WWF Warzone
Reviewed by Yoshi-M
Wrestling. One of the most popular forms of entertainment of late. Acclaim, who
is known for making good and bad games, has snatched the World Wrestling Federation
rights and pumped out WWF Warzone. This game boasts a lot of improvements over
the competition, namely THQ and their WCW vs. NWO: World Tour. These improvements
include: higher resolution graphics, a create-a-wrestler mode (which you can save
30 wrestlers per memory pak), high framerates, different types of matches (regular,
tag-team, cage, a weapons match,)over 20 moves (including signature moves) per
wrestler, and hot stars from WWF like "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, Mankind, The
Undertaker, Triple H, and more. This game packs a lot secrets as well, many of
which are accessible if you beat the Challenge with particular wrestlers (like
hidden characters or more options in create-a-wrestler: namely the Ladies night
mose to create female wrestlers). With all this stuff plus a 4 player mode, WWF
Warzone should be king. Well, not exactly in the eyes of ol' Yoshimite here.
Graphics 4 out of 5
In a word: awesome. The game sports medium res graphics with no choppiness.
The skins and clothes are smoothed too look real, and the faces look darn close
to the original wrestlers. When you go into a multiplayer, Acclaim did a neat
trick and turned off small details like shadows of the wrestlers (you don't really
notice) to speed up the game. The animations of each wrestler is brilliant. What
could have made this game a ten in graphics would have been better collision
detection, which causes polygons to protrude through objects.
Music and Sound 3 out of 5
Musically, this game could have gotten a better music makeover. Each wrestler
has his own entrance music, but it sounds like it came from a cheapo midi keyboard
you buy in the kids department of a store. The sound effects are sub par, with hits
sounding like static sometimes. The announcing by Vince McMahon is good, with
such comments as "Mankind is seeing stars", "He's wrestling like a one-legged
man in a [butt] kicking contest". The crowd also does cheers like "Open up a can!"
or "C'mon [character name]". The crowd will even chant the names like "STONE
COLD! STONE COLD!" or "KANE LIVES!". Sometimes it gets kind of annoying, but you
learn to tune it out.
Game Challenge 2 out of 5
Its not too difficult to make your way through a Challenge mode. You work your
way up a ladder of 16 or so wrestlers, with an occasional grudge match from
someone you had beaten. The game has three difficulty levels, and to me, all that
changed was the power bar the game uses to represent stamina. As you get hit,
the bar goes down until it is empty. Then you are stunned. The more times you get
beat up, the color changes from green to yellow to red (meaning bad). The bar slowly
increases as you rest. However, as the difficulty is increased, the computer heals
faster, making pinning difficult (which can only really happen when the stamina
bar red). Other than that, a person can easily beat the game in a couple of hours.
Game Play-Fun 2 out of 5
When I bought this game to replace WCW/NWO World Tour, I was jazzed by the
fact I can create wrestlers. It is fun, the other Yoshi's and I created various
favorite wrestlers from WCW and from older wrestling federations. We even made
ourselves (which looked very similar to us). As you win matches with your creation,
you supposedly get more points to boost your guy's (or gal's) attributes. However,
after beating several challenges and defending the world championship belt, I
never received any points, and the mediocre manual didn't explain much.
The game uses a fighting game control to pull off moves. What I mean is you tap
in a combination of controller moves and buttons in a sequence to pull off a move.
The move powerful the moves, the harder it is. Each move has a "level" attached to
it, and whoever pulls off a lower level move than the other performs the move.
Unfortunately for players, the computer pulls off higher level moves when you are
doing a low level move and pulls it off. The game does have a training mode with a
trainer that lets you beat him up, but when you are in the thick of combat, the
fighting system is cumbersome at best. And the moves are not standard with each
wrestler. A souplex is pulled off differently for Steve Austin than it is for Mankind.
That was annoying. This game reminded me of games like Killer Instinct of Mortal
Kombat, and for those of you who are like me, mashing buttons and doing multiple
codes on a joypad are not that fun.
The game suffers from other problems as well, namely in the control department.
When you run toward the corner, you must stop yourself or you hit it, stunning
yourself. This is what I call "corner vortex" and will happen even if you don't
intentionally run toward the corners. Also, when you pull off a move that requires
you to be away from your opponent, the game pulls off the wrong move.
Example: My opponent was in the corner and I was going to run towards him and
slam into him, but instead my character magically appeared next to the opponent
and slammed his head in the turnbuckle. Not what I wanted, and couldn't have
been done where I was standing.
Frustration
The corner vortex and the fighting controls make this game frustrating. Add to
the fact the computer cheats by pulling off moves that should not have been able
to be done. Also, you cannot select your computer opponent. The computer
randomly selects that for you.
Replayability 4 out of 5
The 4 player mode make this game replayable. Its clean, fast, and furious, and fun (if
you get past the controls, that is). As for one player, gets stale pretty fast, my friends.
Game Value 3 out of 5
If you like WWF and fighting games, this game is worth the $59 admission. However,
if you always got frustrated with such games as Mortal Kombat, Killer Instinct, and
such, I suggest WCW/NWO World Tour or the upcoming WCW/NWO Revenge. It has a
smooth fighting system and is much more fun.
Manual 1 out of 5
The manual gives abroad look at the game, that's about it. Any questions on certain
topics like create a player? Forget it. C'mon Acclaim, this manual is only good for
the bathroom, and I'm not talking about it sitting in the magazine rack either!
Overall 3 out of 5
As I said in the values, if you like WWF and combo-type fighting games, you'll
enjoy it. The create a player and multiplayer are its saving graces. For myself, I
didn't like the fighting controls and the glitches I meantioned. I traded it in a got
my WCW/NWO World Tour back. WWF is a pretty game, with its gorgeous graphics.
Beyond that, its an average fighter without the bells and whistles.