Release Date: 1985-11-08 Website: Back in 2009, one of the gold carts popped up on Japan’s Yahoo Auctions site, and sold for a whopping 921,000円 (roughly $10K USD). The Bad Game Hall of Fame is dedicated to giving bad games the due process they deserve. Vivamus ultrices sed ligula ut congue. Tose returned to develop Kinnikuman II-Sei: Dream Tag Match for the WonderSwan Color in 2002; which recreated the gameplay of the original Famicom title while featuring a new cast of characters from the Kinnikuman Nisei series, and which even included a port of the original game as secret content. At a certain point, I reckon it’s impossible for the North American audience to appreciate Tag Team Match: M.U.S.C.L.E. His nickname is "Berlin's Green Arrow", as he wears a green uniform and bicyclist's helmet. They’re full of natural sounding English! If your opponent has a special that requires close range to initiate, you can attempt to keep your distance from them — which is made ever more difficult by the fact that the booster ball also grants increased speed to wrestlers. Tag Team Match: MUSCLE - speedrun.com. As such, matches basically come down to rapid button mashing while chasing your opponent, occasionally landing flat on your ass after failed aerials, and contending against an opponent following much the same playbook. You can just go ahead and pick your favorite characters if you happen to have them. © 2021 GAMESPOT, A RED VENTURES COMPANY. What’s worthy of note here is the fact that in North America – without the manga [or then-ongoing anime] to provide any sort of context – none of the 236 characters depicted in the toy line had so much as names given to them; save for rechristening Kinnikuman as ‘Muscle Man,’ and antagonist Buffaloman as ‘Teri-Bull.’ As a matter of fact, the whole endeavor for manufacturing and distributing the miniature figures was fairly low-rent: They initially all came in the same shade of flesh-tone plastic, boasted zero articulation (save for the slight flexibility of their rubbery material), and were sold in packaging made to resemble literal trash cans. It’s also a game which seems to be almost entirely unknown to the English-speaking internet, and only barely acknowledged within Japan. Lucky for me (for the purposes of this website), those games do end up being pretty lousy more often than not — especially titles hailing from the 8-bit era. This may at least elevate the gameplay to the level of the basic-most competitive brawler possible, where you could maybe squeeze some small amount of entertainment value out of it. An exceedingly rare Gold Cartridge Editionwas produced with a somewhat different character roster. An orphan, he was raised by an elderly couple, who were subsequently slain by a trio of anti-superhuman thugs. Platforms. At the same time, it does feature a more impressively-rendered cast of characters, and more straightforward interpretation of wrestling gameplay. Description. And if you get rid of those, you’re ultimately left with a pretty bare-bones affair; offering little in the way of variety (of characters, arenas, or stipulations), allotting for a bare minimum of moves, and generally playing out as one of the clunkier takes on the performance art that is wrestling. These games may well have been able to boast wider ranges of attacks, maneuvers incorporating the ring posts, outside-the-ropes combat, and the ability to actually end matches by pinfall [rather than KOs exclusively]; but they also had the advantage of superior hardware on their side, and likely more time and resources allocated to their development. Punches are the most consistent to connect, but depending on your angle or distance, you can just as easily inadvertently push away or backdrop your opponent. You’re almost guaranteed to connect the hit and keep them off you for the duration of the power-up, because as it turns out any of the AI’s strategy goes out of the window when they get the booster ball in favour for making a straight beeline for you to end your career. The only good thing Tag Team Wrestling on the NES gave us was the name for Strong Bad. He’s also the rightful heir to the throne of Planet Kinniku, whose parents thought him so ugly that they at one point mistook him for a pig and tossed him out of a spaceship… but at some point, you have to accept that trying to describe the plot intricacies of a gag manga is a fool’s errand, and that it’s not even worth attempting. Fun fact: The Scramble for the Throne arc was not made into an anime until 1991! By the way, Hokuto no Gun’s subs for the Kinnikuman anime are great! But only those with the most M.U.S.C.L.E. And shortly upon grabbing this power-up, that wrestler can pretty effectively end the match in the following few seconds. That’s not a print ad. You’ll briefly see this neutral benefactor appear behind the apron before he sends the so-called ‘Booster Ball’ on its way; and once it’s in play, it’s up for grabs by either team. The only grappling attack at your disposal is a tricky-to-position backdrop, which rounds out your standard arsenal at a paltry five moves [of doom]. Through examining their history, reviewing their contents, and measuring their impact, we hope to bring about a better understanding of these oft-dismissed releases. 