Wrestling Game Reviews by Rockofhysteria

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rockofhysteria
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Re: Wrestling Game Reviews by Rockofhysteria

Postby rockofhysteria » May 10th, 2017, 10:04 pm

Ok folks it's been about a month or more since my last review so figured lets do another one. And as Promised and by request of a few people I present WCW vs NWO Revenge for the Nintendo 64. It was Developed by Asmik Ace and Aki and Published by THQ.


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Released in October of 1998 in North America. WCW Vs NWO Revenge represents what many wrestling game fans would call the pinnacle of Wrestling Gamine. And most likely they wouldn't be wrong in that thought. After WCW vs the World for PS1 Aki and THQ knew they were on to something. With WCW vs NWO World Tour on N64 they got closer. And this game is their 3rd try to hit the sweet spot. Did they get there??? Let's break it down and find out.


Graphics-Graphically this game is absolutely Gorgeous for the time. There had never been a wrestling game before that looked this good from the Arenas to the menu screen to the wrestlers themselves. All of the wrestlers are ACCURATELY portrayed in this game even facially unlike the previous two Aki developed WCW games and it really shows here.

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Sound-Nothing special here no wrestlers theme songs which is disappointing. Not horrible by any stretch but just nothing really worth noting.


Gameplay-The gameplay of this game has been long revered for many years and it's not easy to see why. It's absolutely spectacular. They managed to build on a almost perfect gameplay mechanic from WCW vs NWO World Tour and the results are beautiful. The WCW and NWO wrestlers all have authentic movesets for once and their REAL Finishers for instance Kevin Nash actually does the Jackknife Powerbomb instead of a generic Powerbomb. There is one part of the new gameplay the some players didn't like was certain wrestlers A strike combo at the expense of a Powerful Grapple Move. Some liked it some Didn't. Me??? I was ok with it it didn't really diminish anything IMO. As for Gameplay modes you have basic Singles and Tags along with Hndicaps matches and a Battle Royal.


Now in World Tour the Battle Royal was just a Fatal Four Way. But here it's a Legit Battle Royal which you can set to have up to 40 competitors and it's a hell of a good time to play with friends. You also have 5 different Gauntlets you can go through to win different WCW Titles you can go for the WCW World Title, the United States Title, The Tag Team Titles the Cruiserweight titles and the TV title each. By completing each gauntlet you unlock different wrestlers to use in the other modes. You also get real authentic looking WCW TV and PPV arenas that all look great. You get Nitro,Bash at the Beach,Starrcade,Halloween Havoc,Superbrawl, And Souled Out.


Also making it's first appearance in a Aki/THQ wrestling game is Create a Wrestler Sort of lol. You can't create a wrestler per say but you can take ANY wrestler in the game and alter their Gear by interchanging it with the gear of any of the other wrestlers on the game for instance you could take Goldberg and dress him like Disco Inferno lol. You can even change the name of any wrestler on the game which can lead to some hilarious results. My friends and I did the following with it. lol Larry Zbyzsko into Larry Nabisco, Yuji Nagata into Creamofsomeyungguy, The British Bulldog into The British Buttdart and Big Poppa Pump into Big Papa Plop lol.



Roster- The Roster in this game is like pretty much everything else about the game truly great. Now the roster is too big for me to list them all here. But almost all of the heavy hitters of WCW are here. Goldberg,Bret Hart,Hogan,Savage,Sting,Luger,Nash,Hall,Hennig,Booker T and Stevie Ray,Jericho,Mysterio and a whole slew of others. There are also a bunch of generic guys who aren't real with name like Maya Inca Boy and Dake Ken on the roster as well. One Key Omission however is Ric Flair Who was removed from the game prior to release on orders from Eric Bischoff who was head of WCW at the time due to Ric being off of tv and the Lawsuits between the two parties at the time.



Well there you have it folks WCW vs NWO Revenge still one of the most popular wrestling games of all time and for good reason. Here is the final breakdown.


