Uploaded January 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

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A playthrough of NEC's 1990 wrestling game for the TurboGrafx-16, Battle Royale.

In this video, I begin by playing through the tournament mode as Mongo Kahn on the professional level. Following that, at 34:58, I do five single-match games, one for each character, on the amateur level.

Battle Royale was the sole wrestling game released for the TurboGrafx-16, and it was a North American exclusive. Instead of localizing one of the PC Engine's wrestling games, NEC looked to Incredible Technologies to create a brand new title for the western market. Incredible Technologies was an American company responsible for arcade games like Blood Storm, Time Killers, Street Fighter: The Movie (youtu.be/df0sXm8r8Tk), and Golden Tee Golf. Battle Royale was their first console game, and it was one of just three they released throughout the 90s. It was followed by American Gladiators for the NES (youtu.be/Xvp4IYTRq2o) and Time Killers for the Genesis.

This was one of those multiplayer TG16 games that sold itself on the allure of a TV-style presentation. It features a ton of full-screen cutscene images, the audio is driven by digitized samples, it has color out the wazoo, and it supports simultaneous five player play through a multitap.

You get your pick of five characters to take through either an exhibition match or a fifteen-round BRAWL (Battle Royale of America Wrestling League) tournament that culminates in a five-way free-for-all. In the exhibition mode, you always begin by racing (and beating up) the other managers for your pick of characters in the locker room, which was a really neat touch.

It starts out promising, but the action in the ring isn't as impressive as the window dressing. It's a simplistic throwback to the ho-hum button masher arcade wrestling games of the mid-80s. There are too few animation frames for each move, and you can't grapple, climb the turnbuckle, leave the ring, or even pin your opponent. The only way to win is to toss or launch them over the top rope. It's not without its fun - Battle Royale is perfect for ten minutes of mindless fun with a friend - but there aren't enough characters to keep things interesting, and the controls are ridiculous. Button I is for high hits, II for low hits, I+II for body blows, and Select is used as a shift key to trigger an alternate moveset. Special moves are done with Select+left/right, you recharge your energy with Select+up, and to pick someone up, you have to hit I+II+up. It's somehow even less intuitive and responsive than WWF Wrestlemania was on the NES (youtu.be/GpDi-8B7_nQ), but like that game, it can become entertaining after enough time spent to learn it. I don't think it really warrants that level of effort, but I had some fun with it. If you're a lover of old wrestling games, it might be worth a try.

For me, the real highlight was the gratuitous use of the Wilhelm scream. It's just as epic here as it was in the NES American Gladiators game, and I never tire of hearing it.
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.

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