The Classic PC Gaming Era (1977-1989) - Sgt. Slaughter’s Mat Wars
Is it a cartoonish wrestling game or a management sim? I’m not sure, but it’s interesting!
RELEASE DATE: 1989
DEVELOPER / PUBLISHER: Beam Software / Mindscape
PLAYABILITY TODAY: Fairly playable
BEST VERSIONS: Commodore 64
If you were a kid growing up in North America in the 1980s, chances are good you had at least a passing familiarity with Sgt. Slaughter, the drill instructor-style wrestler who was as famous for his Cobra Clutch signature move as he was for his various media appearances in everything from The Super Mario Bros. Super Show to the G.I. Joe television show and animated film to a monster truck rally where he battled the famous vehicle Bigfoot. He released a rock album. He had his own G.I. Joe action figure. He developed a famous rivalry with another wrestler called the Iron Sheik, a popular heel who’d already launched Hulk Hogan to stardom. He was, at least in the mid-1980s, a pretty big deal.
That’s why it’s not terribly surprising that Melbourne House and its Beam Software imprint (already famous for their Way of the Exploding Fist, Bop’N Wrestle and Bad Street Brawler fighting and brawling games) was behind a wrestling game starring Sgt. Slaughter as a mascot, and it’s also not surprising that the game is actually pretty fun once you take the time to master its surprisingly tough learning curve. What did surprise me is that this game was only published on the Commodore 64 at the very tail end of the 1980s; it must have had a limited appeal outside of North America, because while it certainly seems like the sort of game that would have at least been ported to the NES or Sega Genesis, its high-quality graphics and sound also suggest it might have been a great fit for the Amiga or Atari ST if the audience had only been there.
Whatever the case may be, I was surprised to find that Sgt. Slaughter’s Mat Wars, which would seem from the license to be about raucous action, is instead a combination of a management sim and an arcade-style wrestling game. You begin by selecting a manager from a stock of five caricatures. One’s a former wrestler who’s known for being a terribly nice guy. One’s the son of a middle eastern oil family who’s always hiding his face from the cameras. One’s a charismatic gambler who’s trying to stay one step ahead of the police. One’s a blonde bombshell who tries to manipulate other managers into making big bets. And one’s a jerk whose own mother even despises him.
After selecting a manager, you proceed to an auction to purchase a wrestler’s contract with your starting funds. It’s important to pay a fair price for whomever you’re going to get since you need at least $1,000 to participate in a match, but your first guy is going to be a weakling no matter what and he’s going to get weaker every time he’s up for auction, so it seems to be best to just grab the first wrestler you see at as high of a price as you can afford. You win money by winning fights, and before the match, you can make bets of up to $500 with other managers and try to fix other fights if you want to keep someone good from rising through the ranks.
The controls, as I mentioned, require a real learning curve because they’re a bit different from any other game that I’ve played. You can move with the joystick or launch attacks with a combination of the joystick and depressing the fire button, but the moves you have available depend upon the context. You begin with basic Level 1 moves, but once you hit an opponent three times within a short amount of time, they stagger and you can begin a Level 2 move like a body slam, pile driver or toss into the ropes. Depending upon which of those moves you choose, you can then chain a Level 3 or Level 4 move that does some more serious damage. My first dozen or so matches, I got absolutely walloped by the computer opponent, and it took me quite awhile to realize that I needed to time my moves carefully and plan out what I wanted to do. Once I got it down, the game got much easier, but it was definitely frustrating up to that point. (Reading the manual helped me a lot as well!)
The matches progress through three arenas: the Bullpit, Wrestle World and the Coliseum. There are eight wrestlers to battle (sadly, Sgt. Slaughter is not one of them), and the game ends when you either run out of money or fight your way to the top. The management aspect of the game is really about maximizing your funds and making things easier on your wrestler through fixing key match-ups; the wrestling part of the game doesn’t change from wrestler to wrestler but is varied enough to provide some fun.
Part of what makes Sgt. Slaughter’s Mat Wars endearing is its presentation, which includes great graphics and catchy (though repetitive) soundtrack. It’s not quite as accessible as some of the other wrestling games of the era, but it’s deep enough to have some replay value that the arcade-like titles of the era lacked. Even if Sgt. Slaughter’s inclusion seems more like a marketing gimmick than a necessary facet of the game, it’s amusing to see him comment on your matches, and the overall tone of the game is light without being silly. One detail I enjoyed was the backgrounds, which depict disinterested audiences in grimy locales – a nice counterpoint to the usual roaring crowds and clean rings seen in most wrestling games. If you can stand to be challenged by the controls for a bit, Sgt. Slaughter’s Mat Wars is worth the trouble to find and play.
As Our Series Continues…
In the coming weeks, we’ll talk about fighting games, gameroom games, puzzle games, unusual games and so much more.
And while you’ll definitely see some titles from prominent North American publishers like Sierra On-Line, Infocom, Activision, Electronic Arts, Brøderbund, SSI, MicroProse, Lucasfilm Games, Epyx and Sir-Tech in the mix, you’ll also see references to games from the United Kingdom, Australia, France, Spain and Japan.
If you’ve missed the earlier entries in the series, which cover ASCII games, adventure games, wargames, strategy games and role-playing games, you can find the entire archive at https://greatestgames.substack.com.
Anything I don’t share here will be in my upcoming book, tentatively titled The Greatest Games You (Probably) Never Played Vol. 1. Subscribe to this newsletter so you won’t miss it!