Pro Wrestling legend, Hulk Hogan, real name, Terry Bollea, passed away on Thursday, leaving behind a substantial legacy that shaped the Pro Wrestling industry as a whole.
Through his relationship with wrestling and his famous pursuit of acting, he came into contact several times with the world of video games, providing his likeness as well as voice-acting work for several properties, most notably WWF/E, where he became a household name.
Hulk and wrestling games
Hulk Hogan featured in over two dozen WWE games. The star ‘babyface’ (good guy) in the first-ever WWF video game, Hulk was the attraction of the game entitled ‘MicroLeague’, in 1987 for Commodore 64. The man who made WrestleMania famous also featured in the Wrestlemania era of WWE games. When Hulk infamously moved to WCW, he moved to the WCW games, but later returned to WWE games in the same vein.
In 2012, separate from the WWE, ‘Hulk Hogan’s Main Event’ was released, which made use of Xbox’s Kinect technology to give the player control by moving their body.
Hulk remains part of the recent WWE 2K franchise, where he appears as a legend. In fact, he appears five times in 2k25 due to multiple representations of Hogan appearing to reflect his different eras in Professional Wrestling.
Reddit user Hulkster01 put together an image showing all depictions of Hogan in video games from the initial Wrestlemania game until 2k22, showing how far video games came, with Hogan remaining a popular and culturally iconic element of the world of Pro Wrestling.
Non-wrestling Hulk Hogan video games
Gamers may be shocked to know that Hulk Hogan’s video game appearances were not limited to WWE, in fact, far from it. While pursuing an acting career, Hogan starred in an interactive video, Thunder in Paradise interactive, a video game adaptation of the television show, released on Philips CD-i and MS-DOS in 1995. Hogan also released his own slot/casino game called Hulk Hogan’s Hulkmania in 2013.
The Hulkster also provided lines as ‘Sub Commander’ in 2019’s World War Z, and for Liquid Entertainment’s RTS, Battle Realms (2001). Most notably, in Saints Row: The Third (2011), Hogan played Angel De La Muerte. As a result of the role, Hogan also attended the Spike TV Video Game Awards (VGAs), where he introduced a video announcing the winners of certain categories.
Darragh Harbinson is an esports writer specialising in Counter-Strike. He has written for Esports News UK, Esports Insider, UKCSGO, Dexerto, and Rush B Media.