WWF WrestleMania 2000

• Release Date: November 16, 1999
• Genre: Sports
• Style: Wrestling
• Similar Games: WCW vs. The World (PlayStation), WCW/NWO Revenge (Nintendo 64)

Game Description

Wrestlemania 2000 is the first game to result from THQ nabbing the WWF license. If you've seen the semi prequel, WCW NWO Revenge, you probably already know how this game ticks. Developed in Japan by folks who know wrestling, this is an extremely comprehensive pro wrestling simulation.

Over 50 WWF superstars have been stuffed into this game, and there's room for plenty more thanks to the detail rich wrestler edit features. What's more, all your favorite wrestlers have managed to retain their introductory songs and Titantron video introductions. Even the vocals are here!

For the nostalgiast, you can even break out the edit mode and recreate the immortal Hulk Hogan of yesteryear complete with his nearly trademark "I am a real American" theme song. The editing mode is comprehensive in other words. With several thousand situational moves to assign your created wrestler, and a wide variety of body types, you should be able to create almost any wrestler you can imagine.

Wrestlemania 2000 also offers a variety of play modes for the electric armchair sports entertainment athlete. In addition to the ability to play though an entire year's worth of a wrestler's career in the Road To Wrestlemania mode, you have the ability to create your own Pay Per View events, and for fun, you and your friends can face off in steel cage matches, King of the Ring tournaments, tag team matches, the Battle Royal, and even three way matches.

All the drama, all the action of the WWF is stuffed into this little black cartridge!

Roots & Influences

This game's just an evolution of the wrestling engine Aki has been tweaking and revising for years now.

Review: Overall

It looks as if we'll be closing out the millennium with just one WWF game this time around. (That's one better than the last time if you care to keep score.) Thankfully, WWF WrestleMania 2000 is one of broadest and most comprehensive wrestling games out there. It almost even comes off as a wrestling simulation, and that's been a rare thing offered to fans of the quasi-sport over the years.

The game borrows strongly from the engine used in WCW/NWO Revenge. While the graphics are a bit cleaner and faster moving, they're still not exceptionally detailed. Most of the models still come across as overly blocky. On the bright side, the majority of wrestlers resemble their real-life counterparts, and the crowd action is fairly believable. Characters will visibly reflect damage to a given body part by clutching at an especially stressed area, and the collision detection is tight enough so that the impacts are believable.

The impressive programming feats include nearly full renditions of all the superstars' entrance themes and the Titantron intros. Fans will recognize the themes for most of the superstars, and what's more, the vocals are largely intact as well. That's no mean feat for the N64's strained cartridge space. On the downside, the in-game music and intros for the various venues like HeAT or RAW is WAR all sound the same. The Titantron video intros are included in a shortened montage fashion. The images in these tend to be highly compressed and in a very low resolution, but they get the idea across.

For the in-game action, there's plenty of depth to be had. You can crank it up in the Road To WrestleMania mode, or take on the CPU or up to three friends in matchup modes like King of the Ring and the custom Pay-Per-View events you create. The action's about as true to the sport as you're going to get. The only drawback is that while you have the option of switching wrestler affiliations superficially, you're not allowed to tweak them further by updating their lists of rivals and tag partners. The edit mode allows for finer control, but it still doesn't let you create actual tag team combos that are recognized by the game unless you force it to.

The actual fighting engine used is extremely versatile. It'll allow you to play as anything from a power wrestler to a technical one with little trouble. Tag matches can get hectic with all four grapplers having it out inside and outside of the ring. Speedster acrobats like the Hardy Boyz are more likely to dazzle in the two- to four-player modes, however. Most of the wrestlers stay true to the abilities of their real-life counterparts as well, although some characters like Viscera and the Road Dogg seem to be overpowered compared to every other wrestler in the game.

The CPU wrestlers will also put up a stiff fight in the harder difficulty settings or in the Road to WrestleMania mode (which seems to have an independent difficulty), as they'll reverse your throws and pursue you aggressively. It can be great fun to suddenly pull out a win in those conditions. For example, in the first Intercontinental title bout I led Crash Holly into, he ended up winning by smacking a distracted Viscera from behind with a running drop-kick and then pinning a stunned X-Pac who had just been leveled by Viscera seconds before.

It isn't all smooth sailing, however. The controls can be irritating at times. Simply tapping a button won't always produce a response, which can lead to characters getting clobbered as they neglect to grapple their opponents when you tell them to. Orienting on opponents can be problematic in both the tag and triple threat wrestler matches as well.

Aside from these relatively minor bothers, the game is very fun. The audience will cheer for a thrilling move, the intros will get you into the fighting mood, and the slam-bang sound effects are authentic enough to even earn a wince at times. Add in the editing features and you have a game that's not likely to get old any time soon.

For fans of slobberknockers everywhere, your game has arrived. While you won't be deeply mired in controversial or just goofy soap opera style plots while touring the depths of the WWF, you will find that there's a lot more to facing off against the big boys of the sport than a simple steel chair hit while the ref's back is turned. (Well, not a lot more.)

Review: Enjoyment

Taking control of your favorite wrestler can be a rush. The Road to WrestleMania mode keeps you on your toes as well as rivalries and championships can be made or lost in a heartbeat depending on how the week's schedule goes.

Review: Graphics

A smooth and consistent presentation helps build up a suspension of disbelief while you're playing. It isn't really taxing the hardware, however.

Review: Sound

The sound's a mixed bag. While there is an impressive assortment of intro songs kept more or less intact, the in-ring music is dull and repetitive.

Review: Replay Value

Wrestler editing will help keep your rosters current. There's also a lot of action for multiple players thanks to the custom Pay-Per-View mode.

Review: Documentation

The manual is very detailed on the rather complex undercurrents in the game.

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