Graphics-A+

Sound-B

Gameplay-A+

Roster-A+

For a final grade of A+



Next up I'm going to do a Handheld review I'm thinking either WWF Superstars or WCW Main Event. Till then Enjoy :)

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MoarRipter
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Re: Wrestling Game Reviews by Rockofhysteria

Postby MoarRipter » May 11th, 2017, 5:23 pm

Great review, I LOVE the THQ wrestling games on N64. While they play at a rather slow framerate on 4-player matches they're great in 1-on-1 matches. The control scheme they used in this game, Wrestlemania 2000, and No Mercy is the best control scheme they've ever had in wrestling games. It made perfect sense, with weak and strong grapples, the taunts, throwing guys into the ropes or turnbuckles, special moves and countering special moves. This game was pretty cool for the day, especially with how Sting descended from the rafters.

I find the graphics on this one a bit too ugly compared to later ones like Wrestlemania 2000 and No Mercy especially, so it's kind of hard to play these days. No Mercy was definitely the best, but that damned save data glitch, it caused me to toss No Mercy in the garbage more than once. I'm currently looking for a patched version of No Mercy (denoted by the "-1" after USA on the front label) but it's apparently super rare. It was only available from THQ by mail-in by sending the glitched cartridge into them for replacement and I've never seen it in retro game stores or on eBay. The search continues - I must have it.

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Retro STrife
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Re: Wrestling Game Reviews by Rockofhysteria

Postby Retro STrife » May 15th, 2017, 1:33 pm

Great review. Thanks for reviewing this! I still remember back to these days when wrestling games weren't well regarded by critics and gamers in general, and this game really changed that. I got WCW/NWO Revenge in a trade with a friend back in the early 2000s and I played it a lot. I haven't owned many other wrestling games before or since, so there's a lot of nostalgia in it for me.

MoarRipter also mentioned WWF No Mercy.. I recently learned that No Mercy on the N64 is held in even higher esteem nowadays than WCW/NWO Revenge. In fact, I noticed that a lot of gaming conventions still hold No Mercy tournaments to this day. (I bought No Mercy last year to play in one of those tournaments, but I ended up only playing the game for a couple hours and never entered the tournament.) I'd love to see your review of No Mercy sometime, to get a comparison of the two games and hear your preference. Also looking forward to Warzone, since you mentioned doing that one at some point, and also your handheld game review.

rockofhysteria
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Re: Wrestling Game Reviews by Rockofhysteria

Postby rockofhysteria » May 19th, 2017, 6:55 pm

Ok folks time for another review And time for my first Handheld review so I present to you WWF Superstars for the Nintendo Gameboy. It was Developed by Rare and Published by LJN and released in 1991.

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This game is the WWE's first Handheld video game after a few console games some of which I've already reviewed.Not much to say other than let's break it down.



Graphics-Suprisingly this game looks really good even on the Monochrome Gameboy Screen the wrestlers look really well made and you can easily tell who is who. The Ring is also well made as well as are the rest of the backround.

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Sound-It's a early 90's wrestlig game through the small gameboy speaker lol nuff said.


Gameplay. Like most WWF Games in this era the gameplay is lacking but since it's the gameboy it's not that big a deal for me honestly. All wrestlers share the same moveset basically with no special moves. As for Game Modes there is only one here you pick a wrestler and beat the other wrestlers to win the WWF title. The difficulty of the matches is a little stiff but you can easily win every match if you just constantly run the ropes and hit them with dropkicks. One cool thing they did though is once you pick your wrestler and your opponent is picked by the CPU both wrestlers cut promos on each other.



Roster-Like pretty much all wrestling games from the era the roster is filled with all time greats. Though in this game you only get 5 to choose from most likely due to limitations of the hardware but what a 5 you get. You get Hulk Hogan,Randy Savage,Ultimate Warrior.The Million Dollar Man Ted Dibiase and Mr.Perfect. 5 WWE Hall of Famers and all time greats.


