I really don’t know why, but I was a huge fan of the American Gladiators television show. I religiously watched the show every week, I went to the show when they came to my town, and I even wrote American Gladiatiors fan fiction (and, no, not the creepy kind). The fan fiction script has long been lost to humanity (thankfully), but what hasn’t been lost is the NES adaptation of the show. Unfortunately, they’re both on about the same level.
The video game of the show has you taking your contender on a series of events that are only kind of like the events in the show. Like Joust. In the show you have one gladiator and one contender each on a platform holding a giant Q-Tip. They had to pummel each other until one fell. But in the NES version you have a series of several platforms, some moving up and down and four gladiators to fight in succession.
Or the Wall. Show: race to the top of an about 50 foot tall climbing wall with gladiators chasing after you to pull you down. Game: Climb up and around obstacles while several gladiators home in you from all directions. The wall has also somehow managed to grow to be about 400 feet tall.
There are some games that I rented one time and then kind of wish I’d have been able to purchase later, but they went out of print before I was able to. This is not one of those games. If I never play this game again I don’t think my feelings are going to be too hurt.