Virtual Pro Wrestling FAQ (N64 import) Version 1.1 July 3, 1999 By LockeJV fallenlocke@aol.com This FAQ is written for www.gamefaqs.com. If you're not viewing this here, you do not have the most updated version. Version 1.1 update: added some more wrestlers and moves. Contents 1. Introduction 2. Gameplay 3. Wrestler List, Hidden Wrestlers 4. Wrestler Strategies for the Major Players 5. Credits 1. Introduction Virtual Pro Wrestling contains 110 wrestlers, including some boxers and UFC shoot fighters. Including guys like Hogan, Andre, Inoki, Ali, Ken Shamrock, Thunder Liger, Mike Tyson and Misawa, Virtual Pro offers the best selection in any wrestling game ever. Even though the game is an import, you can change each wrestler's name from Japanese text to English text. Each wrestler has tons of moves and counters; I would bet this game has more moves than any other wrestling game. Many of the moves are unique to each wrestler. Because of the deep wrestler selection and move pool, this is my favorite wrestling game. As far as gameplay goes, only WCW Revenge has an edge; but Revenge's wrestler selection does not even begin to compare. If you are a fan of Japanese wrestling, this game is a must have. Everyone you can think of is in this game, and all of their moves are here. From Muta's mist to Misawa's tiger driver '91, everything is included. This is one wrestling game you won't complain about things being left out. The game is an import, so you need a converter to play it on your N64. The converter runs around 10 dollars, and it works very simply. Just plug the game cart into the converter cart, and then pop the game in like you normally would. It works the same way the 32x did on the old Sega. You can get the game and the converter at www.gamebros.com or www.buyrite1.com, and it will cost you around 70 dollars for the converter and the game. --------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. Gameplay Virtual Pro plays exactly the same as nWo's Revenge, but Virtual Pro came out earlier so some of the features are missing. If you haven't played Revenge, check the Revenge gamefaq to learn how to play. I will list the differences, and then a few things you might not have picked up from playing Revenge. Differences from Revenge: Battle Royal mode only has four wrestlers. No other wrestlers come out. There is no interference feature (thank God) or managers (ditto). You can't run with a foreign object (chair, table, bat, etc) or take it into the ring. 'L' button turns your opponent on the mat over. 'C-down' button pins your opponent. When grappling, you cannot tap the 'L' button to get behind your opponent. This is a huge difference from Revenge. The reason is the moves from behind in this game are very devastating, and the matches would be over too quickly. All the double team moves from Revenge are here. To get your opponent on your shoulders, you need to grapple from behind and press the 'C-up' button. Then your partner can climb to the top and clothesline your opponent off your shoulders. Sometimes your guys will do a spiked piledriver instead of a double powerbomb. I don't know if the spiked piledriver is in revenge. Secrets Hold down 'Z' to access hidden wrestlers after you have unlocked them. To kick out from any pinfall, tap the 'L' and 'R' button while moving your joystick up and down. You can never get pinned if you do this early in the count. To break out of any submission, repeating move (series of knees to the face), or extended move (hanging suplex), tap the 'L' and 'R' button while moving your joystick up and down. Don't wiggle it too quickly or it won't work. If you're beat up, you'll submit immediately and this will not stop you from tapping out. To prevent being KO'd, as your character is struggling to get up, tap you're A and B buttons rapidly. This helps, but doesn't always prevent the KO. To reverse your opponents striking or running move (kick, punch, clothesline, etc), tap your 'R' button at the latest possible moment before you get hit. Simply holding your 'R' button is not a good way to get a reversal. The later you tap your 'R' button before getting hit, the more likely you'll reverse the move. To snap your opponent's hands away when he tries to grab you, tap the 