http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krN6Po7Tkig
Kurrgan, Shane McMahon on commentary, awful controls...must be another winning Acclaim WWF game!
Thanks, Joe! I hated those Acclaim games so, SO much. Just wait for ECW Hardcore Revolution...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krN6Po7Tkig
Kurrgan, Shane McMahon on commentary, awful controls...must be another winning Acclaim WWF game!
"But you still had to enter nuclear launch codes to do a bodyslam." It's funny 'cause it's TRUE.
ReplyDeleteI loved the Dreamcast version. It just moved faster, and working through season mode was fun a couple times with a created guy. (Didn't have an N64, so this was the best I was getting at the time.)
ReplyDeleteMan, once he hits the XBox 360 games he might as well copy and paste the same game review for each of them.
ReplyDeleteSay what you will about WWF Warzone and WWF Attitude, and how they were objectively terrible, but I think my fondest memory of these games was summer days, home from school, just in from the pool, soaking the carpet with my wet butt, and playing this game to death.
ReplyDeleteI guess it's one of those situations where even if something is objectively bad, it can still be enjoyed for the nostalgia and memories it floods your synapses with.
I used to only have a PS1, so a lot of my time was looking on with jealousy at all my friends that had the awesome AKI games, then going home and crying as I played the Acclaim games.
ReplyDeleteThe Smackdown games made things a bit better, but not much one. Especially the first game. Anyone else remember how it had like four different 'types' of create a wrestlers?
Meekin, I'm right there with you.
ReplyDeleteThese games were the first game where I could create my own wrestlers, as well as my own cards. I loved being able to create Sid, give him that creepy music with the awesome guitar riff, and he mowed through the card en route to winning the WWF Championship at my first Create-A-Show.
Don't get me wrong, THQ/AKI had the winning formula, but when you get to make your own cards and matches, it's a great time. I remember being 15 and having my friends come out and they'd pick their guys, and we'd run some storylines and PPVs that we were able to make ourselves. My friends would give me feedback on the Create-A-Wrestler, and we'd have an entirely new roster of WCW, ECW, WWF, and Japanese Wrestlers.
Fond times in front of the TeeVee.
ack-lame
ReplyDeleteSeriously, I just want a new No Mercy! Why can't we have nice things???
ReplyDeleteThis game is at least partially responsible for my wrestling fandom. I was 7 years old at the time and my older brother was 14 and played this all the time. The first Raw I ever recall watching was that Saturday night "Supershow" in the Skydome in February 1999.
ReplyDeleteChyna's Piledriver: Tieup, Left, Right, Up, Tieup
ReplyDeleteI did have a fondness for this game, but even I'll admit that THIS IS TOO MUCH WORK.
I loved the Smackdown games. I bet I played the first one more than any other game, probably ever. The fact that you could have FOUR PLAYER SEASON MODE and have a bunch of random angles and buildups take place.
ReplyDeleteI didn't mind their chopped up Create mode, you just had to get creative. We had Jeff Jarrett, Taz, Shawn Michaels, and Viscera as our four created guys, and they were all called up to the main roster after completing Preseason mode.
Michaels, in particular....that was my finest creation. I used Stevie Richards' head, the traditional chest with taped wristbands, and the red robot-looking trunks for bottoms. He did a running Sweet Chin Music as his finisher. BOSS.
To be honest, the game I miss most was WWE WIth Authority, that online CCG game that was around for awhile then got shut down.
ReplyDeleteThe first awesome CAW system...but when I needed to do a three-button sequence for a snapmare, well, FUCK YOU.
ReplyDeleteI was going to post that it amazes me where in this day, where everyone is basically copying everything with a successful formula, we still haven't gotten a wrestling game that uses the basic AKI gameplay. I mean how hard is that to replicate?
ReplyDeleteI had the Game Boy Color version of Attitude (it's probably still laying around somewhere, actually), which was actually easier and more fun to play than the console versions!
ReplyDeleteAgreed.
ReplyDeleteI can't objectively defend either game (though I'm pretty sure I played Warzone a lot more) but I remember it in a positive light because that's the game we played all flippin' summer between my freshman and sophomore years after football workouts.
