Total RecallTotal Recall is a look back at the history of video games through their characters, franchises, developers and trends. When we talk about obscure or “lost” games, we normally need to have known about them in the first place to know they were missing. It’s not often we see a case like this, where a collector buying a cartridge off a former Nintendo employee is the first time anyone has ever heard of a game.
YouTuber Stephan Reese, aka Archon 1981, has got hold of a copy of a wrestling game that was made during a very strange point in the sport’s history. It’s called UWC, which stands for Universal Wrestling Corporation, the placeholder name that was used by WCW (World Championship Wrestling) during its purchase by Ted Turner in 1988.
UWC was developed by the now-closed Japanese studio SETA, and is dated 1989 on the game’s title screen. Its roster of wrestlers includes Ric Flair, the Road Warriors and Sting, and it looks in pretty good shape for a game that was never even announced.
Reese says he bought it off a former Nintendo employee who was given the game for testing simply because he was a wrestling fan, and…that’s where it’s been for 30 years.
If you’re interested in playing the game, Reese says he’s going to dump the ROM online soon so that people can mess around with it.