No Mercy Review (N64)

Retro wrestling games can be a strange thing to go back to. Most consist of simply picking wrestlers with identikit sets of moves and then hammering away at which ever button makes moves happen until the controller breaks or someone wins. There are of course exceptions to the rule such as Fire Pro and also some of the Playstation and N64 wrestlers such as No Mercy. As a newcomer to the game we dived in to see if it still holds up today.

The final game from Acclaim’s Nintendo series built on the excellent foundations laid down in Wrestlemania 2000 and pushed the concept just about as far it could go on the hardware at the time. There’s no button bashing in sight either as the unique grapple system is based on timing and single button presses. A simple system is in place with the A button being used for grapples and B for strikes. Holding down the buttons then allows for stronger but slower moves. Once you have grappled you can then press a direction with A or B to perform different moves.

As a system it works well with the left and right shoulder buttons being used to counter moves and block strikes respectively. Pulling off moves and taunts gradually fills your attitude meter which will eventually start to pulse. When this happens you need to perform a taunt which then turns the pulsing bar into the ‘Special’ bar for a short period of time. When ‘Special’ is flashing you then have access to your superstar’s trademark moves. This includes their finisher but also any other unique turnbuckle or grapple techniques as well.

Though each superstar can carry out a fairly wide range of moves many of them are repeated through the roster. This can make the game feel a little samey after long periods of play but certainly doesn’t derail the experience. The other issue the game has is that it moves at a much slower pace than many grapple fans will be used to. You’ll also have to get your timing right as superstars need to complete their animation cycles in order to do their next move. This means pressing grapple slightly too early will result in nothing happening. 

The biggest thing which shows up the game is when you need to take part in handicap matches. Slamming one opponent and then trying to focus on the next opponent will almost always be too slow and thus allow the remaining wrestler to grab you first. It was the only really frustrating match type we found with all the others (including Ladder Matches, Royal Rumble and Hardcore Matches) working excellently.

The main draw of the game is the excellent single player mode on offer. Each belt has its own set of storylines assigned to it for you to complete. Most belts have a set of around six to eight sections with different branches to take on depending how you get on in each match. Completing a belt storyline allows that belt to be defended in exhibition modes and can then also be defended as the champion’s storyline in the campaign. You also get to see how much of the belt’s storyline has been experienced with a single run through normally resulting in around fifteen to twenty-five percent completion.

There are also a whole host of things to unlock as you play. As well as new moves and costume parts you can also buy a few superstars in the Smackdown shop with the in game currency acquired while playing the single player mode. Most can be unlocked in the game as well and they range from Referee Earl Hebner and Jim Ross to Jerry Lawler and Legend Andre the Giant (though you’ll have to survive a very long and tough survival mode to have any chance of getting him). 

Another real strength of the game is the excellent roster of superstars available. As well as the high profile stars from the era such as The Rock, Steve Austin and HHH you also get pretty much all the rest of the roster at the time. This is important as there are storylines for the Light Heavy Weight, European and Hardcore titles so having a sizable roster of wrestlers who were active in those divisions adds an excellent level of authenticity. It also acts as a snap shot in time of the WWE as you can play as wrestlers such as Crash Holly and Essay Rios who only ever really worked on the lower card. It’s a great way of experiencing the ‘attitude’ era and matching up many peoples favourite wrestlers. The fact that a handful of the superstars have passed away (such as The Big Bossman, Crash Holly, Eddie Guerrero etc.) means this is likely the best way to remember your favourites.

Overall, No Mercy still holds up as an excellent wrestling game and we would recommend any grapple fan to seek it out. It’s a little slow and is obviously not going to look great on huge HD televisions but once you get used to it there is a fun and rewarding game here. The grapple system still works and the story mode is one of the best ever seen, it’s full of things to unlock and play with and it’ll keep you occupied for hours.

Overall 8/10

Smackdown! VS Raw Review (PS2)

Another year on from Here Come the Pain and the annual offering from the world of sports entertainment lands on the door step once more. HCTP took the brave move of changing the control system to allow more flexibility and use of tactics during matches. Despite taking some Smackdown fans time to adjust, the change soon became the obviously superior setup. So after a significant leap forward for the genre last time around, can this title offer gamers anything more than simple roster updates and improved graphics?

In truth little has changed. Graphics have been improved with character models looking more solid and life like than before. The control system remains much the same, a good thing as the one put in place last year functions perfectly. There are small differences which streamline the controls (such as grapple moves with weapons being assigned to the same button as striking attacks) making matches flow that little bit better but nothing major was needed and the developers have taken a ‘if it ain’t broke don’t fix it approach’.

The game itself also remains very similar to the last version of the title. This time around the game came with online play and the rather entertaining new match mode of the ‘’parking lot brawl’ where players fight in a ring of cars using the vehicles to inflict damage in a number of different ways, apart from this comes the expected roster updates. However,  in this case the update serves as a major draw back as the WWE had lost a good half dozen top level super stars since the last game. More than once you may find yourself cycling through the available wrestlers only to find there is not actually anyone on the roster you really want to play as. Obviously this is not the fault of the development team but does point to the sharp turn around in fortunes and falling appeal that WWE had at the time.

Unfortunately, the new features do not really gel with the style of the game and feel far to tacked on. At the start of matches there is now a rhythm action style psyche out where the characters hit each other. There is also the wrestling equivalent of a mission mode with set tasks of varying difficulty being laid out in lists for players to complete at their leisure. However, this only serves as a minor distraction and is unlikely to keep players away from the main game modes.

One tweak that does help the gameplay is the improvement with submission moves- now as well as hammering the pad in order to keep a move locked in, the opponent in the submission move (move depending), can escape by stopping a moving cursor in a small square box on the Smackdown bar at the top of the screen. As characters become weaker the sense of panic missing the escape section of the bar for the second time really does begin to build as you become desperate to stop your wrestler from giving up.

The Royal Rumble has also been made a lot tougher to win with characters needing to be worn down before they can be thrown over the ropes- stopping the cheap tactics available to gain victory in all the previous version of the Smackdown franchise. Once a character is thrown over the ropes they hang on and players must knock down an energy bar to get them to finally hit the floor. This makes the Royal Rumble a far more tactical affair as while you are trying to knock someone’s bar down another superstar may come and attack you leaving you in a very vulnerable situation.

In the last Iteration of the title older wrestlers or ‘legends’ where introduced as unlockable characters. We say ‘Legends’ but in fairness only a few truly qualified as great superstars and thus did not merit much interest from players annoyed that Hulk Hogan was not available. This time while Hogan is still absent there can be no question regarding any of the characters on show (although putting ‘Classic’ Undertaker and ‘masked’ Kane in there is a bit cheap). Among the line up is the late, great Andre the Giant, The Legion of Doom, Brutus the Barber Beefcake and the all time great Bret ‘Hitman’ Hart. In fact the list of  legends are so strong in strength and personality it only serves to show up how weak WWE has become recently.

Smackdown VS Raw presents us with a very strange thing in the gaming world. The game itself is better than last year, everything has been improved and polished and made near perfect in the execution (gimmicky rhythm sections aside). But the simple fact is the current crop of WWE Superstars is dull and uninspiring. Last years version of the game had big names such as Goldberg , Steve Austin, Brock Lesnar etc, who are not present here. Meaning that while the game is improved technically from last year, there is not really anyone on the roster worth playing as- until the legends are unlocked that is.

Overall 7/10