"There is no tagline that can do this game justice. Can't think of any that would."

For years, wrestling fans have been looking for that wrestling game that they can come back to over and over again. There is some that had not even found such a game yet. After a long journey looking for such a game, I think I may have found it. Even over Virtual Pro Wrestling 2, but that is only because of the Japanese, and because I hardly know any of the wrestlers in that game. I will explain that in another review. May not be the best ever, but it sure puts the Smackdown! Series in its place. Now on to the reviews.

Presentation 10/10

Box art is pretty cool. Has the Rock on it, with other wrestlers in the background fighting. Gives you vibe that this game will kick ass, and it delivers on that. The cart is a slick black, with a blue label. I love the black N64 carts.

Graphics 9.5/10

Before I get into the Graphics, I must explain one flaw. The faces of the Wrestlers looks like they are paper cutouts, but that is only a minor flaw that grows on you, and sometimes its funny to look at. But the graphics even till this day still stands the test of time. Screw what you see in these new wrestling games. You are looking at Graphics that don't seem to want to age. I don't care what people say about it, but there are the best damn visuals I have seen on the N64 since Turok 2. The Arenas, Ring, blood animations, and everything about the games Visuals are wonderful! That is all I have to say about this aspect of the game.

Sound 9/10

Near perfect, but there is only one gripe. That is that the music for this game is low quality, and the titiantron is only a few seconds of animation, then loops. Some themes start looping only 20 seconds into it. You do get used to it, and I heard that you can change that, but you need an emulator, and some other utility for that to work. I have to look into that. Me and a friend use to do fun things with the music in the game. For example use X-Pac's theme with Stone Colds Video. Only if the N64 used disks, then imagine would this game would have truly have became. About the sound. Top notch! When you hit a wrestling it has impact that really sounds painful, and when you do something like a head drop move, it sounds brutal. Most wrestling games these days lack such a sound, except RAW 2 IMO. All I have to say about the Sound aspect of the game.

Gameplay 5*stars

Even though that there are those that disagree with me, its the best wrestling game I have played overall. I will split this up into parts since its going to be a long one.

CAW 8/10

It might be limited comparing to todays games, but you can still create anyone you can dream up of 95% of the time. Its even better than SVR2007's CAW, and that is not right. While Yukes takes away, and limits more things from there wrestling games, this game makes you grateful for a CAW like this. Only problem I have with it is the lack of masks, but that can be fixed if you look for hacks.

Movesets 10/10

This game gives you so many damn moves, and then some. You can even create a MMA fighter because of the number of moves in this game. I even have a wrestler that is a Jiu-Jitsu expert, and the game has enough moves for him to live up to that, and this caused him to become my best technical wrestler in the game. I even was able to give him some good stand up fighting skills similar to what you will see from a Mixed Martial Artist. I used him as an example because the moves are not just limited to just wrestling as you seen in todays wrestling games. You can create anyone from a Street Brawler to a Kung-Fu Expert. You can even create an amateur style wrestler as well. Creativity is not just limited to how you CAW looks, not in this game.

One more thing. What is even more wonderful about this game is that you can use gameshark hacks people make to change moves in this game. Its very easy to apply the hacks if use an emulator because all you have to do is copy and paste the code into cheat box. Simple.

In the Ring Action 9/10.

Realistic and the Grapple system is perfect. I don't see why some want to change it, but this is what its all about. The learning curve is pretty nice as well. The AI in this game is a bit iffy some times because some wrestlers have a personal AI that conflicts with the general difficulty you would set in the options mode. You can get around that with little problems at times though. In any match, you can go out of the ring, and into the parking lot or locker room. This game gives you freedom that is lacking in todays wrestlers. Nothing more to say, but this game should of have a hell in a Cell Match. Nothing more to say.

Rent or Buy

This game is too old to rent. Just buy it. You can find this game from $5-$10 used. Worth every penny.

Final Words.

Not much this time, but I say everyone should check this game out at least once. Some that are used to the Smackdown Series might not like this game because of how it is, but some will be converted to think otherwise.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 05/07/07