This article is about the video game. For the professional wrestling pay-per-view event, see
WWE No Mercy.
WWF No Mercy is a professional wrestling video game released in 2000 on the Nintendo 64 console and published by THQ. It is named after the World Wrestling Federation annual pay-per-view event of the same name. No Mercy is the follow-up to 1999's WWF WrestleMania 2000. No Mercy was well-received by players and critics alike. There were plans to release a sequel, titled WWF Backlash. However, Nintendo had chosen to retire the Nintendo 64 console, and so, Backlash was canceled.
Gameplay
Some of the features included in WrestleMania 2000 were removed from No Mercy. First, wrestlers' entrances were cut short to showing the wrestler only appear on the stage/entrance ramp, and players never see wrestlers actually enter the ring (despite early screen shots showing full ring entrances). . For example, Triple H is shown spitting water at the crowd upon entering the ring. The belt options were also changed; rather than creating a belt from scratch, players now have to complete a story mode to win a title. While this added an extra challenge to the game, fans felt that they had been robbed of a unique and well-liked option from WrestleMania 2000 (The Create-A-Belt option would return in WWE WrestleMania X8). However, the 'official' WWF belts that replaced user-created ones can still be wagered in Exhibition matches and pay-per-view events, even being used as the object in Ladder Matches. Additionally, there is noticeable slow down when four wrestlers are on the screen at once, something not present in WrestleMania 2000.
However, No Mercy features a much more extensive Create-a-Wrestler mode with, among other changes, more moves, customizable body attributes both offensively and defensively, better-organized clothing options (No Mercy utilizes descriptive categories and titles for each clothing item, whereas WrestleMania 2000 simply numbers items) and the ability to create female wrestlers, which is all but impossible in WrestleMania 2000. Each wrestler in the game has 4 different ring attires that could be independently edited, and each attire can be completely changed including name, height and weight, body parts and music, technically allowing 4 different wrestlers per slot; although, they must share a common moveset. Several of the game's unlockable wrestlers used this feature, such as Taka Michinoku who has his partner Funaki in 2 attire slots. The graphics also were improved significantly over the game's predecessor, and various match types made their debuts in Nintendo 64 wrestling games, including ladder matches and special referee matches. The game also marked the first time on the system in a WWF game that players could fight backstage and also the first time you can do moves on the announcer's table. Many parts of the backstage environment were even usable, such as being able to hit your opponent with a pool stick and driving him through the pool table in the bar/lounge.
The story mode is more extensive, compared to WrestleMania's career mode. Each WWF title features a unique story. For the WWF Championship, players can choose any wrestler to reenact the classic feud between Mankind and Triple H that dominated the WWF in early to mid 2000. Other angles include Stone Cold Steve Austin's feud and The Rock's temporary alliance with Vince McMahon. After winning a title, the player can replay the story mode and defend the newly-acquired belt in a variety of new storylines. Also, unlike future wrestling games, players are allowed to fight for and defend any championship in the exhibition mode.
The story mode's depth is due in part to its branching storylines that develop based on the outcomes of the player's matches. In WrestleMania 2000, if the player lost a match in the career mode, the game only allowed the player to retry the match, rather than adjusting the storyline accordingly. No Mercy's story mode offers branching storylines based on the outcomes of matches. The player has to actually play through each story several times and lose matches in order to achieve a 100% completion rating.
Another notable feature that was added to the game is the "SmackDown! Mall." With money earned from winning matches in story mode and playing the Survival mode, players can purchase unlockable characters, clothing, wrestling moves, props, tattoos, weapons, and venues. Characters are extremely expensive and some of them can be unlocked at much less effort by defeating them in special matches in the story mode. The addition of this feature greatly increases the game's replay value. The use of a Game Shark gives the player infinite Smack Down mall money.
A notable twist in the WWF Championship story mode is the lack of The Big Show, who at the time was working at Ohio Valley Wrestling trying to lose weight. He was replaced with Steven Richards, the leader of Right to Censor. On an interesting note, although Big Show is not in the game, his face, attire, taunts, and moves are included in the game. However, a cheat device is necessary to unlock his face.
This game can also be modified by using Project 64.
Reception
No Mercy received generally positive reviews, receiving scores of 9.0 from IGN,[1], 7.7 from GameSpot [2] and B+ from Game Revolution.[3] Overall, the game had an average score of 89% on Metacritic.[4] Common elements critics praised the game for included the improved graphics, large roster, diverse match stipulations, deep Create-a-Wrestler mode, and improved story mode.
Technical issues
The cartridges were designed to be able to save game data without the use of a memory card like on the Playstation. However some of the first wave of copies of the game released in Europe were faulty, with saved data sporadically being erased to the default settings of the game as if it had never been played. There were many recalls and fixed copies of the game later replaced the faulty ones in shops. These copies are identified by the code ending in EUR-1 (the original faulty copies had a code with EUR at the end).[citation needed]
It has also been reported that many North American carts have the problem as well.
Game Boy Color version
A sister game also titled WWF No Mercy was planned for the Game Boy Color (GBC). The GBC version was planned to utilize the N64's Transfer Pak to help unlock more features. This included an extra unlockable CAW slot and an extra GBC option in Championship mode. Unlike the GBC game for WrestleMania 2000, the GBC version of No Mercy was planned to be developed by AKI, rather than Natsume. The game was eventually canceled, but the modes can still be unlocked in the game through a cheat device. A similar idea of linking a portable port to the console port would eventually be used in WWE SmackDown! vs. RAW 2006, for unlocking Jake "The Snake" Roberts on the PlayStation 2.
References
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