WCW Mayhem

"Read this review, please!"

To anyone reading this review... don't buy this game! but please read what I have to say only because I wrote this review for this purpose. Truthfully, I rented this one, I've had it for two days, and I'm already sick of it. I'd much rather watch the Matrix, 100 times over, than going back to playing this game.

I am a big WWF fan. I bought Revenge instead of Warzone only because Warzone was crap too. But if you can't bear playing a WWF game, buy Revenge if you don't already have it. I know, its outdated but at least it is fun.

Remember, I've had this game for two days so I am probably wrong about a few things. I also don't actually watch WCW either.

First of all, let me tell you that the presentation for this game is very good. Aside from the plain entrances, and the crappy and confusing manual, the WCW is represented well. You have over 60 wrestlers to play around with and they have around 15 different arenas. Along with the huge number of wrestlers you are treated to their own music, taunts, and signature moves. The menus are simple and straight forward, but it would have been nice to be able to edit a created wrestler without having to go to match setup.

The graphics seem pretty impressive at first glance, but then you'll see that the animation doesn't look very natural and is very slow. What is even worse is that you get a bit off slowdown when their is a bit too much ring action. Player models are sometimes unrealistic. Some wrestlers look too thin and there are no height differences. On the upside, there are some pretty nice extras. When you kick them while they are on the ground they rise up a bit and flail their arms around in pain. Some moves are really loud and shake up the whole ring. When I first saw the power bomb I winced and almost cried for, well...my, created wrestler. Maybe my biggest complaint for the graphics is the fact that EA cut some corners for the finishers. Yeah, I know, the Jacknife isn't all that special, but it doesn't look exactly like a power bomb. The Diamond Cutter looks more like a bulldog, just like in Wcw vs. NWO World Tour. That really takes away from playing those wrestlers.

Sound is easily this game's strong point. The authentic music is great. The crowd sounds fantastic, with nice and loud cheers and boos. In the backround you can hear the occasional chant or taunt, but it isn't loud enough to get really annoying like in Attitude. It really electrifies the atmosphere of the arena. "Mean" Gene Okerland announces the wrestlers, match type, arena, winner, and title involved, and the other commentator(s) I don't know or care about. The commentary is very deep and the person who does it provides comments about the crowd, the wrestler, the way the match is going, moves, and just about everything else. Large slams are absolutely deafening, different weapons have different noises, all the smacks and slams give off appropriate sounds.

Unfortunately, most of us don't buy games to listen to. Conrols are a bit confusing. On the hard difficulty it is almost impossible to execute a grapple move. You do grapple moves by pressing B and then using a combination of the D-pad, and the A,B, and C buttons. Altogether you get 9 moves from grapple and most of them are pretty weak and unimpressive. I am yet to find out how to do a rear grapple without having to knock the other guy out or do a reversal. The controls are complicated enough to give it a steeper learning curve than Revenge, but it is definitely not better, which is what counts.

The create a wrestler feature is unimpressive. You can choose between only 3 sizes and cannot give your wrestler ripped or fat body types. The worse part about it is that you cannot customize move sets, and most of the wrestlers have pretty crappy moves. When giving your wrestler a name, there is no way to put a space between words, that is pretty frustrating. You can give yourself a nickname which the announcer will say, but they all suck!

The game features about 13 different backstage areas, and many many weapons. There are a depressingly small number of options however. You can have a singles match, tag, triangle, four way dance, battle royal, and you have the option of making it a weapons match, or give it other special rules. These special rules are available only when you play singles. Compared to Attitude, the number of options is laughable. Reversals are common but it has more to do with what your opponent does than what you do, since repeating a move more than 3 times will usually trigger one. The career mode takes you through all the PPV arenas as well as Thunder, Nitro, and WCW Saturday night. You start out unranked and trying to get the T.V. title, and you'll end up defending the World title over and over and over... well what else can you do? It's very boring, and you will always be fighting singles matches with the person that is directly ahead of you in the rankings. The game loads too! Can you believe it. After playing this game I say, Nintendo, you can take your lightning fast load times and shove it up your sugary asses. Short but unforgiveable, Nintendo games should never load for more than a second or two.

So for my breakdown reminescent to IGN's if you haven't already guessed it would be from my review.

Presentation: 9.0

All the wrestlers and arenas as well as all the glitz, but a poor manual as well as the fact that it is WCW...

Graphics: 7.0

Smooth skinned wrestlers and great looking arenas, but poor player models and animations as well as some drop in fps hurt the graphics.

Sound: 9.0

Solid commentary, authentic music, and great crowd and sound effects. The music could be a bit louder though.

Gameplay: 5.0

Career mode is boring and repetitive, grappling is too difficult on Hard, not enough match options, loadng, framerate problems, I'm not being too hard on this game.

Lasting appeal: 4.0

I'm already tired of this game, need I say more?

Overall (not an average): 7.0

Try again EA, this game had potential.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 11/01/99, Updated 11/01/99