Tag Team Wrestling launches on Arcade Archives this week

Hamster Corporation is releasing the 1983 Technos Japan title Tag Team Wrestling on the Arcade Archives service on May 21. The release spans multiple console generations. It arrives as a standard release for PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch, and under the Arcade Archives 2 banner for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series consoles, and the Switch 2.

Originally published in arcades by Data East, the game was released in Japan as The Big Pro Wrestling! before coming to North America. It is one of the earliest surviving titles from Technos Japan. The studio would eventually create the Double Dragon and Kunio-kun franchises. Their early arcade years were spent experimenting with digital sports and brawling mechanics that would later define their massive beat-'em-up catalog. The company actually formed when three staff members left Data East in 1981, making this publishing arrangement a reunion of sorts.

The rights to the Technos Japan catalog now belong to Arc System Works. Hamster has partnered with them to continue reissuing these early 1980s coin-op games.

Two teams, infinite matches

The arcade original is a straightforward endurance test. Players control a good-guy duo named Sunny and Terry against a villainous pair known as the Heel Team. There is no massive roster to unlock. You just fight the same two masked wrestlers repeatedly until you lose. It works, which is the nicest thing I can say about a sports game with exactly four character models.

Matches revolve around basic strikes and grapple moves. Players can execute a piledriver or a brainbuster depending on their positioning. The game's primary hook was its titular tag-team mechanic. Players can swap partners at the edge of the ring to recover stamina.

The action occasionally spills out of the ring. Brawls on the floor are encouraged, and random intruders sometimes run into the arena to interfere with the match. These elements laid the groundwork for the chaotic multiplayer wrestling games that would flood arcades later in the decade.

The console port divergence

The game found a much wider audience through its 1986 Nintendo Entertainment System port. That home console version introduced a bizarre menu-based combat system. Players had to quickly scroll through text menus to select moves like "B BRIK" and "TECCHU" in real time before the opponent could reverse the grapple. It was an ambitious idea that completely failed in execution. (The NES port also included a team called the Strong Bads, directly inspiring the famous internet cartoon character decades later).

This Arcade Archives release strictly preserves the 1983 arcade original. The action stays focused on real-time joystick inputs and two-button combat. You get a select button and an action button, keeping the pace much closer to a traditional action game than the sluggish NES port.

The generational split

Hamster is splitting the release across two tiers. The standard Arcade Archives version for PS4 and Switch costs $7.99. The Arcade Archives 2 version for PS5, Xbox Series, and Switch 2 is priced at $9.99. Players who buy the last-gen version can upgrade to the current-gen release for a $2.99 fee.

Both versions include Hamster's standard emulation wrappers. The software has difficulty toggles, display settings to mimic old CRT monitors, button remapping, and a rapid-fire option. Players can create multiple save files at any time. The emulator also includes a rewind function to undo mistakes, which is helpful when the Heel Team corners you against the ropes.

The online high-score leaderboards are intact. You will need them, because beating the same two opponents over and over is only fun if you can prove you did it better than someone in another country. It is a pure score-chase, stripped of the career modes and unlockables that modern wrestling games rely on.