'L' button at the latest possible moment. It's the same principle as the reversal. This leaves your opponent defenseless long enough for you to get a short grapple in When you are groggy, or your opponent is picking you up off the mat, or going for a submission, tap the 'R' button rapidly. Sometimes you'll kick him off you or reverse his grapple. These timely reversals often decide the victor. To steal your opponent's special move, your spirit meter must be up. Do a light or strong grapple (does NOT matter), and press the 'A' and 'B' button at the same time. Use this to your advantage using the light grapple. **IMPORTANT SECRET** To run directly at your opponent, press the C-down button WITHOUT touching your D-pad. Then press 'A' to do a running move. If you run towards your opponent using your D-pad and the C-down button, you will do a different move. This is really important to know when using Misawa. His C-down without touching the D-pad is his elbow smash, perhaps the strongest running move in the entire game. This is also important to know when you daze your opponent with a punch or kick. Just press the C-down button, don't worry about directing yourself with the D-Pad. You'll hit every time this way. The previous trick also works when your opponent is on the ground. This is important when using Bruiser Brody, because you can do his running knee drop, his finisher when he was alive. To throw your opponent off the top rope, go into the corner, push your D-pad towards him, and press your 'A' button as he gets to the top. When you are on the outside of the ring apron and your opponent is on the inside, grab him over the ropes. You can find really awesome moves, such as Hakushi's rope walk, Kawada's power bomb off the apron to the floor, and Taue's chokeslam off the apron to the floor. When you are on the outside of the ring apron and your opponent is on the floor, run and then hit A. Some wrestlers will somersault off the apron onto your opponent. WHEN YOUR SPECIAL IS UP: When your special is up, shoot fighters can throw guys into the ropes and go off the top rope. Some wrestlers also have a special off the top rope move. Example, Vader can only do his moonsault in the ring when his special is up. To do this, also make sure your opponent is on his back, and his feet are pointing to the turnbuckles next to the ones you are going to jump off of. -------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. Wrestler List (thanks to dave@simplenet.com and bobb@airmail.net for some help) **Remember to hold down 'Z' to access hidden wrestlers League One: Wrestling Legends Left side: Antonio Inoki (M. Ali, M. Tyson, Andrew Gollatta) Giant Baba, Giant Zebra Rickson Gracie Terry Funk Tiger Mask (Kuniaki Kobayashi) Mil Mascaras Rikidozan Andre the Giant, Giant Machine Right Side: Seji Sakaguchi Bruiser Brody Maurice Smith, Gerard Gordeau, Andy Hug Dory Funk Jr. Dynamite Kid Dos Caras The Destroyer Manami Toyota ** Win a belt with Inoki to unlock Ali and Tyson and Drago ** Win a belt with Tiger Mask to unlock Kobayashi ** Win IWGP cruiserweight with Tiger Mask after all other legends unlocked to get Dynamite Kid (I'm pretty sure this is how I got Dynamite Kid) ------------------------------------------------------------------ League Two: WCW Left side Sting Lex Lugar Rick Steiner Diamond Dallas Page Dean Malenko Chris Benoit, Wild Pegasus, Pegasus Kid Right Side Ric Flair The Giant or The Big Show Scott Steiner Steven Regal Rey Mysterio Jr. Eddie Guerrero, The Black Tiger **Win WCW to unlock Andre. Win with Andre to unlock Manami Toyota -------------------------------------------------------------------- League 3: NWO Left Side Hollywood Hogan Kevin Nash Scott Norton Randy Savage Right Side Eric Bischoff Scott Hall Buff Bagwell Syxx or X-Pac ------------------------------------------------------------------- League 4, NJPW (IWGP) Left Side Ricki Chosu Tatsumi Fujinami Shinya Hashimoto (Naoya Ogawa) Keiji Mutoh (Great Muta) Masahiro Chono Jushin Liger Shinjiro Ohtani Right Side Kensuke Sasaki (Power Warrior) Shiro Koshinaka Junji Hirata, Super Strong Machine Kazuo Yamazaki Hiroyoshi Tenzan El Samurai Koji Kanemoto, Tiger Mask III **Win NJPW to unlock Inoki **Win NJPW cruiser to unlock Tiger Mask **Win