WWF Warzone
System: Nintendo 64
Publisher: Acclaim
Developer: Iguana
Released: 1998
Capabilities: Controller Pak Compatible, Rumble Pak Compatible

Ah, Warzone, my n64 wrestler with my fave vs. screen shown above
Also seen is the great character animation
and shoddy collision detection in the match pic.
Picture Credit(nintendosports.com)

The Game

Acclaim debuted it’s new type of wrestling engine with this game. It’s previous engine, which was a 2-D arcade fighting type engine similar to Mortal Kombat was only used in two games: WWF Wrestlemania: The Arcade Game, and WWF In Your House. It involved wacky projectile moves that matched a wrestlers gimmick, this engine was decent at best, and most wrestling fans hated them because how they didn’t seem like the real thing at all. But WWF Warzone changes all that which debuts a new 3-D type of gaming. Will it succeed and do leaps and bounds over the N64's first grappler, WCW vs. NWO: World Tour? Well, let’s get onto the review and find out.

Graphics

You got real body mapping here, so all the wrestlers look just like the real thing, and I must say they do look pretty impressive. All the wrestlers are very detailed and all there costumes are detailed down to every little part like the X’s over the hearts on Shawn Michael’s pants, to the late Owen Hart’s slammy trophies on his classic “slammy-award winning uniform.” The wrestler entrances were pretty good, considering they were the first one’s to appear on an N64 wrestling game(World: Tour only had wrestler’s did poses in the ring for an intro). They only appeared in the challenge mode, but they walked to the top of the entrance ramp, did there pose, then walked down the ramp while their entrance music played. Simple, but sweet.

I loved the amount of selections there were in the create-a-wrestler, all the different amounts of eyes, pants, tanktops, etc. looked fabulous and it kinda reminded me of some of those ‘create-a-criminal’ programs. There were a couple of drawbacks in the graphics like collision detection. For example, my wrestler was standing up in the middle of the ring, and the computer does a flying axe handle, and lands about 5-10 feet away from my wrestler, but my guy falls down and takes the damage. That can get annoying, but it doesn’t bother you that much.

Sound

Absolutely amazing! Each wrestler says there own quote during game play and does a pose like Hunter Hearst Helmsley says, "I got two words for ya: Suck It!" and Ahmed Johnson's old saying of "You goin' down!" during his feud with the Nation of Domination in 1997. The game even makes up quotes for wrestlers that didn't have catch phrases at this point of there career like the late Owen Hart says, "Here's where I make my move, are you ready?" and Faarooq says, "Don't make me put my foot up your Ass!" some of course sound real stupid like Cactus Jack says "Cactus Jack is on the attack!" oh, yeah Kane says nothing. The game has all the wrestlers entrance music, plus in Create-a-Wrestler you can choose from a couple of different songs as well. What is amazing is the amount of commentary that Vince McMahon and Jim Ross fits into the game, because of the limited size of the cartridge.

A couple of bad things about the sound is that the wrestler themes are done in cheap midis, and the only one that features lyrics in them is the Nation of Domination theme. Most of the midis are alright, but do get annoying after a little while. Also, when McMahon and Ross do the play-by-play, their comments get repetitive really fast, and in no time they’ll be saying the same things over and over.

Game play

The game engine this game uses, is a bit confusing at first, but after some serious playing, you’ll get it down after a couple of days. I prefer WCW/NWO Revenge's grapple system more. The trick is you got to do button combinations to pull off moves in grapples, and finishing moves are really hard to pull off by pressing a longer button combination. There's a unique training mode where you practice all your moves so you can get them down before you step into the ring. There are lots of modes of play, it just depends how many players are playing the game. Acclaim decided to give the N64 version some exclusive modes that the PSX version didn't have which are the Gauntlet mode where one wrestler has to beat 6 others and the cult-classic Royal Rumble mode! Other modes of game play are Challenge mode where you unlock secret wrestlers and game play cheats, tag team, tag team co-op, tornado(Tag Team with all wrestlers in the ring simultaneously), War(4 players in the ring all at once in a elimination match), Weapons Match, Cage Match, and Tag Team Cage Co-Op.

Now with all these features, you think that the game play would be really great, right? Well, you are somewhat wrong because some people will not take the extra hours to get the game engine down, and will stop playing the game instantly, or some will never get it down, like my dad. When I had him play the game, he’ll never get the moves down, even after looking at the move list on the pause screen, and all he would do would just be punching and kicking. Also the roster of real wrestlers is kind of another drawback. There’s only 17 real wrestlers in the game, now that would seem like a big roster back in 1994 with games like RAW and Royal Rumble only having 12 guys in it, but around this time, games like World Tour and WCW vs. the World for Playstation were starting to sport rosters with 40+ wrestlers in it. But the create-a-wrestler makes up for it, and you can save many different character files for the high scores screen which tallies all your wins and losses.

Replay Value

The multi player mode is great in this game. Gather 3 of your friends and duke it out in co-op cage, tag team, weapons, or war matches, and you’ll be playing for hours on end. The create-a-wrestler is another great option, and you can be in there for hours looking at the many possibilities it you can make out of it. But the complicated controls might make some gamers ignore this game right away, so make to practice your moves in the training mode first before you get into the game.

In Brief

+: Create-a-Wrestler is great, lots of awesome multi player modes, graphics are superb

-: Small Roster, Complex Controls

The Final Ratings Rundown

Graphics: 9.1
Sound: 8.5
Game play: 7.3
Replay Value: 7.2

Overall: 8.0

Rounded to fit GameFAQs Score: 8

Final Analysis

A great debut by Acclaim, most WWF fans will eat this up. Pretty good wrestler except for the complicated controls will make some gamers sell this title right away. But the create-a-wrestler is great, and graphics are amazing. Plus you can probably find this game used for about $10-20 and if you ever wanted to know what the early WWF games were like, than take a look at this title.