Well there you have it folks WWF Superstars for the Gameboy a decent first entry into the handheld market for the WWE not Great by any real stretch but not total crap either. Here is the final Breakdown


Graphics-A

Sound-F

Gameplay-D

Roster-A+

for a final grade of C



Next up for sure will be WWF No Mercy for the Nintendo 64

rockofhysteria
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Re: Wrestling Game Reviews by Rockofhysteria

Postby rockofhysteria » June 25th, 2017, 6:18 pm

Well wrestling fans It's been over a month since my last review so I think it's time for another so as promised and by request I present WWF No Mercy for the Nintendo 64 This was the 4th and final wrestling game by Asmik,AKI and THQ for the N64 and came out in 2000


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By the year 2000 the famed Monday Night Wars was on it's last legs as the WWF had overtaken WCW and never looked back thanks in part ironically due to two moron writers named Vince Russo and Ed Ferrara leaving the WWF and going to WCW in 99 lol. And with that THQ also dumped WCW and signed up to start mating WWF Games a partnership that would last all the way up until THQ's demise about 5 years ago. By time this game came out THQ AKI and ASMIK had pretty much figured out the formula on how to make a wrestling game that's actually fun to play. And while they've always been ambitious and while this game is very highly regarded by many. I feel this game is slightly overrated. Here is the breakdown.


Graphics-Graphically this game was gorgeous for the time it took what they did for WCW vs NWO Revenge and Wrestlemania 2000 and upped the ante with spectacular results.

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The Wrestlers are greatly detailed for the time and the arenas look great and very accurately represented.



Sound-Like pretty much all wrestling games nothing really special about the sound the themes are cool but you don't get the full versions of them.



Gameplay-Ok now this is where things start to go off the rails for me a bit. Generally the Gameplay is really good typical of a THQ Wrestlng game and there are a LOT of innovations in this game I'll start with those. 1-The Deepest Create a Wrestler seen up to that time.2-for the first time you could win belts and defend them against your friend in Exhibition Mode which adds a TON of Replay Value. 3-The addition of Backstage Areas for you to fight in which was really cool. 4-Additional weapons like Tables,Ladders and funny things like Giant wedges of cheese and a giant version of the Rock's Autobiography lol. 5-the WWF Shop which allows you to purchase a plethura of items from Moves and Clothing for CAW's to Weapons Arenas and Bonus wrestlers like Shawn Michaels and Ken Shamrock the funniest of them all one fo the Godfather's Ho's who cost the most of anything in the shop for some reason lol.6-The Storymode is Long and Branching it allows you to pick a championship to go after and the story has the ability to branch out any number of ways based on the player's decisions at certain points. And my personal favorite the Survival Mode which has you in a Royal Rumble where the goal is to make it through every wrestler in the game that isn''t a CAW and every version of said roster which in total adds up to over 100 even cooler is you can also unlock all of the wrestlers in the shop by eliminating them in this game mode. You eliminate them by sending them over the top rope and also by Pinfall or submission the longer you last and the more you eliminate the more money you earn for the shop. 8- They added running grapple moves for the first time here and it adds a whole lot to the overall gameplay experience. You also have cool matches like Special Referee matches which allows you to be the ref in a match either singles or tag matches which is pretty cool IMO. The Entrances are nice but they are scaled back compared to Wrestlemania 2000 and even WCW vs NWO Revenge you get them coming out to the top of the ramp and thats it. Not really a gripe but it's worth noting. Now the innovations are great don't get me wrong but for me it's all bogged down significantly by the fact that there is so much slowdown when there are more than two wrestlers in a match it's slowed down so much it takes away from the fun for me. It's enough for me to take the normal grade I'd give it down a full letter.


Roster- The Roster is stacked with plenty of great and legendary wrestlers from the era guys like Austin,Rock,HHH,Taker,Mankind,Kane,Big Show,Kurt Angle,Chris Benoit,Dean Malenko,Eddie Guerrero,The Hardy Boyz,Edge and Christian and the Dudley Boyz They even include two legends Shawn Michaels and Andre The Giant which is really cool IMO but also like in Wrestlemania 2000 there are a lot of stinkers like Linda Mcmahon,Mae Yonng,Fabulous Moolah and The Stooges Pat Patterson and Gerald Briscoe now if they had done those two right and had them in their real wrestling attire with real movesets like when they were in their primes it would be cool but not so much here lol. You also can wrestle as Paul Bearer,Michael Cole,and Jim ross all of which sucks horribly.


