, and they wrestle another tag team. If the player wins, his team moves on to another match. If he loses, he gets an immediate rematch, since the game isn’t over until the player’s energy falls to zero. Some of the game’s most distinguishable features were an oversized “Action” button which would flash whenever an attack, grapple, submission or pin could be performed; and an enthusiastic announcer who introduced the wrestlers and called the action during matches. The Japanese version of the game (Ringu no Ouja) is notably different from its American counterpart in several ways: Players could only use Conan the Great and Kamikaze Ken as their wrestlers, there were three buttons (Attack, Grapple and Tag) instead of two (Action and Tag), the game only lasted five matches, and if completed, the remaining energy would add as points to the final score.

Every wrestler a player could choose from was a lookalike of a contemporary wrestler. Characters included El Condor (similar to El Canek), Conan the Great (Hulk Hogan with a full head of white hair), The Maui Mauler (similar to Haku), Kamikaze Ken (Ricky Steamboat with little to no alteration), San Antonio Smasher (very similar to Koko B. Ware), Saturn Six (whose look was similar to Demolition), Bigfoot Joe (King Kong Bundy with orange hair), and Alan The Empire (a red-haired, bearded André the Giant).

You have to defeat 15 tag teams to become champions. While becoming the top-ranked opponents for the Konami Wrestling Federation (KWF) tag team titles, when you win a match they will display a black and white picture of the team you choose (this is the announcer, and newspaper pic in between matches). However, once you become tag team champions, the picture will change to color. Also, they will count the amount of successful title defenses. When you lose, the count will stop until you get at least two wins in a row.