The AKI pro wrestling games have legendary status among pro wrestling fans, as well as Nintendo 64 fans in general. Games like WCW vs. nWo World Tour, WCW/nWo Revenge, WWF Wrestlemania 2000, and WWF No Mercy especially, continue to be referenced today and held collectively as the gold standard in pro wrestling video games. Such is their legacy that AKI's Japanese-exclusive Virtual Pro Wrestling 64 and Virtual Pro Wrestling 2 have joined those titles in the collective legacy of the series.
Since 2019, when freem released the fabled "Virtual Pro Wrestling 2: freem Edition", a community has formed around building ROM hacks for the AKI games. The subject of this particular article is the latest in this regard: Virtual Pro Wrestling Salvo. This is RagDas' second ROM hack of WCW/nWo Revenge, and aims to push the game to its limits with the following features:
This hack completely reconstructs Ric Flair, who was removed from the game during development, using his World Tour moveset, his removed taunts that were later included in Virtual Pro Wrestling 2, and custom textures. Wrath, who was famous for being the only accessible removed character, has also been given a costume and his moveset has been corrected such that there are no more glitches. Finally, nWo Sting was discovered in late 2023 to be buried in the game in the same fashion as Wrath, and has been made playable in the same fashion. The full set of roster additions, with new movesets and textures, is viewable below:
While this news article is dedicated to the release of Virtual Pro Wrestling Salvo, in the interest of not clogging up the front page with articles, do check out other ROM hacks that RagDas has created for games across the series, now available on RHDN:
Since 2019, when freem released the fabled "Virtual Pro Wrestling 2: freem Edition", a community has formed around building ROM hacks for the AKI games. The subject of this particular article is the latest in this regard: Virtual Pro Wrestling Salvo. This is RagDas' second ROM hack of WCW/nWo Revenge, and aims to push the game to its limits with the following features:
- 11 new characters, including Ric Flair (originally planned for Revenge) and nWo Sting (dummied out of the final game)
- All DAW and EWF characters converted to their real identities
- Imported moves and taunts from later games
- Running Special Grapples un-dummied (hold Control Stick while running - when you have a Special; certain characters only)
- New edit mode costume items
- All characters unlocked
This hack completely reconstructs Ric Flair, who was removed from the game during development, using his World Tour moveset, his removed taunts that were later included in Virtual Pro Wrestling 2, and custom textures. Wrath, who was famous for being the only accessible removed character, has also been given a costume and his moveset has been corrected such that there are no more glitches. Finally, nWo Sting was discovered in late 2023 to be buried in the game in the same fashion as Wrath, and has been made playable in the same fashion. The full set of roster additions, with new movesets and textures, is viewable below:
- Ric Flair (WCW 1)
- nWo Sting (nWo White) (originally dummied out character)
- Steve Austin (WWF)
- Shawn Michaels (WWF)
- The Undertaker (WWF)
- The Rock (WWF)
- Kane (WWF)
- Cactus Jack (WWF)
- Wrath (WCW 2)
- Mitsuharu Misawa (AJPW)
- Vader (AJPW)
While this news article is dedicated to the release of Virtual Pro Wrestling Salvo, in the interest of not clogging up the front page with articles, do check out other ROM hacks that RagDas has created for games across the series, now available on RHDN:
- SUMMIT: Virtual Pro Wrestling Salvo - a ROM hack for WWF Wrestlemania 2000 that includes a brand new story for Road to Wrestlemania, 18 character replacements from WCW, AJPW, UFO, and FMW, new moves, and restored hybrid and shoot fighter wrestling styles from VPW2.
- La Fin Du Tour: Virtual Pro Wrestling Alpha - a ROM hack for WCW vs. nWo World Tour that includes 8 character replacements spanning the WWF, AJPW, and PRIDE, with new movesets, new textures, some new models, one back ported animation, custom wrestler portraits, a WWF ring, and more.
- WCW/nWo REVENJI - the first of the WCW/nWo Revenge ROM hacks, this includes some move modifications, recostumed EWF and DAW characters, and is mostly translated into Korean; it is uploaded for historical purposes and largely has been superseded by VPW Salvo.