NJPW tag to unlock Antonio Inoki and Seji Sakaguchi **Win NJPW to with Mutoh to unlock Muta, Do the same w/ Hashimoto and Sasaki. ------------------------------------------------------------------ League 5, Empire Wrestling Federation (All Japan Pro Wrestling) Left Side Mitsuharu Misawa, Tiger Mask II Toshiaki Kawada Kenta Kobashi Jumbo Tsuruta Steve Williams Stan Hansen Right Side Jun Akiyama Akira Taue Johnny Ace Masanobu Fuchi Gary Albright Hiroshi Hase **Win Empire to unlock Giant Baba **Win Empire tag to unlock Giant Baba and Bruiser Brody ----------------------------------------------------------------- League 6, World of Universe (UFC, Pancrase, UWF, RINGS) Left side: Nobuhiko Takada Yoji Anjoh Akira Maeda Volk Han Masakatsu Funaki Ken Shamrock Right Side: Masahito Kakaihara Yoshihiro Takayama Yoshi Yamamoto Dick Vrij Minoru Suzuki, ?????????????? (if you know who this other guy is, please mail me!!) Bas Rutten **Win WOU to unlock Rickson Gracie **Win WOU with Gracie to unlock Maurice Smith ------------------------------------------------------------------- League 7, Dead or Alive Wrestling (FMW, IWA, WAR) Left Side: Genichiro Tenryu Koji Kitao, Koji with really cool sunglasses Atsushi Onita, W*ING Kanemura Samson Fuyuki Big Van Vader, Bam Bam Bigelow, Aja Kong (female) Abdullah the Butcher, Kamala or Kimala II Right Side Ultimo Dragon Tarzan Goto Hayabusa Jado, Gedo Hawk, Animal or the Road Warriors Tiger Jeet Singh **Win DOA to unlock Terry Funk **Win DOA tag to unlock Terry and Dory Funk --------------------------------------------------------------------- League 8 (Michinoku Pro) Left side: Great Sasuke Super Delfin TAKA Michinoku Shoji Tanako, Great Zebra Right Side: Jinsei Shinzaki, Hakushi Gran Naniwa Dick Togo, Men's Teoh or Kaientai Yoshiaki Fujiwara **Win to unlock Dos Caras **Win tag to unlock Dos Caras and Mil Mascaras -------------------------------------------------------------------- IV. Wrestler Strategy: The major players The following will critique the wrestlers who I feel are the major players in the game. Misawa: As in the pro wrestling world, Misawa might be the most devastating wrestler in the game. With his rolling elbow and running elbow smash, few can match up to his ability to KO. His Tiger Driver '91 (special) is effective out of a ten hit combo, against the computer, or someone who doesn't know the kick-out secret. His running elbow smash may be the most devastating move in the game, because of the speed he gets the move off, and the ability to follow up with a tiger suplex. He also has a chain of moves that is the most devastating in the game: irish whip into rolling elbow (stuns opponent), running elbow smash, strong underhook backdrop suplex. All three of these moves are great KO moves, and usually your opponent can't escape the combo. A few of these and it's over. Weakness: dragon sleepers (especially from Kawada), and rolling elbow counters from guys w/ power bombs. Rickson Gracie: 500+ and 0 in real life shoot fighting, Gracie is very tough. Great reversal skills, a really tricky step in punch with great range, and excellent submission skills. Gracie has the short choke from behind which is very powerful. My second choice. Weakness: his special from the front is an armlock submission, not good. Sasake / Power Warrior: His power bomb and arm drag suplex are perfect setups for his strangle hold submission, maybe the third most effective submission in the game (behind Kawada's sleeper and Yoji's ankle lock). Sasake also has a very strong clothesline. If you can irish whip your opponent, follow up with a running clothesline, the arm drag suplex, or his choke into the strangle hold. Each of these moves is incredibly devastating. His brainbuster special is among the most effective finishers in the game. If you can get one off early, you can usually do two more to follow for the KO or setup for the strangle hold submission. Weakness: when your opponent steals your finisher. Akira Maeda: Best special in the game, period (series of about ten kicks). His special is almost an auto KO. If your spirit is up and it's more than a minute into the match, and you land the ten hit combo followed by his special, game is over. His short takedown moves are pretty powerful