WWF: No Mercy don't need no mercy! (WWF No Mercy (N64))

Member Name: mmmbuffy

Product:	WWF No Mercy (N64)
Date:	15/03/01 (173 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great game

Disadvantages: disfunctional memory

There are a few wrestling games on the Nintendo 64, only two of them that I had played on were half-decent, those were WCW/NOW World Tour, and WCW/NOW revenge. These were two of the best wrestling games that I played on any console, only Smackdown on the Playstation was better. And then came WWF No Mercy. What a game! This game has everything, I am going to go as far as saying that it is the best wrestling game ever (although I have yet to play Smackdown 2).
Just before I go into the options, I think that I should just point out my favourite aspect of the game. For those of you who don?t follow WWF, The King and JR are commentators, and The Rock, well, The Rock is THE most electrifying man n sports entertainment. When you leave the game to go into the intro, the screen goes snowy and then you here The King go ?so close?, and then JR saying ?he kicked out, he kicked out, he kicked out?, (which personally cracks me up), and then The Rock, with his trademark ?If ya smelllllllllllll?, then it kicks into intro.

Here is all the handy info on all the options that you will need to influence your decision on buying this great game. There are three options screens, the first is the multiplayer mode, the second is the single player mode, and the third is the commissioner. But first I shall describe the multiplayer option. Here there are loads of options to satisfy your gaming needs

Exhibition

Here you can choose between having a one on one, a tag team match, a triple threat match, and the all out rumble in the jungle cage match. The one on one is just as it sounds, you and a friend, or you and the computer going for it, you do have the option to change the rules, such as knocking off the count out, knocking off submission, pin and TKO, and putting on interference, this means that someone during the match is going to run out and interfere with your ass kicking. Probably the best option, changing the DQ to have a no disqualification match, here yo
u can have some real fun, all you have to do is run out of the ring and grab a bat, chair, table etc, run back in the ring and begin to beat the hell out of your sorry opponent.
The tag team match is where you can really have four player fun, you also have some options here that can make your match better. The best thing to do is to knock DQ off, put on no-tag format, and then just go for it.
The triple threat match is another good option, you and two computer opponents, or you and some friends can have a three-way brawl and see who comes out top. A tip for all you who are going to buy this game (and you really should), in the triple threat, just stand back and taunt your enemies to get a special (with a special you can do your signature move, for example, ?Stone Cold? Steve Austins stone cold stunner, or The Rocks rock bottom). Then you just stroll along, grapple the nearest sucker and finish him off, then grab the other and take him out.
The cage match is either hard or easy, depending on the difficulty of your opponent, and the skill of you. The basic idea is that you and you opponent are locked in a steel cage, and you have to climb out. Sure, easy, well so it sounds. You really have to take it to your opponent because if they get up while you are climbing the cage, he will shake it and you will fall. If the computer is on hard, they will crawl up that cage like spider man on steroids, and you can?t shake them down (a word of advice, hitting your control pad when they escape WON?T help).
One of the best parts of these options is that you can put a title on the line. You can have a cage match for the Intercontinental title, or a normal one on one for the European title, whatever you want.

Royal Rumble

This is exactly what it sounds like. A royal rumble, a free for all, up to forty guys (only four at a time though) all fighting it out to see who can go the whole nine yards. You even get to change the rules a little, you don?t li
ke the way that if you get knocked out of the ring you?re out? Then change it.

King of the Ring

With this option you are basically setting up an elimination competition. You decide on what type of matches there are (tag-team, single etc) and the rules. This is not the best option, and quite frankly, the game doesn?t need it, they would have made better use of the memory by adding more superstars or options. Although, this is the ultimate way of finding out who really has the honour of being called ?the best?

Pay-Per View

This is one of the games best options, here you can make your own pay-per view. Make you own No Mercy, or Summerslam, or Wrestlemania. You can name it however you want, have it placed wherever you want, you can even pick which arena you use. You can have all the matches you want. You want a triple threat match for the WWF title, then that is what you get, you want Chris Beniot, Kane and The Rock all going for it, then hey, that?s what you get.

Guest Referee

This is another of the games best options, the opportunity to referee a match. You don?t have to referee the match, you can take part and have a friend or the computer refereeing. If you decide to be a ref then the best idea is to be in charge of a triple threat between some friends, you can really get on their nerves here, you can join in the action and starting beating whoever you feel, you can count out anyone getting on your nerves, you can do fast and slow counts just to be annoying. Although I find the best thing to do is to ref the match while getting a special, then join in and put everyone down, believe me, that is one way to annoy people. The other option, to be in the match with a friend in charge, this is good because if some decisions don?t go your way, then hey, turn around and smack that jabroni.