People who played and owned this game probably wouldn't forgive me if I failed to bring this up as well but unfortunately a LOT of the carts out there for this had a MAJOR problem with them that would cause all of your save data to erase on it's own at random times this was a BIG problem which also causes me to downgrade the game's score as a result. It was later fixed but these fixed versions are very hard to come by.


Well there you have it folks WWF No Mercy a game that was IMO too ambitious at times bogged down by big problems which cause it to not quite reach it's full potential. Here is the final Breakdown

Graphics-A+

Sound-B-

Gameplay-C+

Roster-B+

Final Grade for me is a B

Next up I'm contemplating either WWF Warzone one of the PS2 WWE Games or possibly WWE 2k17
Last edited by rockofhysteria on June 26th, 2017, 12:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Retro STrife
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Re: Wrestling Game Reviews by Rockofhysteria

Postby Retro STrife » June 26th, 2017, 10:51 am

Thanks for reviewing this one! I've been hearing a lot of hype for No Mercy from retro gamers and it was good to get your take. For some reason, it seems to be the go-to wrestling game for tournaments at retro gaming conventions. Like I mentioned before, I played a lot of WCW/NWO Revenge back in the day, but just played WWF No Mercy for the first time last year.. I much preferred the WCW game, but I wasn't sure if that was just nostalgia clouding my perception.

Have you already reviewed your all-time favorite wrestling game and/or what you consider the all-time best? If so, which was it?
If not, I'd be interested to see a review of those games. I think a modern wrestling game would be good too...i.e., whatever game you would recommend for someone to pick up if they wanted to get the best wrestling game that came out in the last 5 years or so.
Last edited by Retro STrife on June 26th, 2017, 1:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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MoarRipter
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Re: Wrestling Game Reviews by Rockofhysteria

Postby MoarRipter » June 26th, 2017, 12:26 pm

Wrestlemania 2000 also had a lot of slowdown when you did 4-player matches, I don't recall No Mercy being any faster or slower. Looking back at it over fifteen years later it feels like slow motion in 4P matches but back in the day it wasn't as bad as it seems to be now. One nicety that I always liked that pushes No Mercy over the top is how it shows the wrestler names listed next to their momentum bar, that was a first for these games. Also, having the Rock's most well-known intro music in the game, and a stellar roster of wrestlers from back when WWE was still good and not just shameless advertising.

rockofhysteria
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Re: Wrestling Game Reviews by Rockofhysteria

Postby rockofhysteria » June 26th, 2017, 1:54 pm

As for my all time favorite I haven't reviewed it yet. I've never really thought about what is my absolute all time favorite to be honest.


If you are looking for a good current wrestling game I highly recommend WWE 2k17 for XBOX one of PS4 the levels of customomization are off the charts. With 100 CAW slots and the ability to upload pictures from your PC into your game via Community Creations it's a wrestling fan's dream honestly. And they revamped the WWE Universe mode to where you can 3 different save slots for it meaning you can have 3 seperate universes going at once I have one that's just WCW/New Japan one that's just old school WWF and one that's just old school TNA.

rockofhysteria
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Re: Wrestling Game Reviews by Rockofhysteria

Postby rockofhysteria » July 8th, 2017, 12:40 am

Well Folks I think it's time for another review now I said I was thinking of doing WWE 2k17 next but I decided i'd rather review a good ole piece of Wrestlecrap instead so with that being said I present WWF Warzone. This game (and I use that term loosely) came out on the N64 Playstation 1 and Game Boy Color the N64 and PS1 versions were developed by Iguana and the Game Boy version was made my Probe entertainment and the game was Published by Acclaim and it was released in 1998.