They pretty much did use the basic Aki gameplay in the Gamecube games. The thing is, once you take away the nostalgia factor the engine loses a lot of its shine. Still a decent game though. I imagine young people now feel the same way about SD Vs. Raw that we do about No Mercy. You'll always favour the stuff you grew up on.
ReplyDeleteAll you need to get Chyna into the piledriver position now is $20 and a video camera. HIYO!!!
ReplyDeleteI wasted so many hours of my life playing the first two SmackDown games, especially Know Your Role. The never ending season mode and all of the different storylines were AWESOME. There's just so much to do. And I loved the backstage brawls.
ReplyDeleteNo Mercy and WrestleMania 2000 were definitely superior, though. Two more games I spent a ton of time on. No Mercy was like WM2000 on steroids.
Only good thing: Discovering Dr. Death's awesome theme music.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I remember having X8 for the 'cube and was amazed at how similar it was to NM and WM2000, yet nobody praises it or the Day or Reckoning games for their gameplay as much as the N64 games as praised.
ReplyDeleteDig dig diggity dig diggity dog....SOCKO
ReplyDeleteI agree with the nostalgia factor, but it was more than that with the AKI games (I've never played the Gamecube games, but if they really are as good, I'll have to find an emulator).
ReplyDeleteThe control scheme and the logic just flat out made sense for a wrestling game. I've always sucked at video games and I could just pick those up and play.
Short grapple does a weak move, long grapple does a strong one, but if you try a long grapple which takes more time you can leave yourself open to a striking move by the other player and if you get the grapple and they aren't weak enough, they might reverse it (especially if their characteristics include heavy reversals). That is such a simple little thing, but it is so intuitive and the whole game is like that really, just a bunch of different risk/reward systems all centered around the exact same controls -- put them all together and you represent a wrestling match pretty well.
I don't see why they couldn't just expand the engine and turn out an even better game -- especially as a nostalgia or classic type title. What does it even need? I can only think of a few things besides a sound and graphics upgrade and a general expansion to the stuff already in the game (storyline mode, CAW, moves, etc). It needs a Royal Rumble mode with more characters in the ring at one time and it'd be nice if the managers did more outside the ring as in previous AKI games.
That was Dan Severn's music, if you can believe it.
ReplyDeleteWatching Dan Severn vs. The Rock in the 1998 KOTR Semis, you'll hear this theme.
I think it was used for Brawl For All too. Every CAW I made for Attitude had that theme.
ReplyDeleteWhy was Steve Williams even in the game? He didn't have very many matches in his WWF run, so him being in the game was a little strange.
ReplyDeleteNope, the "Brawl For All" theme is what later became Ezekiel Jackson's.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely used Williams'/Severn's theme for most of my CAWs too, though.
Day of Reckoning games were both awesome, good fun to be had with a decent roster at the time. WrestleMania XIX for the Gamecube got me back into wrestling in late 2003 after dipping out early in the year.
ReplyDeleteThose Gamecube games had decent systems but the collision detection SUCKED. If you were pinning someone in a multiman match and a guy did a move on another guy right next to you, the pin was instantly broken up. That made for some frustrating matches.
ReplyDeleteSeason mode sucked too. Which game was the one where the season mode consisted of you throwing guys off a crane in a construction site?
WrestleMania
ReplyDeleteI cannot wait for that review. Those game modes were perversely fun, even though they entailed throwing members of the Village People off of buildings. I'm surprised they haven't really gone back to having RPG like elements in a wrestling game since.
ReplyDeleteI can't remember if it was this one or the first ECW game that let you customize the arena, but that was a lot of fun. You could control the colors of the lights, the ring, and even the ropes & buckles. I'd usually have a dark arena with a spotlight on the ring and glowing green ropes with a purple mat, it looked like a stoner's basement.
ReplyDeleteIIRC, you could CA-Arena in Attitude, which I think I did more of than actually playing the game.
ReplyDelete"The control scheme and the logic just flat out made sense for a wrestling game. I've always sucked at video games and I could just pick those up and play."
ReplyDeleteTHIS. That's me to a T. Terrible gamer, but some sort of No Mercy savant.