Retro Replay Review

Gameplay

The first few matches can feel like you are wrestling the game as much as your opponent. Zen-Nihon Pro Wrestling Featuring Virtua has basic attacks and holds, but the D-pad can modify them, and it also includes taunts and counter moves. That gives it more moving parts than a simple strike-and-grapple wrestler. If you jump straight into competitive play, expect some awkward experimentation before you understand what your inputs are producing.

Stick with it, though, because the move variety gives bouts a welcome sense of escalation. You are not limited to throwing the same safe attacks over and over; holds, counters, and targeted punishment encourage you to think about how a match is developing. The injury system is especially effective here. When accumulated damage triggers an X-ray view of the affected body part, it turns a successful stretch of offense into something you can immediately read rather than just a shrinking pool of invisible health.

The Virtua Fighter connection is more than title decoration: Wolf and Jeffrey are playable alongside the All Japan Pro Wrestling roster. That crossover makes the game an unusual curiosity for Sega fighting-game fans, while the licensed wrestlers keep the focus rooted in pro wrestling. Training mode is essential rather than optional, and multiplayer is where the counterplay has the best chance to shine once both people know the basics.

Graphics

Everything is rendered in 3D, with the action shown from changing camera perspectives rather than a fixed side-on view. The X-ray injury interruptions are the clearest visual flourish: seeing the damaged section of a wrestler’s body gives the game’s injury model a blunt, memorable payoff.

Story

This is built around the All Japan Pro Wrestling license and match-to-match competition, not a story campaign. Its character comes from the roster: real-promotion wrestlers sharing ring space with Wolf and Jeffrey is an oddball Sega crossover that remains the game’s most immediate narrative hook.

That means you should come in wanting bouts and rivalries you create for yourself, not scripted drama. A single match can still tell a small story through mounting damage, a timely counter, or a comeback after one body part has taken repeated punishment.

The real-world wrestling basis adds some grounding, while the Virtua Fighter guests add just enough unreality to make the roster memorable. It is a simple premise, but it suits a game whose identity lives in the ring.

Overall Experience

Zen-Nihon Pro Wrestling Featuring Virtua is not the easiest wrestling game to appreciate in its first hour. Its input variations and counters ask you to learn the system, and the changing camera means it does not promise the instant clarity of a fixed-view fighter. Give training mode honest time before deciding whether it is for you.

Once the controls begin to click, the game’s best idea is its commitment to cumulative damage. The X-ray reports make repeated offense feel consequential, and the larger move selection gives you reasons to vary your approach. Matches can feel less like aimless exchanges and more like contests where you are trying to wear down a specific weakness.

Recommended for Sega Saturn wrestling fans, All Japan Pro Wrestling followers, and anyone curious about Wolf and Jeffrey outside Virtua Fighter. If you want immediate arcade simplicity, its learning curve may test your patience. If you enjoy digging into an older 3D combat system and taking that knowledge into multiplayer, this is a distinctive crossover worth a look.

Retro Replay Score

7.2/10