Ladder Match

This is has to be the best feature of the game. With this option there are no rules, but only to get
up the ladder at all costs. This is not as easy as it sounds, although it is a lot better than it sounds. What you have to do is really take it to your opponent, you have to either do the same submission move until their attitude bar say ?losing it? (the attitude bar shows how much spirit the wrestler has, if you are doing well, then the brighter it gets, if you are doing bad, then it goes from blue, to danger, to losing it), knock them out with your best moves, or put them in the tree of woe. Then you have to go outside the ring, get the ladder, set it up, and then climb it to win. Or if you want some real fun, really hurt your opponent, then climb it ladder and jump on them. If you are going to do this, it is better to be I high flyer than a big brawler, I find that on single player Jeff Hardy is the best at these matches, and on multiplayer the Hardy Boyz. If you really want a challenge, then this mode against the computer on expert is the one for you.

Ironman Match

With this option you have to decide on what you want to play, either one on one, tag team action, or a triple threat match. Is just another normal match, although there is a set time, for example, say you want a fifteen minute match, in that fifteen minutes you have to pin your opponent as many times as you can, and hope they don?t pin you more.

The next of the three options is the single player. There are only two options on this, either a championship or a survival.

Championship

At the start of the game there are no belts, and this is the option to unlock them. Choose which belt you want to unlock, either the WWF title, the Intercontinental title, the European title, the Light-Heavyweight title, the Tag Team title, or the Women?s title. Basically you have to pick what wrestler is going to work his way to greatness, and then go through a number of chapters before finally unlocking the gold. As you progress through this you make money for every match that
you win, and at the end of the championship however much you make gets added to however much you have.

Survival

This is just as it sounds, you have to survive all of the wrestlers in a royal rumble style free for all. You start off with you and four other guys, and then every time you knock someone out another comes down. All in all, there are around 101 guys to beat, at the end of this you have to knock out the great Andre the Giant, once he comes down it is a sign that the end is nigh, knock him out and you have unlocked THE hidden character to get, oh and if you do win this you will find yourself with lots and lots of money.

The third option available to you is the commissioner. There is no fighting here, this is where you find the options and what not.

Smackdown Mall

Here you have three options:
Superstar Options ? this is one of the best options, you can make your own character, or modify a current superstar. With the ?create a superstar? you can make a guy and have him look how you want him to, and then you can give him almost every move on the game. In fact, I don?t like how hard it is just to decide on what special my guy is going to have, he currently has the snap powerbomb two (only available after unlocking Andre the Giant), but I doubt that it will last much longer.
Shop ? this is quite good, here is all the ?stuff? that you can?t access in the smackdown mall. You buy stuff ranging from weapons to new moves, to new ring attire. You can also buy new characters in the heart break kid Shawn Michaels, Ken Shamrock, Earl Hebner, Cactus Jack and Ho, who I think is just someone the developers put in.
Data ? with this option you can save your created wrestlers. This is good because if you and a friend have the same game and you have both got wrestlers who you think is the best, then you can pit them against each other and find out who really has the best creativity.

Options

This is just
as it sounds, here you can change certain things such as the difficulty level and such. Nothing really special.

Now I have gone through the options, let me tell you about the good stuff. The game plays like a treat, OK, there is some slow down when you are in a tag team match and have got all the weapons available in the ring, the game slows down a bit, but that does not matter, it is still very, very good. The moves are a little slow to pull off, but they do look real, and painful, and cool, all at once. The graphics are good, especially when you are fighting by the titontron (the bit where the wrestlers walk out of), it just looks special. The wrestlers also look like the real ones, and the ring looks good, the only thing about the graphics that I can criticise id the way the fans look, they just look like pictures that move from side to side. With the games good graphics comes the games great sound effects, you can appreciate a good chokeslam with the graphics alone, but with the sound effects it really makes you feel that you have hurt your opponent as they crash on the mat.

Despite all of the games great features there is only one downside that I can think of. This does not happen in all the games, only in a lot of the early releases. My version has memory problems, which is really quite annoying, when I get money to spend, or unlock characters, or unlock belts, they all get deleted, even the characters that I created (although I have a memory pack so I can save them). This does get on my last nerves, so if any one has this problem with theirs, email THQ in their website to get email authorisation, and then send it back.

Summary: