As Capcom was becoming more of a household name with Street Fighter II's success, they began to develop a connected universe among their games. Final Fight shares canon lore with Street Fighter, for example, Darkstalkers' Felicia and Morrigan make cameos in Ken's stage in SF Alpha 2, and Rival Schools years later sees guests crossover into SFV. It goes on forever. Saturday Night Slam Masters also takes place in the same timeline and universe with Street Fighter and Final Fight.  

Developed for arcades and ported to the SNES and Sega Genesis in 1994, Saturday Night Slam Masters (called Muscle Bomber in Japan) is a wrestling game that definitely has that very distinct Capcom feel. It borrows the CP-System engine that a lot of their games ran on at the time. With a roster of 8 different wrestlers and two boss opponents, this game was a cool departure from the standard wrestling games that existed during the period (most of the samey LJN WWF titles, for example). The action is fast, responsive, and hard-hitting, this made for a fun rental for me and my brothers. It was so cool seeing Mike Haggar, pitting him against Jumbo Flapjack is the closest I can get to pitting Zangief and the Mayor of Metro City in a good old hoss fight.

The art and character designs are from Fist of the North Star manga artist Tetsuo Hara, giving each wrestler a notable striking appearance. I was getting into anime around this age, so the "Japanimation" style was very influential to me, with the exaggerated physiques and bombastic use of solid colors, shading, and composition. Amazing to think how the art style and tropes have become so ingrained in American culture and entertainment.

Saturday Night Slam Masters controls well. It takes a little bit of practice, but it plays like a traditional wrestling game. Punch, kick, and grapple through matches, and each wrestler has two special moves. What makes Slam Masters so cool is it doesn't have to be a mechanically deep or technical marvel of a wrestling game in order to be enjoyed. Keep the action as fast and fleeting without feeling too repetitive. Some tactics can be a little on the cheap side, like getting caught in some throw loops. It feels enough like a fighting game while retaining the meta of battling in the squared circle.

It's got such pomp and flair (pun intended), Saturday Night Slam Masters can be a cool party game. It's not overly complex and easy enough to pick up. Some of the nods to character relationships the English version makes to Street Fighter are pretty fun, even if they aren't technically canon. Series protag Biff Slamkovich (who bears a striking resemblance to Alex in Street Fighter III) in his victory quotes speaks about "Comrade Zangief" is fun. And Gunloc (named "Lucky Colt" in Japan) is implied to be Guile's cousin or something.  

I never had a chance to play it with four players, but the tag matches against the CPU can be a little wild. The only thing that puts a damper on Slam Masters...are honestly the sequels, which teeter more into traditional fighting games. 

Sure, wrestling video games have come a long way, but beyond the create-a-wrestler features, I don't really care for them. Wrestling games may have been rudimentary, selling itself on the brand alone, but the straightforwardness of Saturday Night Slam Masters makes it the perfect game to revisit for an hour or two. It's definitely one in the Capcom library I like to talk about.