Mat Mania

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Mat Mania, released in 1985, is a wrestling arcade game by Technōs Japan and published by Taito. In Japan it was called Exciting Hour: The Pro Wrestling Network. It’s a follow‑up to Tag Team Wrestling and became a big hit in Japan and North America, notably as the top arcade conversion kit of 1986 in the U.S. An updated version, Mania Challenge (1986), added a two‑player mode.

Atari released a 1990 Atari 7800 port called Mat Mania Challenge, which mixes features from both games. The game was later ported to the X68000 by Denpa. In 2015 and 2019, Hamster Corporation re‑released it for PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch as Mat Mania Exciting Hour.

Gameplay is framed like a pro‑wrestling TV show. The player starts as a rookie and works through several colorful opponents to reach the champion in the fifth match. After winning, you receive a championship belt and must defend it against the previous five foes. The wrestler uses punches, kicks, throws, body slams, and other moves.

The game features a cast of themed opponents, such as the Mohawked Insane Warrior, a martial-arts fighter, Coco Savage the leopard-clad Wild Man, Pirania the masked cheat, and Blues Bloody the world champion inspired by Bruiser Brody/Hulk Hogan. Mania Challenge reduces the roster to three opponents plus the second player’s character and adds new counter moves.

Mat Mania has been kept alive through re-releases on modern platforms under the Arcade Archives label.