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Made and released during the historic Monday Night Wars Warzone was the WWF's answer to the multi million selling THQ WCW Games. And boy did they not even come close lol. Let's break this down.


Graphics-The Graphics in the WCW games were beautiful for the time with rich colors and nice details very pleasing on the eyes. This Game is the exact opposite. Butt ugly graphics lousy animations. Muddy textures just so so ugly kinda like Mae Young in a Swimsuit at Royal Rumble 2000. While the wrestler's attires are accurate they look so freaking ugly. The Presentation is equally as ugly the ring looks like crap the stage just as bad doesn't look like any Raw or Warzone I ever saw lol.

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Sound-I put this games sound in a 4 way tie for the absolute worst Sound in a 3D wrestling game ever seriously it's that bad.


Gameplay-Once again like the graphics the Gameplay of this one is the exact opposite of the WCW Games those games had very easy to learn gameplay mechanics that made a lot of sense. This game's mechanics are a complete joke and mess. You have to enter like 3 or 4 button combinations just to do simple stuff like a bodyslam or suplex. The move animations look like total crap as well Poor collision detection doesn't help matter either.Instead of 1 life bar your guy has 4 green yellow orange and red it makes every match so tedious and boring. Reversals are there but they are completely random. The most infuriating thing for me and most people is Finishers are so hard to do and they don't tell you how to do them in game or even in the Manual. For modes you have your basic Exhibition matches including a Royal Rumble which makes no sense because there aren't even 30 wrestlers in the game. The Championship mode sucks big time you just work up a pyramid to win a belt which even though there isn't a big roster to ge through take for freakin ever because you are constantly having to face the same guys over and over in Grudge Matches. Tag Matches are in the game but again they truly do suck tagging in your parter is not easy to do and at random times both of the illegal men in the match will just get in the ring for no reason. There is a create a wrestler mode but it's so bare bones it's not even worth using.



Roster-Usually when a old gam is this bad in all of the other categories The Roster is the lone bright spot and the saving grace here though not so much. Don't get me wrong you do get all time greats like Austin,HBK,Taker,HHH,Mankind,Bret Hart,British Bulldog(hilariously he and Bret were both in WCW when the game came out) and Owen Hart but you also get some real stinkers like The Headbangers one of the worst tag teams they ever pushed. I mean they had the New Age Outlaws and the Legion of Doom they could have put here when the game was being made but they go with the freaking Headbangers. You also Get Ahmed Johnson the Black verson of Lex Luger lol although Luger actually did draw money at one point Johnson never did. You also get Goldust,Farooq(Ron Simmons) Kane and Ken Shamrock.Each guy does have at least 1 alternate attire which is cool for instance Shawn Michaels starts off in his DX gear but you can also use his traditional HBK tights as well. Goldust has two Marilyn Mansondust which has to be seen to be believed lol and American Dreamdust which is him wearing the Polkadots his father wore in 89 and 90 for the WWF. There are few unlockables but the only ones worth noting are the other two faces of Foley Cactus Jack and Dude Love.




Well there you have it folks WWF Warzone a genuine piece of Wrestlecrap. Here is the final breakdown.


Graphics-F
Sound-F+
Gameplay-F+
Roster-C-

for a final grade of F


Not sure what game I'll do next maybe another 8 bit game or 16 bit or maybe even WWE 2k17.

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Retro STrife
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Re: Wrestling Game Reviews by Rockofhysteria

Postby Retro STrife » July 9th, 2017, 4:28 am

Ha. I knew that game was bad, but didn't realize it was that bad. I can't remember if it was Warzone or Attitude that I owned back in the day, but I played one of them quite a bit. I think it was Warzone on PS1. I guess I didn't know any better.. I assume Attitude is garbage too, right? Or did they fix the issues?

Looking forward to the 2k17 review. It would be interesting to read about the modern state of wrestling games. I haven't followed them at all since the late 90s, so it'd be interesting to see if they're good games in general or just good for hardcore fans.


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