Zen Nippon Pro Wrestling Fight da Pon

The Game

Zen Nippon Pro Wrestling - Fight da Pon (全日本プロレス ファイトだポン！, Zen Nihon Puro Resu Faito da Pon!) is a comedy card-and-board game by Natsume, published by Masaya for the Super Famicom on 25 June 1994. It was released only in Japan.

The All Japan Pro Wrestling roster, drawn as big-headed cartoons, walks a board game of six scenarios and a finale, solving cases like the exploding Stretch Plum and the kidnapping of President Baba. Fights are settled with cards, and you collect more cards as you go.

• Fights run in real time. They look turn-based, and listings often call them that, but they aren't. Whoever presses first attacks, and the other side can only try to stop the move. See How a Match Works.
• You win by pin or submission. There is no time limit, count-out or ring-out, and a match can't be drawn.
• Every wrestler is equally strong. The game holds a stat table for each wrestler, but a coding slip means it's never used. Wrestlers differ only in the cards they can use.
• Passwords are the only save. The cartridge has no battery. Note your password at the end of every scenario. See Passwords.

Your First Ten Minutes

1. Press Start at the title, then choose GAME START, SCENARIO, and any of the first five squares.
2. On the board, hold A, watch the 1-6 gauge on the left, and let go. Your wrestler walks that many spaces.
3. Before your first match you land in Deck Edit, and your deck starts empty. Fill all five slots, because going in with no cards loses on the spot. See Deck Edit.
4. In the ring, move along the cards with Left and Right and press A to play one. When the other wrestler starts a move, press A on as many ready cards as you can to try to reverse it.
5. When your opponent is down, play FALL to pin. Do it while their cards are face down, or they will kick out.

Modes

Leave the title alone and it runs demo matches. The Battle screens return to Wrestler Select after each match.

Controls

How a Match Works

The card row

Each side has six cards: five moves and FALL at the far right. There's no hand to draw from and nothing runs out. Play a card and it turns face down, showing the PON back, then flips up again when it has recharged. Recharge times are in the card table; they keep running during moves and pins. Against the computer, its cards recharge about a second faster than yours.

The yellow bar by each name is health. Everyone has 255, health never comes back during a match, and every match starts full. The portrait's face changes as health drops.

Attacking and guarding

When nothing is happening, the first press attacks, and if both sides press on the same frame the player wins the tie. A move then plays out, and it can't be cancelled by the attacker.

While a move is running, any ready card you press adds its Guard to your defence. Part way through the move the game compares the two sides, and if defence is higher the move is reversed: the attacker takes a small fixed amount of damage (0 to 13) instead of dealing the move's damage. Equal doesn't count, the attack holds.

So every card is both an attack and a guard, and a card spent guarding can't attack until it recharges. Guards count only for the current move and never carry over.

The wrestlers also lock up by themselves as they circle, starting a small move with no card played. It's worth 3 to 13 damage, and it can come every few seconds if you hang back.

Going down and getting up

Some moves leave the victim down. The lower your health, the longer you stay down: about 255 minus your health in frames, plus a third of a second. Mashing does not help. The sound plays, but the press does nothing, and a card you play while down is simply wasted.

You can also attack a downed opponent. The move hauls them up first, then runs as normal.

Winning

Pinfall. Some moves pin automatically (see the Kind column in the card table), and FALL covers a downed opponent. On an opponent who's standing, FALL is wasted. The count takes about four seconds. The pinned wrestler kicks out if their defence ever passes the attack, and that defence grows on its own in proportion to their health and with any guards they press. Each kick-out adds a permanent +24 to the pinner's later pins that match.

Submission KO. Holds (Cobra Twist, Front Neck Lock, Stretch Plum) deal damage every second and a half or so. Once the victim's displayed health is 0, each tick has a 1 in 8 chance of ending the match at once, with no count.

A wrestler at 0 health keeps fighting until pinned or forced out. Health hitting zero doesn't end anything by itself.

Glowing cards

Each main wrestler has one signature card. When it finishes recharging the game may light it up gold, and it stays lit until used. A glowing card gets +80 Attack and hits a second time for 31 extra damage.

The chance depends on how many times that card has been reversed since it last glowed:

So having a signature card reversed is what charges it up, and this applies to the computer too. Equip your signature card and keep using it. The reversals count for that card slot during that match only.

The numbers

Attack  = 109 + Power + Random + 80 if glowing + (255 - victim's health) / 4
Defence = 104 + the Guard of every card played during this move
Reversed if Attack is lower than Defence

Attack is fixed the moment the card is pressed. With no guards every attack lands, since even the weakest attack beats 104. To stop a Power 56 card at full health you need about 61 to 74 Guard, which is two or three cards in the second or two before the check. As the victim's health falls, attacks get stronger, up to +63, so it gets harder and harder to reverse anything. There is no comeback mechanic.

