WCW Nitro

"Terrible... don't even bother"

Wrestling games are usually fun, especially these days with the huge assortment of moves and wrestlers in games. WCW Nitro manages to defy this statement, however, with its terrible gameplay. First, the basics: this is a WCW wrestling game, obviously, with the intention being to pin your opponent or make him (or her) submit or be counted out. The game has a ton of wrestlers to choose from and a fair amount of moves. You can play with friends over the Internet.

Graphics: 6/10

Hmm. The characters are all recognizable, but they move very slow. They also have no personality.

Sound: 4/10

Ugh. Just bad. No explanation is neccessary, save that you won't like them.

Gameplay: 3/10

Here's where the game suffers the most. It's way too slow, even on respectably fast computers. Play with the minimum system requirements and you'll be driven to insanity. There is a wide variety of wrestlers, but many of their moves are the same. Hit detection and reaction times could have been much better. All these combine to take any fun out of the game. Also, even though this is a wrestling game, a little more realism would have been welcome: Announcer Mean Gene Okerlund can execute a pretty mean hurincanrana. Yeah. The two player mode, and any other options for that matter, don't matter, because the gameplay simply is too terrible.

Replay: 3/10

You might like it for a while because of the amount of wrestlers, and because you can download skins for the game on the Internet, but trust me: after a short period of time you'll be ready to throw this in the garbage.

Overall: 3/10

What a waste of an oppurtunity. WCW Nitro had potential; just look at WCW/NWO Revenge for Nintendo 64 to see what can be done with a wrestling game. It seems as if the developers spent more time on the hologram box than on the game itself. Having said that, I wouldn't recommend playing this sorry excuse of a game. There are so many better ones out there that don't look like they were rushed.

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 11/01/99, Updated 11/01/99