"A classic wrestling game that still holds up on it's own"

WWF Attitude was released in the Summer of 1999 by Acclaim. It was a heavily anticipated game, and one of the years big blockbusters, and it lived up to most of the hype, although left some people disappointed. I for one loved this game for everything it was, and still play it very often. Here is my review of WWF Attitude on the Nintendo 64

Graphics 9/10

By the time WWF Attitude was released, Acclaims former title WWF Warzone still remained to be the most graphically impressive wrestling game on the Nintendo 64, and Attitude blew it out of the water. Perhaps the two biggest improvements were the characters faces and the arena. This time around the wrestlers faces were much more recognizable, and no longer the blurry mess that they were in Warzone. The arena far more resembled that of the WWF Raw arena, although the fans are definitely an upset as there are very few of them, and they have the appearance of cardboard cutouts. Everything is very smooth looking for the most part, no blurry textures that marred many other N64 games. Lighting is well done, and the special effects in entrances look good for the most part. Everything looks much better than the PSX version, although the opening FMV Video is missing in the N64 version

Sound 10/10

Sound was a big part of this game, and everything comes out crystal clear. Music is extremely improved from WWF Attitude, from the old Raw is War intro song to all of the wrestlers theme songs. Many of the theme songs were outdated by the time this game came out, and obviously all are now, but the songs capture the essence of the Attitude era in the WWF, from Stone Cold's class breaking intro, to the guitar riffs of Degeneration-X, to the slow cocky style of The Rock. The Road Dogg and Billy Gunn even recorded entire voice clips for their intros. All of the wrestlers spew out their own signature catch phrases and have their own personal grunts and groans. For a Nintendo 64 game the sounds are very impressive, considering there are over 40 wrestlers, and that's including the two ringside commentators, Jerry Lawler and Shane McMahon who do a fairly decent job calling the action (vaguely) but they managed to capture their signature announcing styles in the game. The crowd sounds however are not an improvement from Warzone, where is Warzone they sounded ambient and entralled with the match, in Attitude it's usually just a constant low buzzing with an occasional cheer or boo.

Gameplay 9/10

WWF Attitude has tons of match types and options. You can do things like turning profanity on and off, allowing blood to flow during matches, and whether or not you want to see the wrestlers enterances before matches (which were all done very well and authentic). There are tons of match types, including cage, royal rumble, hardcore, triple threat, lumberjack, battle royal, King of the Ring and the Royal Rumble. This game is probably the only one I've ever played with an accurate lumberjack match, where two guys actually stand outside the ring and beat you up if you go outside. You can even play 3 on 1, which most games won't let you do, although it is very difficult if you are the odd man out.

Attitude allows several very unique features for wrestling games. You can set modifiers for how the match needs to be won, such as an I Quit match, first blood match, best 2 out of 3 pinfalls, finisher only (where you win once you use your finisher) and a last man standing match where you must get up before the 10 count. Attitude also allows the unique addition of a create an arena mode where you can do many interesting things. You can choose between the premade Raw is War, HeAT, and House Show arenas, or you can create your own for PPV's or regular matches. Custom Stadium allows you do do things like changing the signs by the ring and on the scaffolding, the color of the ropes and ring pads, and even allows you to change the ring lights different colors (you can make them red like they used to do during some of Kane's earlier matches, blue for the undertaker, or you can just turn them completely off which leaves a gloomy effect that feels really cool to play in)

WWF Attitude also allows you to set up your own Pay Per View card, and the create a wrestler feature was fairly deep for it's time. Attitude also featured a season mode where you worked up the ranks from doing house shows to eventually wrestling in Pay Per Views, along the way you can unlock some cheats and about a dozen hidden wrestlers (including favorites like Shawn Michaels, Chyna, Kurrgan, Taka, and the infamous Paul Bearer)

One thing I miss from Warzone is the stun meter

Controls 7/10

Often the most complained about part of this game, but they really aren't that bad. Most moves are performed with the push of 2 or 3 directions followed by pushing either A, B, or Left C. All wrestlers have their own move sets so you'll have to learn all of the different moves individually. All wrestlers have their own signature moves that can be performed when the opponent has a yellow or lower health bar, and the finishers can be performed when the opponent is on red. All moves are in the move list in the pause menu, so if you ever want to know how to do a specific move you can easily find it, but the list only tells you moves and can currently do depending on the position of you and your opponent. There are even some hidden double team moves that can be done in tag matches by having you and your opponent simultaneously pressing left C next to a dazed opponent. The type of move you can do depends on where you and your partner are standing in relation to the dazed opponents, but if you can manage to pull one off they do quite a bit of damage. Every wrestler has less moves in Attitude then they did in Warzone, but this is only because they had to use so much more space for more wrestlers and more types of moves

Replay 8/10

Really depends on if you know somebody else that is good at this game or is willing to learn. Even on the hardest difficulty levels opponents are not that hard for a skilled player. Fans of the older wrestlers (well old compared to 2005) will enjoy the nostalgic feeling this game gives. Plus you can be Owen Hart.

If you can find this game I recommend picking it up. It's probably not gonna cost you too much these days, and its good multiplayer fun if everyone knows how to play

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 11/21/05