too. His standing strong kick is deadly, and his rolling strong kick will bloody your opponent half the time. Maeda is my third choice. Weakness: lack of powerful strong grapple moves, but he doesn't really need to use them. Just use his kicks and his combo. Bas Rutten: This guy has the best stand alone combo IMO. Do the five quick left hands to the face (super fast) followed by the straight fist or an overhead belly to belly. The belly to belly leaves you in good position to start right off with another combo, you can usually always do two in a row. Bas' straight fist is super deadly, use this to KO your opponent. If your spirit is up, ten quick lefts and the straight fist usually mean KO. His running tiki boot is a great compliment to his straight fist, when it stuns. His short double leg takedown slam is powerful, and can KO too. Weakness: doesn't have the best stamina. Jushin Liger: Probably the best cruiserweight. Has a power bomb, two variations of a brainbuster, and his palm strike is just as deadly as it is IRL. His short tombstone gives him the edge over all the other cruiserweights. Use this to set up the power bomb, or the palm strike in the corner. Just don't overuse the tombstone, it'll get reversed, and then your ass is grass. Weakness: he's a cruiser, but probably the best of them. And his special is horrible (running ligerbomb). Ricky Chosu: Probably the best guy for reversals in the game. Computer grants you super cheese reversals, can frustrate to give psychological edge. Of course, his clothesline is his best move, totally KO. Has a great short vertical suplex, where your opponent grabs his back after the move. This sucks a lot of energy for a short. I think he has a brainbuster too, but all his strong moves drain. Deadly clothesline from the back too. Weakness: if you can't hit with the clothesline, you're toast. Jun Akiyama: Speed and stamina. Jun is by no means among the most powerful, but he plays incredibly well. His running forearm is the quickest running move in the game. Use this to nail your opponent many many times to get the advantage. When your opponent misses with a kick, you can nail him with this. Just be careful not to let this move get countered too much. The few times I've lost with Jun were all from him tapping after this got countered. Stamina: Jun is super tough. He might not look it in his baby blue outfit, but he is tough to KO. It seems he always gets up, even after countless power bombs. I'd have to say Jun has the best stamina of everyone I've used, he always gets up it seems. Utilize his Jun-plex, probably his most effective strong move, and follow with the knee drop to the throat. This combo won't KO, but it sucks your opponent's spirit up. It looks cool too. Jun matches take long, but his speed and stamina will let you outlast your opponent. Get your special up, and KO with his double belly to back for the win. Weakness: running forearm getting countered. This move is easy to overuse. Antonio Inoki: Inoki is hard to use, but he has the best short move in the game (along with Gracie and Funaki). Sadly, the move can only be done from behind. What I'm talking about is his short choke down. This move is the same damage as a power bomb, and you can usually do a few in a row. Inoki's problem is his submissions when your opponent is on the mat suck. He goes after the arms; but most of his moves focus on the head, so it's tough to get a submission. Play to get your special up and use a ten hit into his four strike special for the KO. Use the short choke down from behind to KO too. His spirit meter will jump up really quickly, he probably has the best spirit meter in the game next to Abdullah. Weakness: Inoki's striking moves are all awkward, he always delays before landing the blow, giving your opponent time to block, or hit you first. And his lack of a submission to the head really lowers his effectiveness. Getting a submission from the arms is really tough. Hogan: Okay, Hogan sucks pretty much IRL, but he's very powerful in this game. His ichiban clothesline and camel clutch combo rocks. Use this combo five times, and you win the match. If you can't throw your opponent into the ropes, you may have problems. His quick running knee smash is nice. His