Tactics

• Watch the top row. Face-down computer cards can't guard. The computer guards by stepping along its row and pressing every 16 frames, without looking at the move, so right after it has spent its cards is your best moment.
• Pin only when its cards are down. With its cards ready, the computer kicked out of a Power Slam pin even at 0 health. With its cards spent, it stayed down from 136 health and below.
• The first press matters. The attacker keeps the initiative, so a short-recharge card like Jumping Shoulder (2.7 seconds) or Dropkick (3.2) gives you more first presses.
• Keep a guard in reserve. Two high-Guard cards left ready can reverse a heavy move. Tiger Suplex has the highest Guard, 52.
• Holds spend the computer's guards. Each tick checks for a reversal and both sides gain +2 defence, so a hold soaks up its cards, leaving it exposed afterwards. They are also the only way to win without a pin.
• Spit and Microphone are ordinary cards. They have no special effects. Nothing in this game does: no poison, stun or status of any kind.

The Board

Walking

There are no dice. Hold A and the gauge moves, changing direction at random; let go and you walk that many spaces, from 1 to 6. You can aim, but the gauge turns unpredictably. It favours the middle: in testing it spent about two thirds of its time on 2, 3 and 4.

Paths are one-way, so you can't go back. At a fork the walker stops and you pick a direction with the D-pad. A story stop or the goal always stops you, even with steps left. Other spaces only take effect if you end your walk there.

Spaces

Deck Edit

Deck Edit opens before every story fight. Choose a slot with A, then a card. FALL is always your sixth card, so you only fill the five move slots.

• A new game gives you eight cards: Brainbuster, Piledriver, Backdrop, Lariat, Elbow, Power Slam, Cobra Twist and German Suplex.
• Your deck starts empty. An empty deck loses at the bell with GIVE UP!
• Each wrestler can equip only some cards. Those eight, plus DDT and Powerbomb, work for all 16 main wrestlers. A forbidden card just buzzes. See Wrestlers.
• A card can sit in only one deck at a time, so in team fights your cards are shared out across the team.

Getting cards

Fixed card spaces are the sure way to get the wrestler-specific moves; each map lists them. Random cards are drawn from all 42, and until you own more than 16 you always get a new one. After that repeats are possible (You already have this card). Once all six scenarios are cleared, random cards come only from the first 16.

Losing a story fight costs nothing. You flip a free random card and can fight again, a point one of the villains complains about. Only the random Match spaces can cost you a card, through Card trouble.

Passwords

The game shows a 16-character password after you clear each scenario. It stores which cards you own and which scenarios you've cleared. It doesn't store your deck, so you rebuild that afterwards. To enter one, choose PASSWORD at the title. On the password screen, pick letters with the D-pad and A; BS deletes, the arrows move along the line, and END confirms.

The game's passwords only use A to Z and 0 to 5. Digits 6 to 9 are on the grid too, but they count as A to D.

Chapters

The first five scenarios are open from the start, in any order. The sixth stays locked behind a red X until they are all cleared, and clearing it takes you straight on to the finale. A cleared square changes colour and can't be picked again.

This guide numbers them 1 to 6 by their place on the Scenario Select screen. The story never branches: the only choices are forks on the board and the wrestlers you pick, and there is one ending. Chapter 1 is the sensible start: it's the shortest board, with the weakest Grunts.

On the maps, each space is drawn in its position on the board. Start and goal are labelled, forks have a ring, and lettered spaces are the stops listed in the chapter's spoiler box. Hover a space to see what it is. Matches on a board are always against the Grunts named in that chapter.

Chapter 1: All Japan Pro Wrestling Roll Call!

You play Baba. Board matches: Grunt 1.

Chapter 2: Rusher Kimura Does His Best

You play Rusher Kimura. Board matches: Grunts 1 and 2.

Spoiler: what happens in chapter 2

The Red Bears challenge All Japan, and Baba makes Rusher captain. Rusher needs five men, and the recruiting begins.

	Stop	Then
A	Fuchi	Fight Fuchi, who joins when beaten
B	Eigen	Fight Eigen, who joins when beaten
C	Izumida	Joins with no fight
D, E or F	The fork picks a camp: D is Tsuruta's, E Hansen's, F Misawa's	Partner Select, then fight the wrestler you picked
Goal	The five Red Bears	Team match

Partner choice. Tsuruta's camp offers Tsuruta, Kawada or Taue. Hansen's offers Hansen, Williams, Gordy or Patriot. Misawa's offers Misawa, Kobashi, Kikuchi or Akiyama. The pick changes only who fights in the team match. If you lose to your pick you return to Partner Select.

