WCW vs. NWO: World Tour

"Good first for WCW"

I'm pretty sure this was the first WCW game on N64. Too bad I'm never totally certain about these things. It was a good game, nonetheless. It featured the new grappling system, which made it above the competition thus far.

Graphics: 6/10

The graphics were okay. When this game out I was used to Acclaim graphics. At first these didn't look very good at all. But then I got used to it and it was sort of refreshing, something different. All of the wrestlers looks bright and sort of cartoon-like, but they moved a lot better than in any other wrestling game.

Every time you did a move, it was almost guaranteed that your arms would go right through your opponent. I don't think there was any stopping this, since it's been a problem in every wrestling game since. It can be overlooked, though.

There were no entrances. Maybe they didn't feel like putting the effort into them. It doesn't really matter, though. Entrances weren't the most important part of a wrestling game.

It also would have been cool if in the Wrestler Select screen instead of having computer generated pictures of the wrestlers, they had real ones. Since they didn't, none of the pictures looked like the actual wrestlers.

-Sound: 6/10

I was always impressed with the sounds. Nothing off-beat or late. There are no voices, except for the two generic male and female ones. Only the ref has a voice to announce the calls.

There also was no commentary. If you really wanted some, though, you could always sit there and commentate yourself. I realize that may seem really sad, but who could call the match better than the person controlling it?

-Music: 5/10

The only real music in the game was during the matches and menus. It wasn't bad music, either. It was pretty decent. Now it sounds kind of generic since they put almost the same kind of music in every new wrestling game.

-Controls: 7/10

Each wrestler's grapple moves could be pulled off by pressing either B or A and a direction. That was it. You didn't have to pull off button combinations anymore. This was good, as now you could pull off moves faster.

-Game Play: 6/10

There weren't all that many match options. I remember the Battle Royal and Handicapped Matches being the most fun. Then there was the Tournament and League modes. They were both pretty good. There were a few others, but I forget them now. There was five all together.

There's a lot of wrestlers in the game. I'm pretty sure you won't even use half of them, though. Once you won a League's title, the ex-champion would be unlocked. The hidden wrestlers were Diamond Dallas Page, Randy Savage, Glacier, Wrath, Joe Bruiser, and some spider lady. I can't remember her name now.

-Overall: 7/10

This was a really good game when it came out. WCW would go on to improve on it, then fail. But that's for later reviews. If you liked the grappling system and old wrestling games, then I say you should buy this. You can probably find it for cheap now.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 02/18/03, Updated 02/18/03