standing punch is powerful, has decent reversal skills, and good spirit meter. Weakness: has no KO grapple moves, his special is horrible. Yoji Anjoh: I step on your foot! Yoji's foot stomping earns him the quickest submission victories of anyone in the game. Land two five-hit foot stomp combos, and your opponent is holding his leg. Yoji has three submission holds he can use on the feet, one from a standing grapple which is nice. Probably his best submission is the ankle lock when your opponent is face down on the mat. If you get your spirit up, ten-hit the foot, do the ankle lock and the match is over. Yoji has good kicks and the shoulder block. Use these to set up for the foot stomp combo. Weakness: no good grapple moves. Rikidozen: Legend Rikodozen is the man responsible for puroresu, or Japanese wrestling. Rikodozen trained Baba, and influenced Baba and Inoki, and pretty much put wrestling on the map over there. Rikidozen is very powerful, his punches and clothesline can KO. He has a great dragon sleeper, and a good chokeslam. He's good for reversals and has a good spirit meter. All around great balance, few guys can compete with him. Get his spirit up, ten hit a combo, and use the chokeslam into the dragon sleeper for the win. His special, the piledriver, hasn't been very effective for me. Wear your opponent down by using the headscissors into the dragon sleeper at the beginning of the match. Weakness: none. Kawada: Kawada is one of the more brutal wrestlers in the game. He is crazy on reversals, does not like to have moves done to him. His dragon sleeper is incredibly effective. Use his combo kicks to the face into the brainbuster to set up the sleeper. You can use his clothesline to KO. When your special is up, ten hit into the brainbuster, and dragon sleeper for the win. Kawada's kicks look really cool and powerful, but for some strange reason they don't KO, so don't use them. If you're going for the KO, use the back drop suplexes and the clothesline. Weakness: striking moves don't KO. Vader: Vader is perhaps the most powerful offensive character in the game. But defensively he's a big slouch. Most of his short moves are equivalent to strongs (especially his short clothesline). Use the short clothesline eary, you can usually follow up with two or three from the start. Then just powerbomb until KO. If your opponent isn't reversing your moves, your opponent is dead. He is one of the few characters who can combo into a powerbomb, a very deadly series. If you can ten hit into his special powerbomb, match is over, no questions asked. Vader has a super killer right hand, which can really wear down your opponent or even KO him. And his running splash can KO too, but it's easily reversed. Weakness: If your opponent steals your special you're in deep trouble. Can only do his in the ring moonsault when his spirit is up. Nevertheless, Vader is my first choice. Too powerful. Abdullah: This guy is all about spirit, and the flame. Abdullah has the coolest special in the game – the fireball. It torches your opponents face and chest, and a few of them will KO. And once you get hit with one fireball, you'll get hit with two more (unless you can L-snap his hands back). Abdullah has a good shoulder block, and a really cool short move: he nails you in the throat with a chop, and does a cada while you squirm around on the mat clutching your neck. What makes Abdullah even more deadly is his spirit meter is the most berserk in the game. Late in the match (if you're lucky enough to survive that far), his meter pretty much goes up all the way after he does anything. My only suggestion is run out of the ring, wait for the meter to calm down, and hope to nail him with a strong KO move before it goes back up again. Weakness: Abdullah doesn't have any grapple moves that KO. You have to depend on your special (which normally isn't a problem). V. Credits This FAQ is Copyright 1999 by LockeJV. Contact me at fallenlocke@aol.com if you have any suggestions or questions, or any cool strategies you think you'd beat me with. Just make sure your gameplay questions aren't addressed in a WCW World Tour or WCW Revenge FAQ. Use this FAQ as you please in its entirety, just give www.gamefaqs.com credit. Check back for updates.