ECW Hardcore Revolution

"So it's about one step up from WWF Attitude"

I know countless others have already stated this in their reviews, and just to be annoying I think I'll say it again: Really it's an ECW clone of Attitude. You would think Acclaim could have at least changed it up a little. But no, we get the same kind of menu, text, and even the big picture of a wrestler on the side of the main menu. Of course this time it's Rob Van Dam instead of Stone Cold Steve Austin. Thanks, Acclaim, you fooled me there.

They graphics are not that bad. Once again, identical to WWF Attitude. The part I really liked, and I'm not sure if this was in Attitude, was how the blood on a wrestler runs down his body. That was a nice effect. The moves all lock nicely done even though I don't really like motion capturing. Especially since sometimes arms and legs will go right through the other player's body. Other times when you do a move, the animation causes the wrestlers to teleport around the ring or go right through the ropes. That almost seems kind of cool up until you realize that they did that by accident. Actually no, it's not kind of cool at all.

Add to that the fact that all the wrestlers move and walk like marionettes being controlled by a mentally handicapped person. That's the main problem with the entrances. Sure, the flashing lights, pyro, and smoke effects are all decent. But once you see this flesh colored robot-creature suddenly appear and shuffle to the ring it loses its initial effect. That is, of course, if it had any to begin with. The wrestlers themselves look pretty good. They actually look like the real wrestlers, which is something I can't say for the more recent games. I think there's around twenty-something selectable wrestlers in the game but if you're like me you're really only going to want to play as around ten of them, though.

The good part about these games was how each wrestler took the time to record several phrases and various noises for the game. That made it a lot better than the later games with generic male and female voices. The commentary is also good. Joey Styles does a good job of keeping the match going. It would have been better if there was more than one guy, but that's how ECW was. Overlooking that, it goes right along with the game. It's better than previous ones where the commentary would be several seconds (as in five to ten) off. For their entrances, all of the wrestlers have good instrumental versions of their actual songs. My favorite is Axl Rotten and Balls Mahoney's "Big Balls" by AC/DC. I like it a little more than the actual song.

Of course, the created wrestler themes are the worst. Originally I thought, '"The hell? Only ten? I must be able to unlock more." Wrong. The only themes you get to choose from are Cyrus, Guido, Gertner, J. Victory, Jason, Roadkill, Smothers, Spike, T. Devito, and Tommy Rich. Note that I copied that list exactly how it appears in the menu screen. It looks like they were going for alphabetical order. But they but Guido in front of Gertner. Nice going, Acclaim.

Also, Little Guido's, Tracy Smothers', and Tommy Rich's themes are all the same thing—the F.B.I theme. I don't know why they included it three times. So really, you only get eight themes. I'm guessing that's all they included due to copyright reasons. But really I think they only included them because they're lazy and hate us, therefore they give us the worst themes to pick from.

Now if you hated the controls in Attitude you'll hate these, too. Sometimes the button combinations to pull off a move are ridiculously hard, and usually you'll end up pulling off a move you never even knew your wrestler could do. Maybe that's the challenging part of this game. I mean think about it, it'll keep you coming back for more. And just think how proud of yourself you'll be when you finally pull off that move you've been trying to do for the last fifteen minutes. Other than that it plays like any other wrestling game, really. If you don't like them, don't play this. The hardcore matches play the same as in Attitude, weapons come into the ring, and you smash your opponent with them until they break. I think they even included a few new weapons.

Acclaim did feature a special option in Hardcore Revolution, the Barbed Wire rope match. Initially this seemed like a great idea. Who wouldn't want to whip their opponent into the barbed wire? After the first few minutes of throwing them back and forth into the barbed wire you end up just standing over your opponent, who is covered with blood. Sure that seems cool, but then you start to figure out the flaws of this. Lets say you make a created wrestler who's finisher is an Irish Whip move. Every time you whip your opponent into the ropes in the Barbed Wire match, they stick to the ropes and fall to the mat. So that means you'll never be able to pull off your finisher, or any other Irish Whip moves you have. The only way you could pull it off is to hope your opponent will blindly run at you, which is highly possible in this game.

The Create-A-Wrestler feature is back and almost the same as in Attitude. I bet you're wondering when I will stop comparing this game to WWF Attitude. Here's a hint: I won't. Hardcore Revolution had most of the same moves from Attitude (see?) and a few new, cooler ones. Like Yoshihiro Tajiri's kicks, the Night Driver, and the Deep Impact. Most of the same attires are there for the choosing plus the new ECW ones. Also the aforementioned horrible music selection is included.

If you like wrestling games, and you're tired of WCW and WWF ones, you should maybe rent this one. But if you have WWF Attitude, don't bother buying it. Unless you really like it. After all, you could just try to make all the ECW characters in Attitude's Create-A-Wrestler mode, and then you'd have almost two games in one. Unless, of course, if you take into account that:

A. None of the wrestlers will look right.
B. Half the moves will be wrong.
C. They won't have their music (not that they could in Hardcore Revolution, anyway.)
D. No Barbed Wire match (sweet Jesus, what would you do without THAT feature???)

So really, if you like ECW, buy this. Just don't expect to be really pleased with it.

Sound: 6/10
Graphics: 5/10
Gameplay: 6/10
Replay Value: 6/10

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 02/09/03, Updated 07/10/06