WCW Nitro

"Wrestling? Yes. Wrestling worthy of the PC? No."

WCW Nitro, the first wrestling game to come to the PC in a long, long time, will definately be snapped up by fans as quickly as it hits the shelves. But should it be? The concept and basic premise of the game are fairly solid, but once a gamer goes deeper into its depths, the flashy outsides begin to wear off, showing an unpolished an rushed project/port of the PSX version.

Graphics: 5/10

Initially, Nitro begins with a very flashy AVI showing off all of the real life wrestlers' moves at lightning speed. However, when you actually get past all the movies and still pictures, the graphics disappoint. Many of the characters have a blocky, stiff feel to them, even with 3D acceleration. The rings themselves are nothing to gawk at, with only minimal changes that have no effect on gameplay. The crowd can only be described as a putrid blob, and the "JumboTron" replaying all your moves is both a CPU hog, as well as very low quality. The only redeeming feature is that the moves do look fairly true to life.

Sound: 3/10

The sound can only be described as consolesque. Very limited sound samples get repetitive and boring quickly, and only three or four out of 64 wrestlers get their own voices. Again, the crowd noise fits that of a blob, and the CD music consists of loud and annoying heavy metal. The least I would have expected from a CD game was distinct music for at least half the wrestlers, but even that seemed like it was too much for the programmers.

Controls: 2/10

Very unresponsive controls only worsened by the fact that you need specific button presses to pull of any high damage moves. The entire WCW/nWo Revenge Grapple system was scrapped for this, and it's a step backward in the wrestling genre. To make things worse, the programmers didn't even take the time to program everyone's finishing moves. Many of the hidden wrestlers have rehashed moves of the 16 original wrestlers, and it's a disgrace.

Fun Factor: 5/10

Despite all the shortcomings, wrestling is still fun to play. Nitro gives you 6 different modes of play, plenty of replayability in finding all 64 wrestlers, and it's kinda fun to laugh at the inept commentary of Bobby "The Brain" Heenan: even when he's wrestling at the time! And, some of the taunts are funny. Tee hee.

Multiplay: 3/10

A possible bright spot for Nitro was its Multiplay aspect. Unfortunately, it sucks. Two players on one machine is fine, but modem/IPX games are unforgivably plodding. An average match that could be over in 5 minutes on a single machine has taken 45+ minutes on a modem game. That is unacceptable in a multiplay game at this stage of technology, and I even have to laugh when I see the minimum requirement is a P166, 16 MB RAM!! This kind of a game should run smoothly on a P90.

Overall: 4/10

Weak graphics and sound, poor controls, and horrid multiplay make this game less than desireable to the average PC owner. If you are hardcore WCW, then buy it and be happy. If not, shell out the money for WCW/nWo Revenge. You'll be much happier that way.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 11/01/99, Updated 11/01/99