WWF War Zone

"Good, clean old-fashioned wrestling"

WWF War Zone is an early PSX wrestling game made by Acclaim in 1998. Its gameplay system does seem simple but it is fun, and it has put in a good deal of fun into the game, which is simply good old fashioned grappling between some of the WWF (now WWE's) then biggest superstars. It features such popular superstars on its roster from around that time like Stone Cold Steve Austin, Rocky Maivia, the Headbangers, Nation of Domination, Triple H, Shawn Michaels, and various other superstars. Compared to nowadays' wrestling games, this one does seem quite basic as its roster is quite small and it doesn't have such a huge variety of match modes, but it fulfills the purpose of delivering some good clean old-fashioned wrestling, some weapons to throw in, nice graphics to display the moves well, and a Challenge mode to sum it up.

The first thing to comment on WWF War Zone is its gameplay system. Let's say you are having a one-on-one singles match. You pick a heel and a face (villain and hero respectively) to compete. As the heel enters, his theme music plays and he is booed by the audience. Then the face comes in to his music and the audience cheers him. Now the first thing to spot about it is that yes, this is indeed reasonably realistic for a wrestling game and Acclaim have done a decent job here, but there definitely could have been room for improvement. There is only pyro appearing in various spots over the stage and the wrestler walks on, stares around, then steps into the ring. They could have gave each wrestler a different entrance, such as having Stone Cold step through shattering glass, or Kane walking into the arena when it flashes red, and fireballs appear around him. WWF Attitude does this, but it could have been done here. I would have also liked a Titantron video to accompany it, as the entrances are okay, but they do seem quite basic.

You then come to have your variety of matches to try out. Of course, there's the simple one-on-one action match with the pin falls, submissions, count-outs, the basic wrestling rules. You also have Hardcore matches in which you can use weapons to beat up your opponent, Tag Team matches in which you can team up with another superstar to take on an opposing team. You could have a friend join you to play along. The cage match is also included, and some other match types all sum up to a big replay value of WWF War Zone, and make the gameplay quite enjoyable and good.

WWF War Zone's gameplay system is familiar with other wrestling games Acclaim have released for the PlayStation, like WWF Attitude, ECW Hardcore Revolution, and ECW Anarchy Rulz. You have good controlling over your characters, your basic buttons for punching, kicking, tie-ups and grappling. You can also use different combinations of buttons to do bigger moves, and you also have finishers to utilise, making the wrestling look more realistic. You can win by submissions or pin falls, and the controls make it indeed reasonably easy and they can get used to in not long a time. I like these controls, although the Smackdown! series certainly improved over them.

The last thing to talk about involving gameplay is the WWF Challenge mode. Instead of a big season where you compete as a Superstar through various shows and Pay-Per-Views in a certain time period in the company, you just battle through each superstar and move up the ranks. You win two belts along the way, and are often invited into a grudge match, which you must win to keep advancing. I wasn't too bothered with this mode, but it does seem the most basic thing to put in, and a season mode would have really been much more preferable, which WWF Attitude supplied for us. You can defend your belt at the end, but since you are rewarded for beating this mode with some secrets by using a variety of wrestlers, it makes it more addictive for a while and you won't put it down straight away.

WWF War Zone's graphics are respectably good. Each wrestler is identifiable and they look a lot like the real people. Their models are well designed, and the moves that the game displays also look very realistic to make the wrestling look top-notch and as real as possible, to give it that feel as if you were watching a real match. The backgrounds, entrances, and ring designs are done very well too, so graphically, this is one of WWF War Zone's stronger points. When you use the Create-A-Wrestler mode, the many different things to apply to the model are all different, and the variety of looks, designs and colours only aids this even more. Good job, Acclaim.

I will now talk about the music and sound effects of WWF War Zone. First off, each wrestler has some theme music that sounds just like the real music and this is a good point. But apart from this, the other tunes aren't really so appealing to the ears, and they could have added more to improve on this. I would have liked themes to accompany some matches if you had the option to do so. The sound effects are all realistic like the slams and punches, the usual. The game also comes with commentary, which sounds indeed great and I think it does favour the game in terms of realism. Sound-wise, WWF War Zone did a decent job.

To sum it up, WWF War Zone's simplicity and lacking of some things to make it better does lower the score somewhat, but when you come to think about it, wrestling games are meant to be about wrestling, and here, WWF War Zone does its job. With good, clean wrestling, what you'd expect, and the variety of matches, moves and wrestlers to pick, WWF War Zone is definitely worth a purchase for any wrestling fan who owns a PSX. What I would point out though, is that if you are looking through some pre-owned games and see WWF Attitude alongside WWF War Zone, you should get that if you want better Season Mode, realism, and a bigger range of wrestlers and improved gameplay. Although the game seems simple compared to others nowadays, WWF War Zone is a fun experience that you should definitely have a go trying out.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 08/20/04