Team match. Your five face Red Bears 1 to 5 in order. A win moves on to the next Bear and the winner stays available. A loss takes that wrestler out and the same Bear returns. Lose all five and the whole match restarts. Give every wrestler a deck first, since an empty deck loses at once, and remember a card can only be in one deck. Share your common cards out.

Chapter 3: The Case of the Exploding Stretch Plum!

You play Kawada. Board matches: Grunts 3 and 4.

You lose Stretch Plum on entering this chapter if you own it, and it can't turn up as a random card here.

Chapter 4: The Case of the Turncoat Foreign Squad

You play Misawa. Board matches: Grunts 2 and 3.

Chapter 5: Zebra Mask: Friend or Foe?

You play Tsuruta. Board matches: Grunts 3 and 4.

Chapter 6: The Case of the Kidnapped President Baba

Locked until chapters 1-5 are cleared. Shown as "The Case of ????????" until then. You pick your wrestler. Board matches: Grunt 5.

Finale: Showdown! The Case of the Evil Wrestling Society

You play Baba. Board matches: Grunt 5. Note the password you get here: it brings you straight back to this board.

Cards

All 42 move cards and FALL, as the game's table has them. Click a column to sort; the filter box matches names, labels and wrestlers.

Power

Added to Attack

Random

0 up to this is added on each play

Guard

Added to defence when played against a move

Damage

Out of 255; per tick for holds

Recharge

Seconds, yours; the computer's are about 1.1 s less

Reversed

Damage to the user if reversed

Moves that differ by wrestler

Wrestlers

The 16 main wrestlers, all selectable in Battle. The deck is what they use in Battle and when the computer plays them; the gold card is their signature, and the same gold marks signature users in the card table. Beyond the ten common cards that all of them share (Brainbuster to Powerbomb), each can also equip the extra cards listed. Hover a card for its numbers.

Secrets

Enter both codes on the title menu. A wrong press restarts the code. How these were found, and what was looked for and not found, is in HIDDEN_CONTENT.md.

All cards

Sound test

Debug menu

The developers' menu is still in the game, switched off by a single byte. The separate (Debug Menu) patch turns it on: hold X and press Select on any screen. It has a chapter select (EVENT_01 to 07), the deck, wrestler and stage select screens, a scene viewer and a script tester. Nothing leaves most rows, so use the reset, Start plus Select, to get out. It's unfinished developer tooling, and some rows show garbled graphics.

Zebra Mask

Japanese Glossary

For players of the original. The right column is what the English patch shows.

The Japanese labels on every card are in the search and the card table: type フォール or Bバスター into the filter box.

Q&A

Is there an English version?

Not from the publisher: the game was only released in Japan. This guide was written alongside an English fan translation, released as a patch for your own copy of the game.

Is it turn-based?

No. Both sides act in real time, and whoever presses first attacks. See Attacking and guarding.

Who's the best wrestler?

Nobody, in raw numbers: all wrestlers share the same Attack and Guard. What differs is the cards. In Battle, a look at the decks is the whole comparison.

What happens if I lose?

In a story fight you get a free card and can try again. On a board Match space you go to Card trouble and may lose a card. See Getting cards.

Why did my match end at once with GIVE UP?

Your deck was empty. Equip at least one move in Deck Edit; it won't do it for you.

Why does the computer always kick out?

Its cards were ready. Pin right after it has spent them. See Tactics.

Can I miss a fixed card?

Yes: a fixed card only counts if you end your walk on it, and paths are one-way. You can't go back during the chapter, and a cleared chapter can't be picked again, though a password from before you cleared it reopens it. Random cards can still give you the card.

Credits and Legal

This guide is a non-commercial fan project, not affiliated with or endorsed by Natsume, Masaya or All Japan Pro Wrestling. Zen Nippon Pro Wrestling - Fight da Pon and its names, characters and trademarks belong to their owners. The wrestlers are real people, named here as the game names them.

The text is written in our own words from the game's code and data and from play on the English patch. It contains no scans or images from any printed guidebook. The screenshots are from the game running with the English patch.

Sources: Giant Bomb (release date, developer and publisher). No fan guide to this game was found. Everything else comes from the game itself; the technical detail is in MATCHES.md, STORY.md and HIDDEN_CONTENT.md.

AI assisted with this guide.

The guide text is shared under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA 4.0; see LICENSE). The game's own material isn't covered by that licence.

Contributing

Corrections are welcome: open an issue on the project's GitHub page.