1 loop (3 matches) Guinness World Records: Regions. The Japanese release (Kinnikuman: Muscle Tag Match) ranks as one of their earliest involvements on the Famicom — releasing shortly before November 1985’s release of infamous “first kusogē” Ikki. Honestly, you’re both just killing time before you can perform your special techniques, and preparing for the inevitable mad dash when they are in play. Please log in or register to continue. Nintendo could’ve picked from a number of other already-released Famicom titles to localize earlier instead: We could’ve gotten one of Namco’s arcade conversions (Pac-Man, Xevious, Mappy or Galaga), Nintendo’s own F-1 Race, or Hudson Soft’s Nuts & Milk — the original third-party-developed game for the Famicom! Honestly, it’s by total fluke that the M.U.S.C.L.E. For the most part, Chōjin bear humanoid features and physiques, though you’ll also find the occasional character who embodies something like a living pyramid or anthropomorphic urinal. Remember: We’re talking about what began life as a humble gag manga, here. Also consider the fact that the launch of Muscle Tag Match in Japan was part of a steady stream of still-simplistic Famicom titles consistently trickling out, while North America received batches of new NES releases in sporadic bursts once every few months. By the way, there are two hacks out there that change the roster of this game to be more accurate to the Dream Tag Tournament arc, such as adding Neptuneman, Big the Budo and Kinnikuman Great and replacing Ramenman with his then-current ring name Mongolman. Ut sollicitudin, nibh quis tristique interdum, velit orci convallis tellus, vitae aliquet odio ipsum ut velit. While future wrestling games would iterate to include mechanics like elaborate button combos or charging special meters in order to unleash your most devastating moves, M.U.S.C.L.E. can at least claim a squash victory over its hapless rival. Perhaps Japan’s own NJPW? But only those with the most M.U.S.C.L.E. Tag Team Match – Game Genie Codes The following are known Game Genie Codes for M.U.S.C.L.E. takes a far more basic approach: Your ability to perform your special technique is governed by collecting a power-up orb, which the ringside ‘Trainer’ (Meat-kun in cameo role) will toss across the ring at random intervals during the match. The sound design could also be a whole lot worse too; featuring crowd noise that isn’t too grating, and a couple jaunty jingles that play between matches. In comparing the first two wrestling titles available for the hardware – which hit store shelves on the same day in North America – M.U.S.C.L.E. Personally, I’m partial to the team of Terryman and Geronimo; if only because they’re both studly hunks, and so that I can obnoxiously chant “U-S-A” during matches. With the world's tage team wrestling championship up for grabs, wrestlers have gathered to battle it out for this prestigious title. NES - M.U.S.C.L.E. Ask other GameFAQs users. Only eight cartridges were produced and none of the ROMs have been dumped for emulation. His parents separated (and eventually divorced). The end result is a release which not only fails to represent its source material, but which also fails to convey the basic concepts and conceits of wrestling. : Tag Team Match NES, NESClassic. And on account of this imbalance alone, the whole game is basically a bust: M.U.S.C.L.E. Honestly, the answer may as well be to just lay down and die, as there’s often no real recourse against your superpowered rivals. And as part of the grand prizes, the winners would receive a version of the game on a faux-gold cartridge — of which a total of just eight copies were produced. As it would turn out, the brand to lend their intellectual properties to this pioneering game – also representing the console’s first third-party release and first licensed title [in North America] – weren’t even involved in the business of the professional wrestling industry. Of course, if you’re already injured enough to where your speed is slowed / jumping is disabled, you may try desperately to crawl to your corner and tag in your fresher partner, so that they can eat the inevitable special attacks instead. Donec ullamcorper lacinia ornare. Of course, if they were available to be used at any given moment in the match, that wouldn’t make them very “special” now, would it? This also means that they won’t avoid any cheap rope jumps of yours, provided you keep your distance and not let them touch you first.